PolicyEngine / PolicyEngine/microcosm
Release-delta report: explain every certified-release output change in consumer terms
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 0
- Forks
- 4
- Avg merge
- 1d 3h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 94
Description
Problem (verbatim consumer requirement)
A high-stakes consumer (analyst producing numbers for a government office) cannot adopt populace while release-to-release output changes are unexplained in THEIR terms: "if outputs are changing frequently and each change is clearly fixing something, the only correct response is to downweight model confidence." Producer-side provenance (release manifests, supersession docs, certification comments) documents WHY inputs changed but never answers the consumer question: which of MY numbers moved, by how much, attributable to what.
Proposal: a release-delta report shipped with every certified release
For each certified release N vs N-1, an artifact (JSON + rendered md) computing, under the SAME engine version:
- Output deltas per consumer family: the reform-validation payload rows, headline aggregates (income tax, benefit expenditures/caseloads), poverty rates, decile means — old value, new value, % change.
- Attribution: each material delta mapped to its cause class — new/changed calibration targets (with ledger refs), method change (issue/PR refs), source-vintage refresh, selection change — the way #299's Build H comment attributes per-column changes, but automated and consumer-facing.
- Stability summary: share of tracked outputs moving <0.5% / <2% / >5%, so "how volatile is this stack" becomes a measured, improving number rather than an impression.
- Published in the release dir + surfaced in calibration-diagnostics.
The promotion suite (policyengine.py#462) gates fitness at flip time; this reports CHANGE between flips. Together they are the adoption contract for high-stakes consumers: certified when promoted, explained when changed.
Refs: policyengine.py#462, #299 (Build H attribution style), #305 (validation portfolio), calibration-diagnostics.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reading the promotion suite reference in policyengine.py#462, the Build H attribution style in #299, the validation portfolio in #305, and the calibration-diagnostics entry point. Define the release-to-release artifact around the listed consumer outputs, attribution classes, stability thresholds, and release-directory publication, with JSON and rendered Markdown produced for each certified release.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- analytics, data, release
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100