evolve-solution-population

Purpose

Maintain diverse candidate solutions, mutate/recombine them, select under fitness and novelty criteria, and avoid premature convergence.

Input contract

mode_contracts:
  mutation-selection: &evolution_input
    required: [initial_solution_population, fitness_criteria]
    optional: [mutation_operators, novelty_criteria, iteration_budget]
    constraints: [population_members_must_be_comparable_under_declared_criteria]
  novelty-preserving-evolution: *evolution_input

Execution protocol

Do not perform called SOP operations inline; each loaded SOP owns its contract and thresholds.

1. You MUST load skill mutate-solution-population to mutate or recombine the population.
2. You MUST load skill select-solution-variants to select solution variants.
3. You MUST load skill measure-portfolio-diversity to measure portfolio diversity.
4. You MUST load skill assess-sensitivity to assess selection sensitivity.
5. You MUST load skill synthesize-idea to synthesize the retained set. If the retained variants require an explicit final ordering, consider rank-candidates as the next tactic. Deviation: stop when added variation no longer changes the frontier or diversity objective; retain niche candidates when explicitly protected.

Mode branches

• mutation-selection: mutate/recombine, score, and select across iterations.
• novelty-preserving-evolution: apply diversity pressure and protect useful niches before convergence.

Output contract

mode_contracts:
  mutation-selection:
    produces: [mechanism_to_design_mapping, generated_solutions, synthesis]
    delta_fields: [findings, hypothesis_updates, uncertainties, decisions, open_questions]
  novelty-preserving-evolution:
    produces: [novelty_assessment]
    delta_fields: [findings, hypothesis_updates, uncertainties, decisions, open_questions]

Thresholds and quality gates

• B: mutation/recombination lineage is traceable; selection criteria are explicit; diversity is measured before convergence.

Failure and counterexamples

Reject a single-winner result when novelty or niche preservation was required, and reject variants with untracked mutations.

Provenance map

• creative-ideation/systematic-enumeration, evolution-strategy, variation-selection: resolved/concept according to exact v3 lookup.
• Status: creative-ideation/systematic-enumeration, evolution-strategy resolved; variation-selection concept.

Preserved source criteria ledger

• Preserve mutation, recombination, selection, diversity pressure, and niche preservation.

Context checkpoint / Delta notes

Append population lineage, fitness changes, diversity deltas, and retained niches.