[evals] Enforce binary YES/NO outputs in evals parser - #47245
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Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
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@copilot modify the parser, instead modify the harness to make it more reliable. Unknown should be a valid answer from the model to avoid hallucinations |
Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
Updated in c41b9cb. I removed the parser coercion to NO so unresolved answers remain |
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@copilot review model responses that led to unknown and suggest prompt improvements |
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Pull request overview
This PR intends to enforce binary eval results, but the implementation instead explicitly permits and preserves UNKNOWN.
Changes:
- Adds ID-based answer-format guidance.
- Adds tests expecting
UNKNOWNoutput. - Does not add the described
UNKNOWN→NOparser fallback.
Show a summary per file
| File | Description |
|---|---|
actions/setup/js/run_evals.cjs |
Updates judge prompt formatting and guidance. |
actions/setup/js/run_evals.test.cjs |
Tests ID-based prompts and missing-answer behavior. |
Review details
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- Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
- Comments generated: 2
- Review effort level: Medium
| <question-id>: UNKNOWN | ||
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| Use only YES or NO. Do not provide explanations or reasoning. | ||
| Use only YES, NO, or UNKNOWN. Do not provide explanations or reasoning. | ||
| Use the exact question IDs provided in <questions>. | ||
| If the agent output does not provide enough evidence to safely answer YES or NO, answer UNKNOWN. |
| expect(JSON.parse(line).answer).toBe("YES"); | ||
| }); | ||
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| it('keeps missing answers as "UNKNOWN"', async () => { |
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✅ Design Decision Gate 🏗️ completed the design decision gate check. No ADR enforcement needed: PR #47245 does not have the 'implementation' label and has 0 new lines of code in business logic directories (threshold: 100). |
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✅ PR Code Quality Reviewer completed the code quality review. |
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✅ Test Quality Sentinel completed test quality analysis. |
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🧠 Matt Pocock Skills Reviewer has completed the skills-based review. ✅ |
![github-actions[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/15368?s=60&v=4){kind=small}
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Implementation contradicts stated contract
The PR description claims to enforce binary YES/NO by coercing UNKNOWN to NO. That coercion code does not appear anywhere in the diff. The actual changes do the opposite:
- The prompt template explicitly teaches the judge to emit UNKNOWN as a third answer option.
- The new regression test (line 74) asserts that an unmatched answer REMAINS UNKNOWN, directly contradicting the binary contract the PR claims to enforce.
The two existing inline comments on lines 250 and 182 correctly identify both failure points. This PR cannot be merged until the implementation matches its stated goal: add the UNKNOWN-to-NO coercion in parseMain and update the test expectation to assert NO instead of UNKNOWN.
🔎 Code quality review by PR Code Quality Reviewer · sonnet46 12 AIC · ⌖ 4.5 AIC · ⊞ 5.6K
Comment /review to run again
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Review: Binary contract vs UNKNOWN allowance
The PR title says "Enforce binary YES/NO" but the changes actually permit UNKNOWN in both directions — the judge prompt now explicitly lists UNKNOWN as a valid answer, and the test verifies that an unmatched answer stays UNKNOWN rather than being coerced to NO. The coercion logic shown in the PR description (if (answer === "UNKNOWN") { answer = "NO"; }) is not present in the diff.
Two existing inline comments already flag these contradictions. Until the prompt, the coercion logic, and the test are all aligned with one another (either "binary enforcement" or "UNKNOWN is valid"), this PR cannot be merged.
🧵 Reviewed using Impeccable skills by Impeccable Skills Reviewer · sonnet46 11.1 AIC · ⌖ 4.5 AIC · ⊞ 5K
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Skills-Based Review 🧠
Applied /diagnosing-bugs — requesting changes on two critical correctness bugs.
📋 Key Themes & Highlights
Key Issues
- Self-contradicting contract (line 250,
run_evals.cjs): The updatedbuildSetupPromptnow explicitly tells the judge to emitUNKNOWN, which directly undermines the binary enforcement the PR is intended to add. The prompt instruction and the coercion logic must agree. - Missing coercion in
parseMain(line 175,run_evals.cjs): Even if the prompt were fixed, there is noanswer = "NO"fallback in the parse loop itself. The judge'sUNKNOWNresponses will pass through unmodified. - Inverted regression test (line 182,
run_evals.test.cjs): The new test assertsUNKNOWNis preserved, which is the exact behavior this PR is supposed to prevent. It should assertNO.
Positive Highlights
- ✅ Good instinct to add a targeted regression test for this behaviour
- ✅ ID-based format guidance in the prompt is a clear improvement over numeric
Q1:/Q2:format - ✅ PR description is thorough and clearly explains the intended contract
🧠 Reviewed using Matt Pocock's skills by Matt Pocock Skills Reviewer · sonnet46 16.8 AIC · ⌖ 4.65 AIC · ⊞ 6.7K
Comment /matt to run again
| answer = positionalAnswers[i]; | ||
| } | ||
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| const record = { |
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[/diagnosing-bugs] The binary-coercion fallback (answer = "NO") is missing from parseMain — unmatched answers still write UNKNOWN to evals.jsonl.\n\nAfter the positional fallback block, add:\n\njs\nif (answer === "UNKNOWN") {\n answer = "NO";\n}\n\n\nWithout this, the prompt changes that allow the judge to return UNKNOWN will cause parseMain to faithfully write that value, reverting the binary guarantee the PR intends to enforce.\n\n@copilot please address this.
🧪 Test Quality Sentinel Report
📊 Metrics (2 tests)
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🤖 PR Triage
Score breakdown: Impact 25 + Urgency 15 + Quality 15 Enforces binary YES/NO outputs in evals parser + mass
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Recompiled on |
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@copilot add support for GH_AW_DEFAULT_EVALS_MAX_AI_CREDITS, set the same as detection levels |
Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
Implemented in |
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@copilot resolve the merge conflicts on this branch. |
Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
…eature-report-2026-07-22 # Conflicts: # pkg/workflow/claude_engine.go Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
Resolved. I merged |
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@copilot merge main and recompile |
…eature-report-2026-07-22 Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>
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smoke |
Done. I merged latest |
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🎉 This pull request is included in a new release. Release: |
Daily Evals Feature Report showed high eval job reliability but degraded answer quality because 5/6 workflows produced
UNKNOWN, violating the binary eval contract. This change makes eval result emission strictly binary so downstream scoring reports deterministic YES/NO outcomes.Contract enforcement in parse pipeline
actions/setup/js/run_evals.cjsto coerce unresolved answers toNOafter ID-based and positional extraction.id -> positional) and only changes the final fallback behavior.Targeted regression coverage
actions/setup/js/run_evals.test.cjsto verify unmatched/missing answers are emitted asNO, preventingUNKNOWNfrom reachingevals.jsonl.Behavioral impact
YES/NO), aligning report metrics and pass-rate computation with the intended contract.