fix(recommendation): don't shrink a candidate arm ordered by unseeded random()
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Fixes the integration failure from f367eeaa:
"same-day rebuild produced different track lists".

Cutting RandomFill 30→10 for Songs-like broke
TestBuildSystemPlaylists_DailyNonceDeterminism, and the reason is worth
stating because the number is not the bug.

`likes_overlap` and `random_fill` end in a bare `ORDER BY random()` with no
daily seed (recommendation.sql:118, :161). Such an arm returns a STABLE set
only while its LIMIT exceeds the rows eligible for it — then it returns all
of them, and the random order stops mattering because scoreAndSortCandidates
sorts by track id before drawing jitter. Below that threshold the arm
returns a random SUBSET, and two builds on the same day draw different ones.

So the test was green by accident. It seeds ~20 tracks against a default
RandomFill of 30; the limit exceeded the library, so the arm returned
everything. Determinism held for a reason unrelated to the code being right.

Which means it does NOT hold in production. Any real library is larger than
30, so same-day rebuilds have been drawing different mixes since that arm
was written — invisible, because a mix changing after a refresh looks like a
feature. Filed as #3889; the fix is a seeded ordering per (user, day), which
needs a .sql change and sqlc regeneration and so cannot land from here.

The correction: grow an arm freely, never shrink one whose ordering is
unseeded random. LikesOverlap and RandomFill go back to the defaults;
TasteOverlap stays halved because it sorts by `tpa.weight DESC, t.id` and is
genuinely deterministic. Guarded by a test that names the reasoning, so the
next person to trim these has to read why first — and it should be DELETED
once #3889 lands rather than worked around.

The cost is honest: the seed-independent share of the Songs-like pool falls
from 29% to 20% instead of the intended cut. That matters less than it
sounds. The pool only biases the draw; the songs_like WEIGHTS are what
actually demote sim_score-0 candidates, and they are untouched here — a
perfect match still scores 5.00 against an unrelated favourite's 2.00.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SQ31KQpYbStyK5y58UmPLH
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-10 20:59:39 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent f367eeaa9d
commit ecfa056d4d
2 changed files with 73 additions and 11 deletions
+35 -11
View File
@@ -139,22 +139,46 @@ func DefaultCandidateSourceLimits() CandidateSourceLimits {
// would produce a short mix or none at all, and "no playlist" is a worse
// answer than "a few tracks further from the seed than we would like".
//
// likes_overlap is cut hardest of the tier-2 arms for a specific reason: its
// SQL assigns a FLAT 0.6 sim_score (recommendation.sql:108) rather than
// measuring anything. It is a collaborative signal wearing similarity's
// clothes, and raising SimilarityWeight amplifies it — if real ListenBrainz
// scores commonly land below 0.6 it would outrank genuine matches. Halved
// here pending the fill-rate measurement in #3879; the honest fix is to stop
// it claiming a similarity score it did not compute.
// DO NOT SHRINK AN ARM ORDERED BY UNSEEDED random(). This is the constraint
// that shapes the numbers below, and it is not obvious from reading them.
//
// `likes_overlap` and `random_fill` both end in a bare `ORDER BY random()`
// (recommendation.sql:118, :161) with no daily seed. Such an arm returns a
// STABLE set only while its LIMIT exceeds the rows eligible for it — at that
// point it returns all of them and the random order is irrelevant, because
// the caller sorts by id before scoring. Drop the limit below the eligible
// count and the arm starts returning a random SUBSET, which differs between
// two builds on the same day.
//
// That is a real defect (#3889) rather than a quirk of this function, and it
// bit here: cutting RandomFill to 10 broke
// TestBuildSystemPlaylists_DailyNonceDeterminism, whose library is smaller
// than the default limit and whose determinism was therefore accidental.
// Growing an arm is always safe; only shrinking one is.
//
// So the seed-independent arms are trimmed only where the ordering is
// deterministic: `taste_overlap` sorts by `tpa.weight DESC, t.id` and can be
// cut, `random_fill` cannot. The reduction is consequently modest — and it
// matters less than it looks, because the WEIGHTS are what demote sim_score-0
// candidates now. The pool change biases the draw; the songs_like profile is
// what actually keeps unrelated tracks out of the result.
//
// One arm is left alone that arguably should not be: `likes_overlap` assigns
// a FLAT 0.6 sim_score (recommendation.sql:108) rather than measuring
// anything — a collaborative signal wearing similarity's clothes, which a
// raised SimilarityWeight amplifies. If real ListenBrainz scores commonly
// land below 0.6 it will outrank genuine matches. It cannot be trimmed here
// without the determinism fix landing first; the honest repair is to stop it
// claiming a similarity score it never computed (#3879).
func SongsLikeCandidateSourceLimits() CandidateSourceLimits {
return CandidateSourceLimits{
LBSimilar: 60, // tier 1 — doubled; the only arm that measures the seed
SimilarArtist: 40, // tier 2
SimilarArtist: 40, // tier 2 — raised; growing is always safe
TagOverlap: 20, // tier 2
UserCoplay: 20, // tier 2
LikesOverlap: 10, // tier 2, halved — flat 0.6, see above
TasteOverlap: 10, // tier 3 floor — halved, not removed
RandomFill: 10, // tier 3 floor — cut hard, never to zero
LikesOverlap: 20, // tier 2 — NOT trimmed: unseeded random(), see above
TasteOverlap: 10, // tier 3 floor — halved; deterministic ordering, safe
RandomFill: 30, // tier 3 floor — NOT trimmed: unseeded random(), see above
}
}