# Roadmap: v1.73 Competing Hypotheses First-Class Surface

## Result

`v1.73` is complete.

## Overview

`v1.73` closed the bounded research-question modeling gap around multiple
plausible answers. It added an explicit `competing_hypotheses` surface on the
question contract, surfaced that competition through runtime status and replay,
and proved the bounded coexistence route with a dedicated isolated acceptance
lane.

**Phases:** 147
**Total Plans:** 1
**Total Tasks:** 2
**Shipped:** 2026-04-12

## Phase Details

### Phase 147: Research Question Competing Hypotheses Surface

**Goal:** Add a durable question-level competing-hypotheses surface and expose
it through runtime/read-path/replay flows without replacing deferred candidates
or follow-up subtopics.

**Plans:** 1 plan

Plans:

- [x] `147-01`: add competing hypotheses to research-question/runtime surfaces
  and isolated acceptance

**Outcome:**

- landed normalized `competing_hypotheses` support on the question/runtime path
- surfaced the active hypothesis competition through runtime status, runtime
  protocol, and replay
- aligned schemas, docs, and isolated acceptance coverage for the bounded
  coexistence route

## Milestone Summary

**Key Accomplishments:**

- one explicit question-level competing-hypothesis surface now exists
- runtime status and replay now keep the current hypothesis competition visible
- one isolated acceptance lane now proves the multi-hypothesis path coexists
  with deferred candidates and follow-up subtopics

**Issues Resolved:**

- closed the gap where multiple plausible answers had to be reconstructed from
  deferred or follow-up execution surfaces alone
- closed the gap where replay lacked one direct summary of the current active
  hypothesis competition

**Issues Deferred:**

- broader branch-management automation beyond the question-level surface
- hypothesis auto-discovery or adjudication heuristics
- unrelated paired-backend / control-plane / layer-graph failures outside the
  milestone scope

**Technical Debt / Honest Gaps:**

- the first slice makes competing hypotheses durable and visible, but it does
  not yet automate branch creation, branch comparison, or adjudication policy

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For current planning state after `v1.73`, continue from the next fresh
milestone definition.
