worldmonitor/todos/182-pending-p2-inconsistent-unknown-region-error-handling.md

status, priority, issue_id, tags, dependencies

status	priority	issue_id	tags	dependencies
pending	p2	182	code-review phase-0 regional-intelligence error-handling consistency

Compute modules return different things for unknown region (some throw, some return empty)

Problem Statement

balance-vector.mjs:18 throws on unknown region. scoreActors:26, buildScenarioSets:18, collectEvidence:16 silently return empty. Inconsistent contracts. The seed orchestrator should pick one.

Findings

• 4 compute modules, 2 different error strategies
• Caller cannot rely on a uniform contract
• A typo'd region id will crash one path, silently empty-render another

Proposed Solutions

Option 1: Validate region in orchestrator

Fail-fast in seed-regional-snapshots.mjs before calling any compute module. Compute modules can assume a valid region.

Pros: Single validation point; compute modules simplify Cons: Orchestrator must know region invariants Effort: Small Risk: Low

Option 2: All modules throw on unknown region

Normalize every compute module to throw.

Pros: Loud failures at call site; easy debugging Cons: Requires each compute module to handle the error Effort: Small Risk: Low

Recommended Action

Technical Details

Files involved:

• scripts/regional-snapshot/balance-vector.mjs:18 (throws)
• scripts/regional-snapshot/actor-scoring.mjs:26 (returns empty)
• scripts/regional-snapshot/scenario-builder.mjs:18 (returns empty)
• scripts/regional-snapshot/evidence-collector.mjs:16 (returns empty)
• scripts/seed-regional-snapshots.mjs - orchestrator

Acceptance Criteria

• All compute modules use consistent error semantics
• Either: orchestrator validates region before calling any compute module
• Or: every module throws on unknown region

Work Log

Resources

• PR #2940
• PR #2942