Selection-Side Grading Areas

Conformance language (MUST/SHOULD/MAY) follows BCP 14 [RFC2119]/[RFC8174] as defined in 00-overview.md. The binding source is the FlowMCP Schemas Specification v4.2.0.

Introduction

A selection is a topic-oriented, curated collection of tools and skills assembled over several member namespaces. It is the fifth primitive introduced in the FlowMCP Schemas Specification v4.2 (see 17-selections.md).

This chapter is the normative source for the selection-side grading Areas. These Areas run on top of the provider-side Areas of 04-phases-single.md: they presuppose that every member schema has already been graded on the provider side and reached the status stable (see the pre-condition in Pre-Condition and the selection.json Reference Layer).

The selection-side Areas produce gradingTier = group-bound — and under this tier, grade A is reachable (per 06-determinism-and-tier.md).

Prerequisite: Soft and Hard Thresholds (MUST)

The selection-side Areas have a minimum-size precondition, expressed as two thresholds. The thresholds are normative; the rationale is corpus diversity (see 10-domain-knowledge.md).

Threshold	Namespaces	Consequence
Soft	≥ 5	A selection becomes a “group” in the usable sense. Selection skills MAY be created; selection Areas run with reduced expectations.
Hard	≥ 7	Full group optimisation applies; `personaUseCaseFit` is fully scaled; `aggregateGrade = A` is regularly reachable.

A selection with fewer than 5 namespaces MUST NOT run the selection-side Areas. Only provider-side grading applies; the selection-level grade is recorded as n/a.
A selection with 5–6 namespaces MAY run the structural and skill Areas with reduced scope but MUST NOT claim grade A.
A selection with ≥ 7 namespaces MAY claim grade A via the full set of selection Areas including selection-aggregate.

The group-bound contribution that unlocks grade A is carried by the selection-aggregate Area (see selection-aggregate (the group-bound Area)). A selection cannot reach grade A without at least one group-bound Area contributing to its aggregate.

The Selection-Side Areas

The grading system defines eleven Areas in total (see 04-phases-single.md). The following five are selection-side:

#	Area	Evaluates	`_gradings/` location	Persona	Det/Non-Det
7	`about-selection`	the About Resource of the selection (= the Domain-Knowledge document)	`selections/<sel>/resources/about/_gradings/`	yes	deterministic + non-deterministic
8	`selection-skills-L1`	one L1 skill (per skill)	`selections/<sel>/skills/<skill>/_gradings/`	yes	non-deterministic
9	`selection-skills-L2`	one L2 skill (per skill)	`selections/<sel>/skills/<skill>/_gradings/`	yes	non-deterministic
10	`selection-skills-L3`	one L3 skill (per skill)	`selections/<sel>/skills/<skill>/_gradings/`	yes	non-deterministic
11	`selection-aggregate`	the selection as a whole	`selections/<sel>/_gradings/`	yes	deterministic + non-deterministic

`about-selection`

The selection-level About Resource is graded here. The About Resource doubles as the Domain-Knowledge document of the group (see 10-domain-knowledge.md and 11-about-convention.md): it carries the seven mandatory domain-knowledge sections. This Area scores the document quality (are the sections present and coherent?). Member conformance against the document is a separate check carried by selection-aggregate (see selection-aggregate (the group-bound Area)) — two distinct evaluations, no circularity.

`selection-skills-L1` / `-L2` / `-L3`

Selection skills are graded per skill, not per cohort. Each skill has its own _gradings/ folder. The L-semantics (Signpost / Topic / Usecase) and the per-skill predecessor chain are defined in 13-skills.md. The Area name records which level the graded skill declares via its level extension field; the grading reads that field, it does not assign the level.

`selection-aggregate` (the group-bound Area)

selection-aggregate grades the selection as a whole. It carries the selection-wide dimensions that have no per-skill or About home:

Thresholds — soft ≥ 5 / hard ≥ 7 members (see Prerequisite: Soft and Hard Thresholds).
Topic coherence — does the member set form one coherent topic?
domainConformance — are the members consistent with the About / Domain-Knowledge document?
personaUseCaseFit — does the selection serve its declared persona use cases?
Group-bound tier — this is the Area that opens the path to grade A.
Cascade stop — selection-wide veto handling (see Cascade Stop).

The full output schema, prompt template, and skill triad for selection-aggregate are defined in the grading module’s Area catalogue. This Area is the eleventh Area; its detailed contract is specified alongside the grading-data layout, not in this chapter.

Cascade Stop

A failure on the selection side halts the dependent selection Areas. Examples:

Soft threshold not met (< 5 namespaces) → no selection Areas run; the selection-level grade is n/a. Only provider-side grades remain.
about-selection document invalid (a mandatory domain-knowledge section missing) → selection-aggregate.domainConformance cannot be scored above stale / n/a.
A member is not stable → the pre-condition (see Pre-Condition and the selection.json Reference Layer) blocks the selection run before any Area runs.

Cascade-stop events are recorded as findings in the grading entry, analogous to the provider-side cascade stops in 04-phases-single.md.

Pre-Condition and the `selection.json` Reference Layer

The selection-side Areas start only when every member schema is stable. The gate reads the frozen member snapshot from the selection’s index.json (see 19-folder-layout.md and 21-pre-conditions.md).

The selection.json (the selection definition) is a reference / import layer, not a copy of its members:

members[] references member schemas by logical id; their tools, resources, and skills remain in providers/ and are never copied into the selection.
The selection stores its own files only for unique primitives (a tool or prompt defined solely inside the selection).
A member schema is graded once, on the provider side. The selection never re-grades a member’s schema; it grades only the selection-side Areas on top of the already-stable members.

This is why grade A requires the provider side to be complete first: the selection-side Areas add the group-bound perspective, they do not duplicate provider-side work.

Tier

The selection-side Areas produce gradingTier = group-bound:

gradingTier = group-bound

This tier is the only path to grade A. The provider-side Areas (autonomous) cannot, by construction, deliver grade A.

Cross-References

04-phases-single.md — provider-side Areas; the selection side consumes their stable base units.
06-determinism-and-tier.md — tier rules (max grade B autonomous vs. grade A possible group-bound).
10-domain-knowledge.md — the seven mandatory domain-knowledge sections carried by the About Resource.
11-about-convention.md — About as a schema Resource.
12-personas-contract.md — persona references for the persona-bearing Areas.
13-skills.md — selection-skill levels and per-skill grading.
19-folder-layout.md — _gradings/ placement, index.json, member resolution.
21-pre-conditions.md — the “all members stable” gate.
FlowMCP Schemas Specification v4.2.0 — 17-selections.md.

Depends on: 00-overview.md, 04-phases-single.md
Related: 06-determinism-and-tier.md, 10-domain-knowledge.md, 13-skills.md