JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

references a task family that is not in this report

Error message

${where} references a task family that is not in this report

What it means

Every motif must reference a task family that exists in the same report fixture. The validator builds a set of task_families ids and throws when a motif's task_family_id is absent, enforcing referential integrity inside each report.

Solutions

1. Correct the motif's task_family_id to match an existing task_families[].id in the same report.
2. If the family was renamed, update all motifs referencing the old id.
3. Add the missing task family entry to task_families if it legitimately should exist.

Example fix

// before
{ "motifs": [{ "id": "m1", "task_family_id": "family-old" }] }
// after
{ "motifs": [{ "id": "m1", "task_family_id": "family-renamed" }] }

const familyIDs = new Set(report.task_families.map(f => f.id));
for (const m of report.motifs) if (!familyIDs.has(m.task_family_id)) throw new Error(`motif ${m.id}: unknown task_family_id ${m.task_family_id}`);

const motifFamilyExists = (motif, report) => report.task_families.some(f => f.id === motif.task_family_id);

try { validateContinuousImprovement(report); } catch (e) { if (String(e.message).includes('references a task family')) { console.error('Update motif.task_family_id to a family present in this report'); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: A report's motifs[] entry has task_family_id that does not match any id in that report's task_families[] (typo, renamed family, or motif copied from another report).

Common situations: Renaming a task family id in fixtures without updating motifs; duplicating a motif across report fixtures with different family ids; typos in hand-authored fixtures.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• references workflow variant that is not in this report
• supporting variant belongs to another task family
• carries more shared unit ids than its shared unit count
• causal slice references a workflow variant that is not in…
• operations are not a contiguous subsequence of variant 's…

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@3ee70a1026 (2026-09-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/53c324cd0d3320d9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/shared/contracts/scripts/validate-continuous-improvement.mjs:110

    }
    const expectedBGivenA = relationship.shared_unit_count / relationship.theme_a_unit_count;
    const expectedAGivenB = relationship.shared_unit_count / relationship.theme_b_unit_count;
    if (Math.abs(relationship.probability_b_given_a - expectedBGivenA) > 1e-9) {
      throw new Error(`${where} probability_b_given_a ${relationship.probability_b_given_a} != ${expectedBGivenA}`);
    }
    if (Math.abs(relationship.probability_a_given_b - expectedAGivenB) > 1e-9) {
      throw new Error(`${where} probability_a_given_b ${relationship.probability_a_given_b} != ${expectedAGivenB}`);
    }
  }
  relationshipCount += report.relationships.length;

  // A motif is a structural count over variants this report carries, so every
  // part of it must be re-derivable from those variants.
  const variantsByID = new Map(report.workflow_variants.map((variant) => [variant.id, variant]));
  const familyIDs = new Set(report.task_families.map((family) => family.id));
  for (const motif of report.motifs) {
    const where = `report fixture ${reportPaths[index]}: motif ${motif.id}`;
    if (!familyIDs.has(motif.task_family_id)) throw new Error(`${where} references a task family that is not in this report`);
    if (motif.support_variant_count !== motif.variant_ids.length) throw new Error(`${where} support variant count disagrees with its variant ids`);
    let runs = 0;
    let weighted = 0;
    for (const variantID of motif.variant_ids) {
      const variant = variantsByID.get(variantID);
      if (!variant) throw new Error(`${where} references workflow variant ${variantID} that is not in this report`);
      if (variant.task_family_id !== motif.task_family_id) throw new Error(`${where} supporting variant ${variantID} belongs to another task family`);
      if (!contiguouslyContains(variant.signature, motif.operations)) {
        throw new Error(`${where} operations are not a contiguous subsequence of variant ${variantID}'s signature`);
      }
      runs += variant.eligible_runs;
      weighted += (motif.operations.length / variant.signature.length) * variant.eligible_runs;
    }
    if (motif.support_run_count !== runs) throw new Error(`${where} support run count ${motif.support_run_count} != ${runs}`);
    const expectedShare = runs > 0 ? weighted / runs : 0;
    if (Math.abs(motif.structural_cost_share - expectedShare) > 1e-6) {
      throw new Error(`${where} structural_cost_share ${motif.structural_cost_share} != ${expectedShare}`);
    }

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