---
title: "Compare options on a common basis."
description: "Link each Option to its evidence, assumptions, scenarios, and trade-offs. Compare what supports or weakens it instead of assigning a recommendation score."
updated: "30 August 2026"
availability: "CONTRACT REVIEW · TEST_ONLY"
candidate_route: "/docs/polya/guides/compare-options"
---

# Compare options on a common basis.

Link each Option to its evidence, assumptions, scenarios, and trade-offs. Compare what supports or weakens it instead of assigning a recommendation score.

**CONTRACT REVIEW · TEST_ONLY:** Review-candidate contract and local fixture evidence only · no distributed SDK, operational API, publisher parity, or decision authority

## An Option is not an automatic ranking

An Option is a named alternative that people can compare. The current review contract defines no recommendation score, optimization result, or automatic-selection field.

- SUPPORTS connects supporting material
- CHALLENGES connects weakening material
- MODELS connects a Scenario
- SELECTS appears only on a human-recorded Decision

## A Scenario needs an explicit horizon

A Scenario is a review frame under named assumptions, not a factual prediction. Fix fromAt and toAt, then reopen review when the horizon expires.

1. **State the baseline** — Separate what is supported now from what remains unknown.
2. **Vary assumptions explicitly** — Do not change several assumptions at once and hide the cause of a difference.
3. **Record each option’s trade-offs** — Keep constraints, sensitivity, and failure conditions beside benefits.
4. **Set the next review point** — New evidence or horizon expiry should create a ReviewTrigger.

## Leave a structure for human review

- Supporting and weakening evidence by option
- Shared and option-specific assumptions
- Horizon and sensitive conditions
- Open EvidenceRequest records
- Decision owner and review triggers

> **Current surface:** This does not claim an operational optimization engine, prediction model, or Scenario API.

---

Published route: /docs/polya/guides/compare-options