HANDOFF_SELECTOR_TASK.md

# Handoff: Improve Selector Agent to reach BIRD-dev EX ≥ 67%

## TL;DR

The MATS-SQL pipeline is **stuck at ~60% selector EX on BIRD-dev**. The validators are saturated (3 regimes — SFT, ORPO COLLAB, ORPO INDEP — all produce identical end-to-end EX within noise). The current selector picks the right SQL **~83% of the time** when the right SQL is in the K=8 candidates (oracle@8 ≈ 71-72%, selector EX ≈ 60%).

**Your job**: lift selector EX from ~60% to ≥67%. Two main levers:

1. **Stronger selector model** that picks the correct candidate more often given K=8 rollouts (need ~93% pick-rate to hit 67%).
2. **Higher oracle@8 ceiling** via better/more diverse K=8 sampling, stronger planner, or stronger fixer (so selector has better candidates to choose from).

This doc describes the current state, all paths/files needed, what's been tried, and concrete experiment ideas.

---

## 1. Current numbers on full BIRD-dev (1534 questions, 1524 with usable db_path)

| Config | greedy@1 | oracle@8 | rule-based maj | **trained selector EX** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLANNER-only | 51.54% | 70.80% | — | — |
| SFT-VF (paper validators) | 52.20% | 71.65% | 56.30% | **59.91%** |
| ORPO COLLAB (paper) | 51.81% | 71.19% | 56.69% | **59.97%** |
| ORPO INDEP (paper) | 52.59% | 71.95% | 56.64% | **60.31%** |

**Selector recall vs oracle**: 60 / 72 ≈ **83%**. To hit 67% EX with the same oracle ceiling, we'd need **93% pick-rate**. To hit 67% with a stable 83% pick-rate, we'd need **oracle@8 ≈ 80%**.

Selector currently used: **`sft-selector-3B-griffith-v5`** (Qwen2.5-Coder-3B SFT on griffith data). Hyperparameters are documented in `AGENTS_REPORT.md`.

---

## 2. Absolute paths to all checkpoints and data

### Selector models

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/sft-selector-3B-griffith-v5  ← current "v1" used in eval above
```

A second selector ("v2") was previously trained on 45k pairs built from iter1 rollouts:
```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/data/hf_selector_v2_from_orpo1  ← 32193 train + 1695 test pairs
```
The trained v2 model: was tried in earlier iter1 eval and gave the same ~60% as v1 (no improvement). Output dir may need to be checked at `alignment-handbook/output/sft-selector-3B-v2-*` if it exists, otherwise can be retrained from `hf_selector_v2_from_orpo1`.

### Planner + Validator + Fixer checkpoints (used by pipeline; freeze for selector work)

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/sft-planner-3B-griffith-v4      # Qwen2.5-Coder-3B, planner
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/sft-validator-sel-llama1b-paper-v1   # paper-format val-sel SFT
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/sft-validator-cond-llama1b-paper-v1  # paper-format val-cond SFT
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/orpo-val-sel-collab-paper            # paper-format val-sel ORPO collab
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/orpo-val-sel-indep-paper             # paper-format val-sel ORPO indep
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/orpo-val-cond-collab-paper           # paper-format val-cond ORPO collab
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/orpo-val-cond-indep-paper            # paper-format val-cond ORPO indep
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/alignment-handbook/output/sft-fixer-llama1b-griffith-v5        # fixer
```

### Pre-computed K=8 rollouts on BIRD-dev (use these to train + eval selectors offline — no GPU pipeline replay needed)

Each JSONL has 1469-1524 rows; each row = 1 question × 8 trajectories. Field per traj: `planner_sql`, `planner_exec_ok`, `is_planner_correct`, `fixed_sql`, `is_fixed_correct`, validator outputs (`fb_select`, `fb_condition`, `fb_join`, `fb_order`), full prompts.

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_SFT_VF_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl       # 1524 rows
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_COLLAB_par_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl   # 1524 rows
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_INDEP_par_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl    # 1469 rows
```

### Greedy (T=0, K=1) rollouts on BIRD-dev (for planner@1 / pipeline@1 sanity)

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_greedy_PLANNER_ONLY_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl  # 1524 rows
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_greedy_SFT_VF_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl        # 1524 rows
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_greedy_COLLAB_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl        # 1524 rows
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_greedy_INDEP_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl         # 1524 rows
```

### BIRD-train rollouts (for selector training data)

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/data/planner_3B_greedy_bird_train.jsonl     # 9360 planner-3B greedy preds on BIRD-train; 5388 correct (57.6%)
```

You'll likely want K=8 BIRD-train rollouts too — generation script is `scripts/run_pipeline_rollouts.py` (used with `--max_questions -1` and BIRD-train json).

### Data builders for selector training

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/build_selector_sft_data.py     # selector v1 builder
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/build_selector_v2_fast.py      # selector v2 builder (used hf_selector_v2_from_orpo1)
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/build_selector_v3_pairwise.py  # exists but not used in v1/v2
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/build_selector_v3_rich.py      # ditto
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/build_selector_v4_pairwise.py  # ditto
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/rich_schema.py                 # helper
```

### Selector trainer

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/train_sft_completion_only.py   # used for all SFT (incl. selector v1)
```

### Selector evaluator (read-only, no GPU pipeline needed)

```
/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/scripts/compute_bestofn_with_selector.py
```

Usage:
```
python scripts/compute_bestofn_with_selector.py \
    eval_results/paper_SFT_VF_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl \
    paper_SFT_VF_selectorEX \
    --selector_host http://localhost:PORT \
    --row_preview
```

Where the selector host is a vLLM server hosting the selector model:
```
vllm serve <PATH_TO_SELECTOR> --served-model-name selector --port PORT \
    --dtype bfloat16 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.85 \
    --enforce-eager --max-model-len 4096
```

---

## 3. What's been tried (don't repeat)

1. **Selector v1** (`sft-selector-3B-griffith-v5`): trained on griffith binary YES/NO labels (~9k pairs from griffith dataset). EX ≈ 59-60% across all pipeline configs.
2. **Selector v2** (`hf_selector_v2_from_orpo1`): trained on 45k pairs built from wrapper-tag iter1 rollouts (COLLAB, INDEP, SFT-VF). EX ≈ 60% — no improvement over v1.
3. **Validator regime ablations**: SFT, ORPO COLLAB, ORPO INDEP — all give same ~60% EX. The selector's bottleneck is not the validator quality.
4. **Schema format**: switched from CodeS-style to griffith rich-NL, and from wrapper-tag to paper-format. No change in selector EX.

---

## 4. Bottleneck analysis (numbers, not opinions)

- **planner@1 (greedy T=0): 51.54%** — limited by the planner SFT
- **oracle@8 (K=8 T=1.0): 71.95%** — upper bound for selector
- **selector picks 60/72 = 83%** of available correct from K=8
- **fixer adds < 1pp** over planner-only (paper-format)

Gap to close = 67 − 60 = **7pp**. Two paths (additive):

| Path | Mechanism | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| **A. Better selector** | Pick-rate 83% → 93% with same K=8 candidates | More/better selector training data and/or stronger architecture |
| **B. Better oracle ceiling** | oracle@8 71% → 80% via more diverse K=8 or stronger planner/fixer | Re-sample K=8 with higher T / better-distilled planner / fixer that actually rescues wrong SQL |

A 5pp selector lift OR a 5pp oracle lift both move us to ~65%. Combined gets us past 67%.

---

## 5. Concrete experiment ideas (ranked by expected ROI)

### E1. Train selector on **pairwise preference data** built from existing K=8 rollouts (highest leverage, fastest)

Each of the 3 K=8 rollout files has 1524 questions × 8 candidates = ~12k candidates per file. For each question:
- Pair (correct, wrong) candidates → preference pairs
- Train a Bradley-Terry-style selector or a binary "is this SQL correct?" classifier

Across 3 files = ~36k+ candidate sets. Use both `is_planner_correct` and `is_fixed_correct` for labels.

Build script template: `scripts/build_selector_v3_pairwise.py` (exists, not been used).

### E2. Train selector on **execution-result-aware features** (instead of just SQL text)

Currently the selector sees `(question, schema, SQL)` and outputs YES/NO. **It does NOT see the execution result**. A selector that sees rows returned by each candidate SQL can directly compare exec outputs against the question, which is much higher-signal than syntactic matching.

Field already available in JSONL: per-trajectory exec result is implicitly captured in `is_planner_correct` / `is_fixed_correct` but not stored as serialized rows. Would need a rollout re-run that includes `exec_rows_preview` in each trajectory.

### E3. **Re-sample K=8 with higher T or top_p** to lift oracle@8

Current K=8 at T=1.0, top_p=0.9. Try K=8 at T=1.2/top_p=0.95, or mix temperatures: 4 samples at T=0.8 + 4 at T=1.2. Higher diversity → higher oracle@8 ceiling → more headroom.

### E4. **Train a 1B selector** instead of 3B

The current selector is Qwen2.5-Coder-**3B** — relatively heavy. A 1B may train faster and be tuned more aggressively. Compare same data, smaller model — see if data is the bottleneck.

### E5. **Distill the planner** (riskiest, biggest upside)

Planner is the dominant bottleneck. Re-distill from a stronger teacher (Qwen2.5-72B already cached locally at `/weka/s225250685/Huggingface/hub/models--Qwen--Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct/`). New planner with greedy@1 > 55% would lift everything downstream.

This is outside "selector work" but worth flagging — selector improvements above a ceiling won't matter if planner stays at 51.5%.

---

## 6. Reproducing current numbers

To re-derive the table in §1 from existing rollouts (no GPU needed for the calc itself, just to host the selector):

```python
# planner@1 / pipeline@1 from greedy file:
import json
for path in ["paper_greedy_PLANNER_ONLY_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl",
             "paper_greedy_SFT_VF_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl",
             "paper_greedy_COLLAB_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl",
             "paper_greedy_INDEP_passAt1_bird_dev.jsonl"]:
    rows = [json.loads(l) for l in open(f"/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/{path}")]
    n = len(rows)
    pg = sum(1 for r in rows if r["trajectories"][0]["is_planner_correct"])
    def fin(t): return t["is_fixed_correct"] if not t["planner_exec_ok"] else t["is_planner_correct"]
    pl = sum(1 for r in rows if fin(r["trajectories"][0]))
    print(path, f"planner@1={100*pg/n:.2f}% pipeline@1={100*pl/n:.2f}%")

# oracle@8 from K=8 file:
for path in ["paper_SFT_VF_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl",
             "paper_COLLAB_par_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl",
             "paper_INDEP_par_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl"]:
    rows = [json.loads(l) for l in open(f"/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/{path}")]
    n = len(rows)
    o = sum(1 for r in rows if any(
        t["is_fixed_correct"] if not t["planner_exec_ok"] else t["is_planner_correct"]
        for t in r["trajectories"]))
    print(path, f"n={n} oracle@8={100*o/n:.2f}%")
```

Selector EX numbers are produced by `scripts/compute_bestofn_with_selector.py` against a vLLM-served selector.

---

## 7. Environment + constraints

- **K=8 is fixed** (user constraint) — don't try K=16 etc.
- **Temperature = 1.0 for the K=8 rollouts** — don't change unless you're testing E3.
- Conda env: `/weka/s225250685/conda-envs/handbook/bin/python`
- HF_TOKEN at `/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/.env` (source with `set -a; source .env; set +a`)
- SLURM partition `gpu-large`, QoS `batch-long`, job name MUST be `vl` (ALL CAPS not allowed; lowercase `vl` is required).
- `PYTHONNOUSERSITE=1` is required to avoid user-site contamination.
- Don't touch `/weka/s225250685/mats-tist/data/_archived_wrong_format/` — those are the old wrapper-tag datasets, kept for reference.

Helper: `free_gpus` command on the login node shows current GPU availability.

---

## 8. Definition of done

Final eval: selector v_next on `paper_SFT_VF_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl` (or any of the 3 paper-format K=8 rollouts) achieves **≥ 67% EX**.

Run with:
```
python scripts/compute_bestofn_with_selector.py \
    /weka/s225250685/mats-tist/eval_results/paper_SFT_VF_passAt8_bird_dev.jsonl \
    final_selector_run \
    --selector_host http://localhost:8103 --row_preview
```

And report:
- selector EX
- pick-rate over oracle (EX / oracle@8)
- any K=8 re-sampling used