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+/**
+ * A complete optimization method for a game, in the shape the comparator takes.
+ *
+ * `compareOptimizationMethods` runs several of these on disjoint train,
+ * selection and final-test scenarios and reports each one's lift over the
+ * baseline with a simultaneous, Bonferroni-adjusted bootstrap interval. The
+ * point of writing a method rather than a loop is that the comparator can then
+ * answer a question a single run cannot: whether one way of searching beats
+ * another by more than the game's own noise.
+ *
+ * This is the simplest honest method. It authors N candidate programs, scores
+ * each on the SELECTION scenarios, and keeps the best. The final-test partition
+ * is never touched, which is the one rule a method may not break.
+ */
+import type {
+  ComparisonCost,
+  OptimizationMethod,
+  OptimizationMethodResult,
+} from '@tangle-network/agent-eval/campaign'
+import type { CellResult } from '../matrix-run'
+import type { GameScenario } from './agent-eval-arena.mts'
+
+/**
+ * Author one candidate and return where its program landed.
+ *
+ * Supplied by the caller because building a player is the expensive, credential
+ * -carrying half, and a method should not decide how an agent is run.
+ */
+export type AuthorCandidate = (attempt: number) => Promise<{
+  /** Path of the program the agent left behind. */
+  policy: string
+  usd: number | null
+  /** `oauth` bills a plan and reports no per-request figure. */
+  authMode: 'api-key' | 'oauth' | null
+}>
+
+/**
+ * State the spend honestly, including when it cannot be known.
+ *
+ * A plan-billed agent reports no per-request cost, so its absence is recorded
+ * as INCOMPLETE ACCOUNTING rather than folded into a total as zero. A
+ * comparison that sums an unbilled arm to zero reports the arm nobody could
+ * meter as the cheapest one.
+ */
+function costOf(spends: readonly { usd: number | null; authMode: string | null }[]): ComparisonCost {
+  const known = spends.filter((s) => s.usd !== null)
+  const unbilled = spends.filter((s) => s.usd === null)
+  const total = known.reduce((sum, s) => sum + (s.usd ?? 0), 0)
+  return {
+    totalCostUsd: total,
+    // The union refuses to call a partial sum observed. An arm nobody could
+    // meter makes the whole total `uncaptured`, which is the correct claim: a
+    // known subtotal is not a total, and reporting it as one would make the
+    // unmetered arm the cheapest.
+    costProvenance: unbilled.length === 0 ? { kind: 'observed', usd: total } : { kind: 'uncaptured', usd: null },
+    accountingComplete: unbilled.length === 0,
+    incompleteReasons: unbilled.length === 0
+      ? []
+      : [`${unbilled.length} of ${spends.length} candidates billed a plan`
+        + ` (${[...new Set(unbilled.map((s) => s.authMode ?? 'unknown'))].join(', ')})`
+        + ' and reported no per-request cost'],
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Author `attempts` players, keep the one that scores best on selection.
+ *
+ * Candidates are scored ONLY on the selection partition. Reading the final test
+ * to choose a winner is how a comparison reports a lift it did not earn, and it
+ * is the reason the comparator hands a method two partitions instead of one.
+ */
+export function bestOfN(
+  attempts: number,
+  author: AuthorCandidate,
+): OptimizationMethod<GameScenario, CellResult> {
+  return {
+    name: `best-of-${attempts}`,
+    optimize: async (input): Promise<OptimizationMethodResult> => {
+      const spends: { usd: number | null; authMode: string | null }[] = []
+      let best: { policy: string; mean: number } | null = null
+
+      for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= attempts; attempt += 1) {
+        input.runOptions.signal?.throwIfAborted?.()
+        const built = await author(attempt)
+        spends.push({ usd: built.usd, authMode: built.authMode })
+
+        const scored: number[] = []
+        for (const scenario of input.selectionScenarios) {
+          const row = await input.dispatchWithSurface(built.policy, scenario, {
+            cellId: `${scenario.id}#${attempt}`,
+          } as Parameters<typeof input.dispatchWithSurface>[2])
+          // A cell that could not be built did not play badly. Skipping it
+          // keeps an unbuildable clock from reading as a weak candidate.
+          if (row.status === 'played' && row.score !== null) scored.push(row.score)
+        }
+        if (scored.length === 0) continue
+
+        const mean = scored.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) / scored.length
+        if (best === null || mean > best.mean) best = { policy: built.policy, mean }
+      }
+
+      if (best === null) {
+        throw new Error(`${attempts} candidates were authored and none produced a scoreable run`)
+      }
+      return { winnerSurface: best.policy, cost: costOf(spends) }
+    },
+  }
+}