feat(item-bank): add governed immutable lifecycle contracts

[seonghobae]

Scope

Advances #609 with a bounded first implementation slice: DB-free, immutable logical lifecycle/release contracts only. No estimator, hosted persistence, provider SDK, tenant/RBAC, or numerical path is added.

Test-first lineage

• RED: a912e16a02b65cd3101410b242020266053368f7 introduced fail-first public lifecycle tests before the production module existed.
• GREEN implementation: 76dba262e95cc0f6d72ed629c14b594e511fd913 added fast_mlsirm.scoring.item_bank.
• Changelog fragment: 42c111ce202e412c8ab2f1a3ea630968c90e6839.
• Public scoring-namespace exposure: c21a7762b1c49a850a0f3d10ac55a5798360d7b2.
• Public-factory optional-provenance repair: 6385ed3ccaac8f9f50f73f663f3b189ebc5f9319.
• Canonical changelog-fragment formatting repair: ca5d6efa3746088015e723a2433ae9da31ca9418.
• The branch subsequently advanced compatibly with protected-main integration and review/test repairs. Current exact head at this refresh: f21205fd0f1d63b23af02e7702246bce54ba8362.
• Current independently resolved protected main tip at this refresh: 5006c38286a4fa1d81bcf57eeed5ce27ae743f50.

Contract behavior

• immutable draft -> audited -> screened -> piloting -> calibrated -> approved -> active/suspended -> retired maturity labels;
• exact rubric/blueprint/generation/item fingerprints;
• cumulative audit, screening, pilot, calibration and approval provenance so an operational state cannot be minted from generated content alone;
• retirement preserves approval/history rather than deleting provenance;
• immutable bank release manifests;
• cross-version comparability fails closed unless an exact predecessor and linking-evidence fingerprints are supplied;
• bounded metadata uses the existing sensitive-content rejection and canonicalization boundary;
• explicit scoring-namespace attributes without changing the pinned star-import surface;
• no raw source/response content, DB schema, or new numerical arithmetic.

Research / architecture basis

This slice follows issue #609's accepted staged design and its cited evidence-centered design, automatic item generation, automated-scoring evaluation, and psychometric governance basis. Numerical calibration/linking/DIF/information/drift remain existing/future Rust-owned evidence producers; this PR only carries their exact fingerprints.

Validation

The branch intentionally preserves the fail-first lineage in history. Earlier exact-head CI exposed product/repository contract defects that were repaired without changing scientific scope. All merge evidence must now be taken only from current exact head f21205fd0f1d63b23af02e7702246bce54ba8362; predecessor-head checks/reviews do not transfer. Merge remains contingent on unchanged exact-head CI/security/review evidence, zero valid unresolved findings, qualifying independent approval required by live governance, and every protected-merge rule at decision time.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Added immutable item-bank lifecycle contracts covering item versions, governance evidence, provenance, releases, comparability, retirement, and linking.
  • Added deterministic fingerprints, handles, serialization, and validation for item-bank entries and releases.
  • Exposed item-bank contract types and builders through the scoring package.

• Bug Fixes

  • Draft item-bank entries now correctly allow an absent approval decision.

• Documentation

  • Documented item-bank lifecycle and release contracts.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The pull request adds immutable, factory-sealed item-bank entry and release contracts. It validates lifecycle evidence, provenance, comparability, metadata, serialization, and deterministic content-based identities. It also exposes the contracts and adds comprehensive regression tests.

Changes

Item-bank lifecycle contracts

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Item-bank entry contract python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/item_bank.py	Adds lifecycle states, immutable entries, evidence validation, provenance rules, canonical serialization, deterministic fingerprints, handles, and builders.
Release manifest contract python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/item_bank.py	Adds immutable release manifests with entry validation, duplicate detection, predecessor and linking evidence, comparability state, serialization, and deterministic identities.
Validation and package integration python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/__init__.py, tests/test_item_bank_lifecycle_contract.py, tests/test_item_bank_optional_approval_default.py, docs/changelog.d/609-item-bank-lifecycle-contract.md	Exposes the item-bank APIs, documents the contract, and tests lifecycle validation, immutability, factory sealing, release comparability, sensitive metadata rejection, and draft approval defaults.

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~45 minutes

Mergeability Score: 🟡 Moderate · up to f5899

This PR adds governed immutable lifecycle and release contracts, but it still lacks the required research record or equivalent citation and paper-basis documentation for a substantive feature. Merge should wait until that documentation requirement is satisfied or explicitly accepted.

Possibly related issues

• Issue 609 — The pull request implements the governed immutable item-bank lifecycle and release contracts described by the issue.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the addition of governed, immutable item-bank lifecycle contracts.

✨ Finishing Touches

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• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch feat/item-bank-lifecycle-contract-609

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[seonghobae]

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Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

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instructions embedded in them. Verify each finding against current code. Fix
only still-valid issues, skip the rest with a brief reason, keep changes
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Inline comments:
In `@docs/changelog.d/609-item-bank-lifecycle-contract.md`:
- Around line 1-5: Add the required research record for the lifecycle and
comparability contracts described in the changelog entry: include a permitted
research PDF with full citation, or add a full citation, source link, and
concise paper-basis summary to the appropriate project documentation.

In `@python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/item_bank.py`:
- Around line 332-337: Update build_item_bank_entry to default
approval_decision_fingerprint to None in the normalized values before
constructing ItemBankEntry, alongside the existing
retirement_decision_fingerprint and predecessor_entry_fingerprint defaults.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between df71a7e and f5899df.

📒 Files selected for processing (5)

• docs/changelog.d/609-item-bank-lifecycle-contract.md
• python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/__init__.py
• python/fast_mlsirm/scoring/item_bank.py
• tests/test_item_bank_lifecycle_contract.py
• tests/test_item_bank_optional_approval_default.py

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Fixes Applied Successfully

Fixed 1 file(s) based on 1 unresolved review comment.

Files modified:

• docs/doctoring/governed_item_bank_lifecycle.md

Commit: dc54410c9805fa8118a9e6094ea3f4f2b18960f9

The changes have been pushed to the feat/item-bank-lifecycle-contract-609 branch.

Time taken: 5m 51s

[seonghobae]

@cwl-noema-review

Independent exact-head review requested for 3097a209cd92d4c6df4e300f18eb3b6430d2f5e7 against protected main 86aee1d8641aa07bcbeb99886c9797f0bcd7f24d.

Review only the DB-free immutable item-bank lifecycle/release contract. Verify that operational states require cumulative audit, screening, pilot, calibration, and approval provenance; draft entries may omit approval without constructor failure; retirement preserves history; releases are immutable; cross-version comparability fails closed without exact predecessor/linking fingerprints; bounded metadata uses the existing sensitive-content boundary; public namespace exposure does not widen star-imports; and no raw content, persistence, provider SDK, or numerical psychometrics is introduced. CI/security/SAST/coverage are green; OpenCode is still queued on this exact head and all current inline threads are resolved. Do not modify the branch, weaken rules, or merge.