Teammately Docs
Docs menu

reference

Case Construction Patterns

Define reusable mechanisms for constructing cases and steer how benchmarks use or avoid them.

Case Construction Patterns

Definition

A Case Construction Pattern describes a reusable mechanism for building cases. It answers “how should this situation be constructed?” while Dimensions describe differentiating values and Project Topics describe subject matter.

Examples include conflicting authorities, missing prerequisite evidence, ambiguous user intent, multi-step state change, or a plausible but superseded source. A good Pattern is portable across Topics rather than tied to one case's wording.

Fields, states, or lifecycle rules

Each Pattern has a name, description, origin, usage counts, examples, and benchmark statistics. Origins currently distinguish manual, AI-generated, expert-input, and imported Patterns. Usage can show Case Pool cases, benchmark cases, requirements, and benchmark steering.

Pattern suggestions can be grounded in Project Topics, source material, existing cases and Patterns, the Project Agent Brief, Dimensions and ontology, or expert input. Generated candidates include the proposed definition, why they were suggested, and source references. Accept or reject each candidate explicitly.

Benchmark steering

Get Started can use one of three modes:

  • System choose: allow construction to select appropriate Patterns from the project library.
  • Prefer: encourage named Patterns when building Coverage Stories and cases.
  • Avoid: prevent named Patterns from shaping this benchmark's intended case supply.

Coverage Story tuples can also reference specific Patterns. The tuple reference is the concrete construction instruction for that part of the story; the project Pattern remains reusable and independently editable.

Design rules

  • Name the mechanism, not the domain example. “Conflicting authorities” travels better than “Conflicting HR policies.”
  • Explain what makes a case instantiate the Pattern.
  • Keep Topics out of the Pattern definition unless they are only examples.
  • Do not encode an expected answer or rubric verdict as a construction pattern.
  • Inspect examples and usage before deleting or materially changing a Pattern.
  • Treat AI and expert suggestions as reviewable proposals. Origin is provenance, not approval.

Worked example

Example: portable construction pattern

01

Start

Behavior input

The project defines Plausible superseded authority
The project defines Plausible superseded authority: construct a case where an older source appears credible but a newer source controls. Coverage Stories reuse the Pattern for procurement, support, and compliance Topics while applying different source-condition and impact ontology values.

Related task pages

Reference / Coverage EngineeringProject TopicsMaintain source-grounded subject areas, editable groups, and Atlas relationships used to organize project and benchmark coverage.Task / Coverage ManagementSet Up Benchmark CoverageDefine benchmark intent, facet handling, artifact preferences, and evidence requirements before generating coverage work.Task / Coverage ManagementCoverage StoriesOrganize benchmark coverage intent into governed Stories and testable facet tuples.Task / Coverage ManagementCase ReviewPrepare, inspect, refine, and admit Case candidates and generated materials into the benchmark dataset.

Source confidence

Code-backed: the current Pattern list, detail, generation, recommendation, usage, examples, classification, and benchmark-steering contracts establish this behavior.

Found something unclear?

Report outdated, unsupported, or confusing docs so we can fix the source page.

Report a docs issue

Continue learning

Related docs

Coverage Engineering Coverage Engineering Design the behavior space a benchmark must represent and connect reusable project facets to benchmark coverage work. Coverage Engineering Dimensions and Ontology Define reusable behavior axes and their allowed values, then inspect how cases and benchmarks cover them. Coverage Engineering Project Topics Maintain source-grounded subject areas, editable groups, and Atlas relationships used to organize project and benchmark coverage. Coverage Management Coverage Stories Organize benchmark coverage intent into governed Stories and testable facet tuples.
AI context