aero-qa-mdo

name	aero-qa-mdo
description	QA checklist for OpenMDAO optimization work in open-air. Use when editing or reviewing src/openair/mdo/**, mdo.json, DV bounds, constraints, SLSQP behavior, or the optimized prototype YAML.

MDO QA (OpenMDAO / SLSQP)

Read docs/guidebook/04-openmdao.md; execute its "Check your work" list.

Non-negotiables for this repo:

• mdo.json .ok requires best.feasible, a successful optimizer exit, AND oas_verify.ok. Inspiration mode additionally requires calibration_converged and a final converged calibration_history row. A stuck driver or crashed/skipped OAS verification is a stage failure, full stop (audit F8).
• In requirement mode, DV bounds are exactly the measured tolerance. In inspiration mode, the declared hard_scale widens continuous geometry bounds and the one-tolerance region is a soft, quadratic prior. Changing hard_scale, a target, or a tolerance is still a requirements change (audit F5); ordinary optimization may not widen them.
• Inspiration optimization must retain smooth Vv lower/upper constraints and fin_te_overhang_m <= 0, evaluate 0012/2412/4412 branches, and enable the horizontal-tail fallback only when every tailless branch fails.
• The delivered weight is always 1.0. Confirm fidelity_sweep records 2.0/1.0/0.25 and every soft-prior departure has a clamp-study reason in sketch_departures.
• Constraints must be smooth (no booleans/steps) and scaled to order 1 (ref=); balance constraints apply at full AND reserve fuel; stall and trim-control-gap constraints stay in.
• After any change, re-evaluate the optimized YAML through evaluate_design and confirm it reproduces the recorded metrics.
• "Positive directional derivative for linesearch" = SLSQP stuck, not done: check scaling and FD noise before trusting the point; multistart spread on dash should be within a few percent.