docs(mutants): document the mutation-testing campaign in mutants.toml

Records the outcome of the 2026-05 mutation-testing campaign and the
gotchas for future runs:
- always pass --all-features so the async runners and explorer module
  are compiled (otherwise their mutants are unviable/missed noise);
- --test-tool nextest needs --no-config because the libtest-style
  --test-threads=1 arg isn't accepted there;
- where the new invariant tests live, and what the residual MISSED /
  TIMEOUT categories actually represent.
This commit is contained in:
2026-05-14 03:47:22 -06:00
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# cargo mutants # full sweep (slow)
# cargo mutants --in-diff HEAD~1 # only mutate recently-changed lines
#
# IMPORTANT: pass `--all-features` (or at least `--features async,serde`).
# Without them the async `run_async` paths and the `explorer` module are
# not compiled, so their mutants come back as unviable/missed noise rather
# than being exercised by the test suite.
#
# Note: `--test-tool nextest` does not accept the libtest-style
# `--test-threads=1` set below; for a nextest run pass `--no-config` (and
# re-add `--all-features` / the `--file` filters you need on the CLI).
#
# A *surviving* mutation = the test suite passed despite a code change,
# which usually means a missing test or a missing invariant.
#
# This isn't gated CI; it's an advisory tool. The property tests in
# tests/properties.rs are the natural place to land new invariants
# discovered via mutation runs.
# tests/properties.rs and the per-algorithm exact-output snapshot tests
# in tests/algorithm_properties.rs are the natural places to land new
# invariants discovered via mutation runs.
#
# Mutation-coverage notes (2026-05 campaign — catch rate ~74% -> ~85%):
# - tests/algorithm_properties.rs pins an exact final-population
# snapshot for every algorithm at a fixed seed. Those snapshots use
# deliberately *hard* fixtures (3-D Rosenbrock, an 8-city scattered
# TSP, a budget-sensitive multi-fidelity problem): on convex /
# trivially-solved problems the optimizers converge to the same
# answer regardless of arithmetic mutations, which hides them.
# - The residual MISSED mutants are dominated by (a) equivalent
# mutants — e.g. `<` vs `<=` at a boundary the inputs never hit —
# and (b) arithmetic the optimizers are mathematically robust to.
# - TIMEOUT mutants here are loop-bound mutations that make an
# offspring-collection loop non-terminating; cargo-mutants reports
# those *as detected*, in their own category separate from MISSED.
# Files to skip mutating. We skip:
# - examples (illustrative, not core algorithm correctness)