Solve distributionally robust product portfolio

Solve a budgeted product portfolio under ambiguity in scenario probabilities, acyclic dependencies, mutually exclusive choices, and governed pairwise cannibalization or synergy using a total-variation uncertainty set.

What it's for

Finds the product portfolio that still makes sense when forecast probabilities are wrong—and shows exactly which downside scenarios the adversary exploits.

What you give it

Inputs split into evidence read from your connected systems, calibration your team owns, and numerical controls that affect precision but never the result's meaning.

Field Type Role Required
budget number ≥ 0 Your calibration Yes
max_detail_rows integer ≥ 1, ≤ 500 Numerical control Optional
maximum_exact_states integer ≥ 2, ≤ 16777216 Numerical control Optional
nominal_scenario_probabilities array of number ≥ 2 items Evidence Yes
pairwise_effects array of objects (4 fields) Evidence Yes
products array of objects (5 fields) ≥ 1 item Evidence Yes
total_variation_radius number ≥ 0, ≤ 1 Your calibration Optional

Each products record

Field Type Required
contribution_scenarios array of number (≥ 2 items) Yes
dependency_ids array of string Yes
exclusive_group any Optional
id string (non-empty) Yes
investment_cost number (≥ 0) Yes
Example input
{
  "budget": 500000,
  "nominal_scenario_probabilities": [
    0.2,
    0.5,
    0.3
  ],
  "pairwise_effects": [
    {
      "contribution_effect_scenarios": [
        0,
        100000,
        250000
      ],
      "id": "platform-enterprise-synergy",
      "product_a": "platform",
      "product_b": "enterprise"
    }
  ],
  "products": [
    {
      "contribution_scenarios": [
        250000,
        350000,
        450000
      ],
      "dependency_ids": [],
      "exclusive_group": null,
      "id": "platform",
      "investment_cost": 200000
    },
    {
      "contribution_scenarios": [
        -100000,
        700000,
        1500000
      ],
      "dependency_ids": [
        "platform"
      ],
      "exclusive_group": "growth-bet",
      "id": "enterprise",
      "investment_cost": 300000
    },

Truncated for display — the full payload is 60 lines.

What you get back

This is the actual output of running the example above — computed by the same function the platform calls, not an illustration.

Example output
{
  "adversarial_probability_shifts": [
    {
      "adversarial_probability": 0.15,
      "nominal_probability": 0.3,
      "probability_change": -0.15,
      "scenario_index": 2
    },
    {
      "adversarial_probability": 0.35,
      "nominal_probability": 0.2,
      "probability_change": 0.15,
      "scenario_index": 0
    }
  ],
  "assumptions": [
    "Contribution scenarios are incremental gross contribution before submitted investment cost; investment is subtracted once from every scenario and also consumes the governed budget.",
    "Dependencies are complete and acyclic, mutually exclusive groups permit at most one selected product, and each unordered pairwise effect is a governed symmetric cannibalization or synergy estimate without hidden double counting.",
    "The total-variation radius is calibrated from out-of-time probability error and reallocates probability only among represented joint scenarios; it cannot protect against omitted regimes, structural model error, or wrong contribution estimates.",
    "Exact mode certifies only the submitted discrete model; heuristic mode has no global optimality certificate, and neither output is investment advice or evidence about individual employee performance."
  ],
  "configuration": {
    "budget": 500000,
    "maximum_exact_states": 262144,
    "pairwise_effect_count": 1,
    "product_count": 3,
    "represented_state_count": 8,
    "scenario_count": 3,
    "solver_mode": "exact_enumeration",
    "state_count_is_capped": false,
    "total_variation_radius": 0.15
  },
  "decision": "distributionally_robust_product_portfolio_optimized_exact",
  "method": "dependency_interaction_total_variation_robust_product_portfolio_v1",
  "product_diagnostics": [
    {
      "dependency_ids": [
        "platform"
      ],
      "exclusive_group": "growth-bet",
      "investment_cost": 300000,
      "nominal_expected_standalone_contribution_before_investment": 780000,
      "nominal_optimum_selected": true,
      "product_id": "enterprise",

Truncated for display — the full payload is 98 lines.

How it works

Constrained optimization — Pick the best feasible option under real limits — budget, headcount, dependencies, capacity — rather than ranking a list and hoping it fits.

  1. 1 Freeze gross contribution paths, investment costs, a dependency DAG, exclusivity groups, symmetric pair effects, nominal joint-scenario probabilities, and an out-of-time calibrated total-variation radius.
  2. 2 For each feasible portfolio, subtract investment once, apply every selected pair effect, and move probability adversarially from higher- to lower-value represented scenarios within the ambiguity budget.
  3. 3 Select maximum worst-case expected net value, compare it with the nominal optimum, expose adversarial probability shifts, and label dependency-closure/synergy fallback results as uncertified screening.

Before you trust it

Every tool in the catalog ships with the conditions under which its answer is meaningful — and the conditions under which it should abstain instead of guessing.

Assumptions & guardrails

  • Objectives use commensurable locally governed value units, constraints reflect real feasibility, and uncertainty covers plausible adverse inputs.
  • Scenario contributions are gross before submitted investment, dependencies/exclusivities and pair effects are complete without double counting, nominal columns are joint futures, and the ambiguity radius reflects later probability error.
  • The recommendation is optimal only for its stated objective, feasible set, evidence, and solver guarantee; it is not a universal management optimum.
  • Total-variation robustness cannot invent omitted regimes or repair wrong payoff models; heuristic mode has no global certificate, and the result is neither investment advice nor a person-level assessment.

Minimum evidence

  • products: at least 1 rows/items
  • pairwise_effects: required and organization-defined
  • nominal_scenario_probabilities: at least 2 rows/items
  • budget: required and organization-defined

How to validate it

Backtest the chosen action against simple feasible baselines on held-out scenarios, sweep costs/constraints/risk tolerance, and require constraint feasibility under adverse inputs.

Calibrating it to your org

Same for everyone

The mathematical kernel, validation rules, method version, and JSON output semantics are organization-independent; no tenant-trained coefficients or company benchmark is embedded in the function.

Specific to you

  • aligned gross contribution scenarios, nominal joint-scenario probabilities, and out-of-time probability-error calibration for the ambiguity radius
  • contribution/investment perimeter, horizon/currency, dependency and exclusivity completeness, symmetric interaction attribution, nominal probability vintage, ambiguity-radius backtest, budget, and solver promotion

Calibration workflow

  1. 1 Define the management decision, target outcome, aggregate unit, privacy boundary, cadence, and prediction/intervention horizon for this organization.
  2. 2 Build a tenant-scoped historical cohort using only information available before each prediction or decision; preserve zero periods, censoring, assignment probabilities, and unresolved outcomes when the method requires them.
  3. 3 Estimate statistical parameters on training history, but obtain costs, utilities, risk tolerance, practical-effect thresholds, capacity, and policy constraints from accountable decision owners.
  4. 4 Validate on later time windows or held-out aggregate units at the deployment grain, against a simple baseline and the function-specific validation strategy.
  5. 5 Deploy only if the returned decision clears evidence, overlap, calibration, robustness, and guardrail checks; warning, unsupported, schema-gap, and fallback decisions are abstentions.
  6. 6 Monitor realized outcomes, data drift, coverage, and decision regret; recalibrate at a governed cadence or after a detected regime/definition change, never merely because a stakeholder dislikes the result.

Call it from your AI

You don't wire up 388 tools in your MCP client. The GitRevio MCP server exposes 18 tools, three of which let an agent search the catalog, read a tool's schema, and run it — so the assistant finds this one on its own.

gitrevio_capabilities_search
  { "q": "solve a budgeted product portfolio under" }
  → finds "solve_distributionally_robust_product_portfolio"

gitrevio_capability_describe
  { "capability_id": "solve_distributionally_robust_product_portfolio" }
  → returns the input schema and agent guidance shown on this page

gitrevio_capability_run
  { "capability_id": "solve_distributionally_robust_product_portfolio", "arguments": { ... } }
  → returns the result shown above

Works in Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Continue.dev, Goose and Aider. See the MCP server.

Related tools

Audit budget constraint binding

Audit whether a claimed budget constraint genuinely blocks value after dependency-feasible portfolio reallocation, separating current-plan inefficiency from scarcity with scenario CVaR and a discrete budget shadow price.

Constrained optimization

Optimize product mix

Optimize one discrete quantity option per product across a shared cash budget and multiple capacity pools using aligned contribution scenarios, expected value, CVaR downside, and an explicit exact or heuristic solver boundary.

Constrained optimization

Allocate budget with CVAR constraint

Maximize expected portfolio return while keeping probability-weighted loss CVaR below a finance-owned tail-risk ceiling across aligned joint scenarios.

Constrained optimization

Audit financing term sheet integrity

Audit startup financing terms as exact share, price, proceeds and ownership identities: include pre-money option-pool increases and converting instruments in the pricing denominator, keep secondary purchases out of company cash and post-money share creation, reconcile primary issuance, post-money equity value and reported investor ownership, and retain evidence failures and impossible fees or secondary sales.

Statistical audit & measurement

Audit fundraising pipeline integrity

Audit a fundraising pipeline as point-in-time evidence rather than CRM theater: reconstruct monotone stage events, terminal status and primary proceeds, retain open opportunities as censored, reject forecasts made after resolution, detect duplicate active investor accounts, and gate the portfolio on mature-forecast support, Brier loss and calibration gap.

Forecasting & survival

Audit technology diligence evidence integrity

Audit a frozen technology diligence case against buyer-declared system/domain/claim scope, management assertions and fresh, rights-cleared, independently reviewed point-in-time evidence.

Statistical audit & measurement

See every tool in Investment & portfolio choice →

Ready to See Your Engineering work clearly?

Request a free demo