D686 - A deliberate exit outranks a fault above the import count

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-14

Status::ranking_key compares how a run ended immediately after the rung and before imports: at equal reach, a run that left through exit beats one that faulted.

Why: a run whose import count falls because it stopped correctly would otherwise read as a regression, when the calls it lost were the program running past its own exit. A tiebreaker below imports cannot fire for that case, because imports is what moved. The rung is compared first, so a program that exits at once still loses on imports within its rung and cannot overtake a title that flipped.

Rejected:

• Below imports with the other quality measures: never decides the case it exists for.
• No ending in the key: a correctness fix reports BACK.