Title: Dependency-Aware Scenario Exploration for Group Sequential Designs
Version: 0.1.0
Description: Provides systematic, dependency-aware exploration of group sequential designs created with 'gsDesign'. Supports reproducible grid and random search over user-defined candidate sets, parallel evaluation via the 'future' framework, standardized metric extraction, and auditable reporting for design-space evaluation and trade-off analysis. Methods for group sequential design are described in Anderson (2025) <doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.gsDesign>. The 'future' framework for parallel processing is described in Bengtsson (2021) <doi:10.32614/RJ-2021-048>.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
URL: https://nanx.me/gsDesignTune/, https://github.com/nanxstats/gsDesignTune
BugReports: https://github.com/nanxstats/gsDesignTune/issues
Encoding: UTF-8
Depends: R (≥ 4.1.0)
Imports: digest, future.apply, ggplot2, gsDesign, progressr, R6, rlang
Suggests: future, knitr, rmarkdown, testthat (≥ 3.0.0)
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Config/testthat/edition: 3
RoxygenNote: 7.3.3
NeedsCompilation: no
Packaged: 2026-02-02 01:17:01 UTC; nanx
Author: Nan Xiao ORCID iD [aut, cre, cph]
Maintainer: Nan Xiao <me@nanx.me>
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2026-02-04 18:10:08 UTC

gsDesignTune: Dependency-Aware Scenario Exploration for Group Sequential Designs

Description

Provides systematic, dependency-aware exploration of group sequential designs created with 'gsDesign'. Supports reproducible grid and random search over user-defined candidate sets, parallel evaluation via the 'future' framework, standardized metric extraction, and auditable reporting for design-space evaluation and trade-off analysis. Methods for group sequential design are described in Anderson (2025) doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.gsDesign. The 'future' framework for parallel processing is described in Bengtsson (2021) doi:10.32614/RJ-2021-048.

Author(s)

Maintainer: Nan Xiao me@nanx.me (ORCID) [copyright holder]

See Also

Useful links:

GSDTuneJob

Description

GSDTuneJob

GSDTuneJob

Details

R6 class representing a dependency-aware tuning job for group sequential designs created by gsDesign::gsDesign() or gsDesign::gsSurv().

Value

An R6 class generator. Use ⁠$new()⁠ to create a GSDTuneJob object.

Public fields

target

Target design function name ("gsDesign" or "gsSurv").

base_args

Named list of fixed arguments passed to the target function.

tune_specs

Named list of tuning specifications for explored arguments.

param_space

Internal parameter space used for configuration generation.

spec

Audit record including base/tuned args and sessionInfo().

Methods

Public methods

Method new()

Create a new tune job.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$new(target = c("gsDesign", "gsSurv", "gsSurvCalendar"), args)
Arguments
target

Target function name ("gsDesign", "gsSurv", or "gsSurvCalendar").

args

Named list of evaluated arguments.

Method run()

Evaluate configurations under a search strategy.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$run(
  strategy = c("grid", "random"),
  n = NULL,
  parallel = TRUE,
  seed = NULL,
  cache_dir = NULL,
  metrics_fun = NULL
)
Arguments
strategy

Search strategy ("grid" or "random").

n

Number of configurations for random search.

parallel

Whether to evaluate configurations in parallel.

seed

Optional seed for reproducibility.

cache_dir

Optional directory to cache design objects as RDS.

metrics_fun

Optional metric hook.

Method results()

Return the results data.frame.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$results()

Method summarize()

Summarize the run (counts + numeric metric summaries).

Usage
GSDTuneJob$summarize()

Method design()

Retrieve a design object for configuration i.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$design(i)
Arguments
i

Row index of the configuration.

Method call_args()

Return the underlying argument list for configuration i.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$call_args(i)
Arguments
i

Row index of the configuration.

Method best()

Rank configurations by a metric (with optional constraints).

Usage
GSDTuneJob$best(metric, direction = c("min", "max"), constraints = NULL)
Arguments
metric

Metric column name.

direction

Ranking direction ("min" or "max").

constraints

Optional constraints (function or expression).

Method pareto()

Compute a Pareto (non-dominated) set for multiple metrics.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$pareto(metrics, directions)
Arguments
metrics

Metric column names.

directions

Directions for each metric ("min"/"max").

Method plot()

Create a quick exploration plot.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$plot(metric, x, color = NULL, facet = NULL)
Arguments
metric

Y-axis metric column name.

x

X-axis column name.

color

Optional color column name.

facet

Optional faceting column name.

Method report()

Render an HTML report.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$report(path)
Arguments
path

Output HTML file path.

Method clone()

The objects of this class are cloneable with this method.

Usage
GSDTuneJob$clone(deep = FALSE)
Arguments
deep

Whether to make a deep clone.

Examples

job <- GSDTuneJob$new(target = "gsDesign", args = list(k = 3, alpha = 0.025))
job$spec$target

ParamSpace

Description

ParamSpace

ParamSpace

Details

Internal R6 class to manage tuned parameters, candidate generation, and dependencies for grid and random search.

Public fields

params

Named list of tuned parameter specifications.

order

Topologically sorted parameter IDs for dependency resolution.

Methods

Public methods

Method new()

Create a new parameter space.

Usage
ParamSpace$new()

Method add_param()

Add a tuned parameter specification.

Usage
ParamSpace$add_param(id, spec)
Arguments
id

Parameter ID (argument name).

spec

Tuning specification (⁠tune_*()⁠).

Method set_dependency()

Set a dependency mapping for a tuned parameter.

Usage
ParamSpace$set_dependency(id, depends_on, map)
Arguments
id

Parameter ID to modify.

depends_on

Names that must be available in the context.

map

Mapping function returning a ⁠tune_*()⁠ spec or fixed value.

Method validate()

Validate the space and compute dependency order.

Usage
ParamSpace$validate(base_context = list())
Arguments
base_context

Named list of fixed values available for dependencies.

Method grid()

Generate a dependency-aware Cartesian product (grid).

Usage
ParamSpace$grid(base_context = list())
Arguments
base_context

Named list of fixed values available for dependencies.

Method sample_random()

Sample configurations at random.

Usage
ParamSpace$sample_random(n, base_context = list(), seed = NULL)
Arguments
n

Number of configurations to sample.

base_context

Named list of fixed values available for dependencies.

seed

Optional seed for reproducible sampling.

Method clone()

The objects of this class are cloneable with this method.

Usage
ParamSpace$clone(deep = FALSE)
Arguments
deep

Whether to make a deep clone.

SpendingFamily

Description

SpendingFamily

SpendingFamily

Details

An R6 class representing a set of spending function specifications. Each family member is a SpendingSpec.

Value

An R6 class generator. Use ⁠$new()⁠ to create a SpendingFamily object.

Public fields

members

List of SpendingSpec objects.

Methods

Public methods

Method new()

Create a new spending family from one or more SpendingSpec.

Usage
SpendingFamily$new(...)
Arguments
...

SpendingSpec objects.

Method expand()

Expand all members to spending settings.

Usage
SpendingFamily$expand()

Method clone()

The objects of this class are cloneable with this method.

Usage
SpendingFamily$clone(deep = FALSE)
Arguments
deep

Whether to make a deep clone.

Examples

fam <- SpendingFamily$new(
  SpendingSpec$new(gsDesign::sfHSD, par = tune_fixed(-4)),
  SpendingSpec$new(gsDesign::sfLDOF, par = tune_fixed(0))
)
fam$expand()

SpendingSpec

Description

SpendingSpec

SpendingSpec

Details

An R6 class representing a single spending function (fun) and a tuning specification for its parameter (par).

Value

An R6 class generator. Use ⁠$new()⁠ to create a SpendingSpec object.

Public fields

fun

Spending function (callable with signature ⁠(alpha, t, param)⁠).

fun_label

Label captured from the constructor call (used for plotting).

par

Tuning specification for the spending parameter.

Methods

Public methods

Method new()

Create a new spending specification.

Usage
SpendingSpec$new(fun, par = tune_fixed(NULL))
Arguments
fun

Spending function.

par

Spending parameter specification.

Method expand()

Expand to a list of spending settings (fun + concrete parameter values).

Usage
SpendingSpec$expand()

Method clone()

The objects of this class are cloneable with this method.

Usage
SpendingSpec$clone(deep = FALSE)
Arguments
deep

Whether to make a deep clone.

Examples

spec <- SpendingSpec$new(gsDesign::sfHSD, par = tune_seq(-4, -2, length_out = 2))
spec$expand()

Create a tune job for gsDesign::gsDesign()

Description

gsDesignTune() is a drop-in replacement for gsDesign::gsDesign() that returns a tune job object instead of immediately running a single design.

Usage

gsDesignTune(..., upper = NULL, lower = NULL)

Arguments

...

Arguments to gsDesign::gsDesign(). Any argument can be replaced by a ⁠tune_*()⁠ specification.

upper, lower

Optional spending specifications provided as SpendingSpec or SpendingFamily. When supplied, these are translated to the underlying ⁠(sfu, sfupar)⁠ / ⁠(sfl, sflpar)⁠ arguments.

Details

Any argument can be replaced by a tuning specification created by ⁠tune_*()⁠. Use SpendingSpec / SpendingFamily via ⁠upper=⁠ and ⁠lower=⁠ for dependency-aware spending function tuning.

Value

A GSDTuneJob R6 object.

Examples

job <- gsDesignTune(
  k = 3,
  test.type = 4,
  alpha = tune_values(list(0.025, 0.03))
)

job$run(strategy = "grid", parallel = FALSE, seed = 1)
utils::head(job$results())

Create a tune job for gsDesign::gsSurvCalendar()

Description

gsSurvCalendarTune() is a drop-in replacement for gsDesign::gsSurvCalendar() that returns a tune job object instead of immediately running a single design.

Usage

gsSurvCalendarTune(..., upper = NULL, lower = NULL)

Arguments

...

Arguments to gsDesign::gsSurvCalendar(). Any argument can be replaced by a ⁠tune_*()⁠ specification.

upper, lower

Optional spending specifications provided as SpendingSpec or SpendingFamily. When supplied, these are translated to the underlying ⁠(sfu, sfupar)⁠ / ⁠(sfl, sflpar)⁠ arguments.

Details

Any argument can be replaced by a tuning specification created by ⁠tune_*()⁠. Use SpendingSpec / SpendingFamily via ⁠upper=⁠ and ⁠lower=⁠ for dependency-aware spending function tuning.

Value

A GSDTuneJob R6 object.

Examples

job <- gsSurvCalendarTune(
  calendarTime = tune_values(list(c(12, 24, 36), c(12, 24, 48))),
  spending = c("information", "calendar")
)

job$run(strategy = "grid", parallel = FALSE, seed = 1)
utils::head(job$results())

Create a tune job for gsDesign::gsSurv()

Description

gsSurvTune() is a drop-in replacement for gsDesign::gsSurv() that returns a tune job object instead of immediately running a single design.

Usage

gsSurvTune(..., upper = NULL, lower = NULL)

Arguments

...

Arguments to gsDesign::gsSurv(). Any argument can be replaced by a ⁠tune_*()⁠ specification.

upper, lower

Optional spending specifications provided as SpendingSpec or SpendingFamily. When supplied, these are translated to the underlying ⁠(sfu, sfupar)⁠ / ⁠(sfl, sflpar)⁠ arguments.

Details

Any argument can be replaced by a tuning specification created by ⁠tune_*()⁠. Use SpendingSpec / SpendingFamily via ⁠upper=⁠ and ⁠lower=⁠ for dependency-aware spending function tuning.

Value

A GSDTuneJob R6 object.

Examples

job <- gsSurvTune(
  k = 3,
  test.type = 4,
  hr = tune_values(list(0.6, 0.7))
)

job$run(strategy = "grid", parallel = FALSE, seed = 1)
utils::head(job$results())

Spending function specifications

Description

SpendingSpec and SpendingFamily provide a dependency-aware and user-friendly way to tune spending functions and their parameters.

Convert a function to a short label string

Description

gsDesignTune() uses function-valued columns (for example, spending functions) in results tables. This method provides a stable, readable label for such functions to keep printing and plotting robust.

Usage

## S3 method for class ''function''
toString(x, ...)

Arguments

x

A function.

...

Unused (included for S3 method compatibility).

Value

A character scalar.

Examples

toString(stats::rnorm)

Categorical choices

Description

tune_choice() defines a finite set of categorical choices. Each argument in ... is treated as one choice (including functions and other objects).

Usage

tune_choice(...)

Arguments

...

Candidate values.

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

tune_choice("A", "B")

Dependent tuning specification

Description

tune_dep() defines candidates for one argument as a function of other arguments.

Usage

tune_dep(depends_on, map)

Arguments

depends_on

Character vector of argument names this specification depends on.

map

A function returning either a ⁠tune_*()⁠ specification or a fixed value. The function should have arguments matching depends_on (or use ...).

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

# sfupar depends on sfu
tune_dep(
  depends_on = "sfu",
  map = function(sfu) {
    if (identical(sfu, gsDesign::sfLDOF)) tune_fixed(0) else tune_seq(-4, 4, 9)
  }
)

Fixed (non-tuned) value

Description

Use tune_fixed() to explicitly mark a value as fixed. This is mainly useful inside dependent specifications such as tune_dep().

Usage

tune_fixed(x)

Arguments

x

Any R object.

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

tune_fixed(0.025)

Integer sequence candidates

Description

Integer sequence candidates

Usage

tune_int(from, to, by = 1)

Arguments

from, to

Integer scalars.

by

Integer scalar step size.

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

tune_int(2, 5)

Numeric sequence candidates

Description

Numeric sequence candidates

Usage

tune_seq(from, to, length_out)

Arguments

from, to

Numeric scalars.

length_out

Integer scalar, the number of candidates.

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

tune_seq(0.55, 0.75, length_out = 5)

Tune specifications

Description

gsDesignTune() and gsSurvTune() treat most arguments as fixed values. Wrap an argument in a ⁠tune_*()⁠ specification to explore candidate values.

Explicit candidate values

Description

tune_values() defines a finite set of candidate values. Values are provided as a list so vector-valued candidates (for example, timing) are treated as atomic.

Usage

tune_values(values)

Arguments

values

A list of candidate values.

Value

A gstune_spec object.

Examples

tune_values(list(0.55, 0.65, 0.75))
tune_values(list(c(0.33, 0.67, 1), c(0.5, 0.75, 1)))

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