fix(rank): report malformed scoring results in apply instead of a traceback (#635)

* fix(rank): report malformed scoring results in apply instead of a traceback

A result that is not an object, a non-string key or a non-object scores value
raised AttributeError/TypeError and discarded the batch. They now become
errors rows and valid results in the same file still apply.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* changelog: place the #635 entry under [Unreleased]

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Mads Lorentzen <madslorentzen_17@hotmail.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -77,6 +77,12 @@ per-file diff commands.
   `AttributeError` traceback on `.rstrip`, although the audit already reports other malformed state
   with a one-line error and exit 1. It now names the offending key the same way.
 
+- **`rank_state.py apply` reports a malformed scoring result instead of crashing** (#635, `tools/rank_state.py`,
+  `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - a result that is not an object, a `key` that is not a string, or a
+  `scores` value that is not an object raised an `AttributeError`/`TypeError` traceback and discarded the
+  whole batch, although `apply` already collects per-result problems in `errors`. Each now becomes an
+  `errors` row (exit 1) and the valid results in the same file are still written.
+
 ## [1.7.3] - 2026-10-19
 
 ### Added

tests/test_rank_state.py

@@ -805,6 +805,34 @@ class Unreachable(RankStateCase):
         self.assertIn("unknown status 'unreachble'", out["errors"][0]["error"])
         self.assertEqual(self.read_state()["a"]["status"], "new", "a rejected result never half-writes an entry")
 
+    def test_malformed_results_are_errors_not_a_traceback(self):
+        self.write_state({"a": entry(), "b": entry(title="Other")})
+        out = self.run_tool(
+            "apply",
+            "--results",
+            self.results(
+                [
+                    7,
+                    "a",
+                    {"key": ["a"], "scores": {}},
+                    {"key": "a", "scores": [90, 80]},
+                    {"key": "b", "scores": {"technical": 80, "experience": 80, "behavioral": 80, "career": 80}},
+                ]
+            ),
+            expect=1,
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            [e["error"] for e in out["errors"]],
+            [
+                "result is not an object",
+                "result is not an object",
+                "no such key in seen_jobs.json",
+                "scores must be an object",
+            ],
+        )
+        self.assertEqual([r["key"] for r in out["ranked"]], ["b"], "valid results in the same batch still apply")
+        self.assertEqual(self.read_state()["a"]["status"], "new")
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()

tools/rank_state.py

@@ -273,6 +273,8 @@ def cmd_sweep(args) -> int:
 
 
 def overall_score(scores: dict) -> int:
+    if not isinstance(scores, dict):
+        raise ValueError("scores must be an object")
     total = 0.0
     for dim, weight in WEIGHTS.items():
         value = scores.get(dim)
@@ -306,8 +308,11 @@ def cmd_apply(args) -> int:
 
     rows, expired, unreachable, gave_up, errors = [], [], [], [], []
     for result in results:
+        if not isinstance(result, dict):
+            errors.append({"key": None, "error": "result is not an object"})
+            continue
         key = result.get("key")
-        entry = seen.get(key)
+        entry = seen.get(key) if isinstance(key, str) else None
         if entry is None:
             errors.append({"key": key, "error": "no such key in seen_jobs.json"})
             continue