Model-Agnostic Online Certificate-Driven Calibration for Time Series Forecasting Under Distribution Shift

Chenfeng Huang, Zixuan Ma, George Michailidis
Proceedings of the 42nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, PMLR 337:2244-2273, 2026.

Abstract

Time series out-of-distribution generalization requires forecasters to remain reliable when deployment dynamics differ from training conditions due to covariate shift, concept shift, and temporal dependence. Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} domain adaptation provides computable certificates by decomposing target risk into a source risk term, a source-to-target mismatch term, and a complexity term, but standard analyses rely on independent sampling and distributional stability, assumptions that are violated in time series by serial dependence and nonstationary shift. We propose a model-agnostic online martingale Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} framework that yields finite-sample certificates under temporal dependence and distribution shift. The certificate replaces independent-sample concentration with martingale concentration that adapts to loss scale and predictable variation. We use the certificate as a surrogate regularizer for online calibration by training a gated residual {Bayesian} head on top of a fixed forecasting backbone, producing a corrective update that reverts to the backbone prediction when the gate is closed. Online calibration combines a source risk anchor, a posterior-shift penalty, and a time-adaptive mismatch term computed from target windows observed before forecasting. It follows a predict-then-update protocol in which outcomes become available only after forecasting and are used to update subsequent predictions. Experiments across convolutional, attention-based, and large language model-based forecasters show improved stability and accuracy under covariate and concept shift.

Cite this Paper


BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v337-huang26b, title = {Model-Agnostic Online Certificate-Driven Calibration for Time Series Forecasting Under Distribution Shift}, author = {Huang, Chenfeng and Ma, Zixuan and Michailidis, George}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 42nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence}, pages = {2244--2273}, year = {2026}, editor = {Perković, Emilija and Malinsky, Daniel}, volume = {337}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {17--21 Aug}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v337/main/assets/huang26b/huang26b.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v337/huang26b.html}, abstract = {Time series out-of-distribution generalization requires forecasters to remain reliable when deployment dynamics differ from training conditions due to covariate shift, concept shift, and temporal dependence. Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} domain adaptation provides computable certificates by decomposing target risk into a source risk term, a source-to-target mismatch term, and a complexity term, but standard analyses rely on independent sampling and distributional stability, assumptions that are violated in time series by serial dependence and nonstationary shift. We propose a model-agnostic online martingale Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} framework that yields finite-sample certificates under temporal dependence and distribution shift. The certificate replaces independent-sample concentration with martingale concentration that adapts to loss scale and predictable variation. We use the certificate as a surrogate regularizer for online calibration by training a gated residual {Bayesian} head on top of a fixed forecasting backbone, producing a corrective update that reverts to the backbone prediction when the gate is closed. Online calibration combines a source risk anchor, a posterior-shift penalty, and a time-adaptive mismatch term computed from target windows observed before forecasting. It follows a predict-then-update protocol in which outcomes become available only after forecasting and are used to update subsequent predictions. Experiments across convolutional, attention-based, and large language model-based forecasters show improved stability and accuracy under covariate and concept shift.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Model-Agnostic Online Certificate-Driven Calibration for Time Series Forecasting Under Distribution Shift %A Chenfeng Huang %A Zixuan Ma %A George Michailidis %B Proceedings of the 42nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2026 %E Emilija Perković %E Daniel Malinsky %F pmlr-v337-huang26b %I PMLR %P 2244--2273 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v337/huang26b.html %V 337 %X Time series out-of-distribution generalization requires forecasters to remain reliable when deployment dynamics differ from training conditions due to covariate shift, concept shift, and temporal dependence. Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} domain adaptation provides computable certificates by decomposing target risk into a source risk term, a source-to-target mismatch term, and a complexity term, but standard analyses rely on independent sampling and distributional stability, assumptions that are violated in time series by serial dependence and nonstationary shift. We propose a model-agnostic online martingale Probably Approximately Correct {Bayesian} framework that yields finite-sample certificates under temporal dependence and distribution shift. The certificate replaces independent-sample concentration with martingale concentration that adapts to loss scale and predictable variation. We use the certificate as a surrogate regularizer for online calibration by training a gated residual {Bayesian} head on top of a fixed forecasting backbone, producing a corrective update that reverts to the backbone prediction when the gate is closed. Online calibration combines a source risk anchor, a posterior-shift penalty, and a time-adaptive mismatch term computed from target windows observed before forecasting. It follows a predict-then-update protocol in which outcomes become available only after forecasting and are used to update subsequent predictions. Experiments across convolutional, attention-based, and large language model-based forecasters show improved stability and accuracy under covariate and concept shift.
APA
Huang, C., Ma, Z. & Michailidis, G.. (2026). Model-Agnostic Online Certificate-Driven Calibration for Time Series Forecasting Under Distribution Shift. Proceedings of the 42nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 337:2244-2273 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v337/huang26b.html.

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