Evaluation, Testing, and Benchmarks
How to Evaluate Agents
Evaluation Is Multi-Dimensional
A good agent is not only correct; it is also reliable, safe, efficient, and appropriately calibrated. Evaluation should measure whether the agent completes tasks, avoids harmful actions, and uses resources sensibly.
Common Metrics
| Metric | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Task success rate | How often the agent completes the goal |
| Step efficiency | How many steps or tokens it uses |
| Tool accuracy | Whether it calls the right tools correctly |
| Recovery rate | How well it recovers from errors |
| Safety violations | How often it takes disallowed actions |
Testing Strategy
Evaluation should include unit tests for tools, scenario tests for workflows, adversarial prompts for robustness, and regression tests to ensure that changes do not break earlier behavior.
Benchmark Trap
A benchmark score can look impressive while real-world reliability remains poor. Always test on representative tasks and edge cases.
Which metric best reflects whether an agent actually accomplishes its job?
Task success rate directly measures completion of the objective.
Correct answer: Task success rate
Why are adversarial prompts useful in testing?
Agents should be tested against misleading or stressful inputs.
Correct answer: They reveal robustness problems and failure modes.
Evaluation Pipeline
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Step 1: Define success criteria.
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Step 2: Build representative task sets.
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Step 3: Run automated tests and simulations.
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Step 4: Review failures manually.
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Step 5: Iterate on design and retest.
Why should agent evaluation include resource usage?
Efficient agents are more practical and scalable.
Correct answer: Because cost and latency affect usability and scalability