Report an Agent Regression Alongside an Improvement
Shashank Agarwal
A candidate can improve one behavior while damaging another. A report should preserve both observations so the release decision is understandable.
Quick answer: Show baseline-to-candidate changes for meaningful case groups and required conditions. Identify improved, regressed, unchanged and unevaluable cases. Explain the consequence of regressions and keep the release disposition separate from the aggregate score.
Use a targeted comparison
For an illustrative booking candidate, corrected-date cases may improve while straightforward requests acquire unnecessary confirmations.
The team needs to decide whether that tradeoff is acceptable or whether another candidate is required.
| Result group | What to inspect |
|---|---|
| Improved | Which previous failure is addressed? |
| Regressed | Which supported behavior was lost? |
| Unchanged failure | What remains unresolved? |
| Unchanged pass | Which useful behavior was preserved? |
| Unevaluable | Which evidence or execution condition is missing? |
These are proposed reporting categories, not actual Noveum benchmark results.
Preserve required boundaries
An aggregate gain should not automatically override a failed permission condition. Define the release rule before reviewing the candidate.
A small regression in a consequential action may matter more than several improvements in wording. State the reasoning and evidence behind the decision.
Check evaluator changes
If a rubric or mapping changed, the apparent regression may partly reflect a new measurement rule. Record that revision and compare consistently where possible.
Do not silently change the expected result to make the candidate look better.
Publish the bounded conclusion
A useful public claim can identify the tested scope, observed improvement and material remaining limitation. It should not describe the system as universally better when the evidence is mixed.
The comparison guide and evaluation-report guide describe artifacts that make the tradeoff inspectable.
The purpose is a release decision the team can defend, revise or reject using the actual cases.
I'm Shashank Agarwal, founder and CEO of Noveum AI and creator of API.market. Follow my work on LinkedIn. Drafted with AI assistance.
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