Product & research / Agent engineering

Agents need
more than
intelligence.

We build agents that can be evaluated, constrained and operated — not demos.

Every capability needs a test. Every action needs a boundary.
ANATOMY OF AN AGENT01 / THE FEEDBACK LOOP
An agent is part of a bounded evaluation loop A task enters an agent. The agent uses tools and state within constraints. Its output passes through evaluation, with failures feeding the next iteration. This is a conceptual method diagram, not a running system. BOUNDED EXECUTION Agent INPUTTask Constraints CHECKEvaluateaccept / stop Tools + retrieval State + memory failure → next test CAPABILITY IS A HYPOTHESIS. TEST IT.
A method diagram. Not a product screen or measured result.
01Define the capability
02Make it evaluable
03Constrain the action
04Learn from failure
The building blocks

Capability, with boundaries.

An agent is a system, not a prompt.
Each layer needs an explicit contract.

Orchestration

Turn a task into bounded steps, with stop conditions and a recovery path.

Control the loop
The dividing line

A convincing answer
is not a passing test.

A demo shows what can happen. Evaluation asks what happens across known tasks, difficult inputs and broken dependencies.

Without repeatable checks, explicit constraints and observable outcomes, there is no defensible basis for an operational decision.

Start with the evaluation set
TEST-SET DESIGN12 EXAMPLE FIXTURES
An illustrative test set: four categories, three fixtures each Ordinary tasks, ambiguous inputs, tool faults, and unsafe requests each have three proposed test cases. Twelve fixtures in total. Equal allocation is a teaching example, not a coverage target or a result. Ordinary tasks Ambiguous inputs Tool faults Unsafe requests 3333 0123 Fixture count
Illustrative allocation, not measured performance. See the 12 proposed cases; choose the actual mix from task frequency and risk.
Methods, not magic

Look inside the reasoning.

Explore research & methods
RESEARCH / SYSTEM BEHAVIOR

Failure is useful.
Invisible failure is not.

Separate planning errors, missing evidence, tool faults and boundary violations. Different failures need different interventions.

Read the failure taxonomy
WRITING / EDITORIAL AGENDA

The questions
worth writing down.

From replayable traces to the limits of model-based grading: a transparent list of planned technical notes, not a fictional archive.

See the writing agenda