How to Tell If Your Agent Run Was Actually Good

Score your agent on outcome, not on how clever the trace looked.

Builders · Agentic AI · ~4 min read

Print / PDF

The big idea

a pretty trace that fails the task is still a failure

Some examples

Did the test suite end green
Was the PR mergeable
How many human nudges did it need

Try it!

Open your favorite AI tool and try one of the examples above. Pick the one that matches what you are actually working on this week. Spend 10 minutes, no more. Notice what worked and what did not — that's the real lesson.

Key terms in this lesson

Practice this safely

Try this with a school, hobby, or family example where the stakes are low. Use the AI output as a draft you can question, not as the final answer.

1Ask AI to explain outcome metric in plain language, then underline anything that sounds uncertain or too broad.
2Give it one detail from "How to Tell If Your Agent Run Was Actually Good" and ask for two possible next steps plus one reason each step might be wrong.
3Check run quality against a trusted source, teacher, adult, expert, or original document before you use it.

End-of-lesson quiz

Check what stuck

8 questions · Score saves to your progress.

Lesson help

Questions are best handled with a grown-up here.

For this age range, Tendril keeps freeform AI chat paused until parent/guardian consent and child-safe moderation are fully verified. Use the quiz, notes, and related lessons below, or ask a parent, guardian, teacher, or librarian to work through the question with you.

Progress saved locally in this browser. Sign in to sync across devices.

Related lessons

How to Tell If Your Agent Run Was Actually Good

The big idea

Some examples

Try it!

Practice this safely

Questions are best handled with a grown-up here.

Keep going

How to Tell If Your Agent Run Was Actually Good

The big idea

Some examples

Try it!

Practice this safely

Questions are best handled with a grown-up here.

Keep going