Section 049 · Chapter 7, Release Readiness for AI Systems
Tool-Using Agents and Multi-Step Workflows
Agents must be tested for plans, tool calls, permissions, side effects, recovery, and final outcomes.
tool-using agenttool agents multi step workflows
What to do
- Test cases should include happy paths, missing information, tool failures, conflicting data, malicious tool output, permission boundaries, and recovery paths.
- Track task completion, tool-call correctness, unnecessary tool calls, unsafe attempted actions, confirmation compliance, recovery success, and user-visible explanation quality.
- Use structured traces, span-level rubrics, side-effect logs, permission matrices, tool contract checks, and severity rules that can block release even when the final answer sounds acceptable.
Evidence to preserve
- Track task completion, tool-call correctness, unnecessary tool calls, unsafe attempted actions, confirmation compliance, recovery success, and user-visible explanation quality.
- Preserve the inputs, versions, configurations, raw outcomes, and results for tool-using agent, tool agents multi step workflows needed to reproduce work on Tool-Using Agents and Multi-Step Workflows.
- Report results for tool-using agent, tool agents multi step workflows by relevant slice, separate blocker failures from averages, state uncertainty and blind spots, and connect the result to a release decision.
Expert note
Expert agent evals use traces as first-class artifacts. Use structured traces, span-level rubrics, side-effect logs, permission matrices, tool contract checks, and severity rules that can block release even when the final answer sounds acceptable.
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Cite this page
Jason Arbon. "Tool-Using Agents and Multi-Step Workflows." Testing AI Knowledge Edition, section 49.
https://jarbon.ai/testing-ai/knowledge/ch049-tool-agents-multi-step-workflows.html