> Documentation index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt). Every page as one file: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).
# Test an agent
Test an agent [#test-an-agent]
A run plays test cases against an agent and scores every answer, or scores chats the agent already had.
Start a run [#start-a-run]
1. Open **Lab** > **Runs** and select **New run**. **Evaluate an agent** opens.
2. Under **Agent**, pick one of your agents and select **Continue**.
3. Under **Goal**, pick what to do and select **Continue**.
| Goal | What it does |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Measure** | Runs the agent on a test set and scores every answer. Nothing changes. |
| **Measure and improve** | Runs several rounds on a test set, keeping changes that score better. |
| **Analyse real conversations** | Scores chats people already had and explains what went wrong. |
4. Under **Environment**, pick a saved environment, or **Start from scratch**. An environment is used exactly as saved, so the next step is skipped. For **Analyse real conversations**, the choice is a saved environment's checks or **No environment**, and you still pick the conversations next. See [Build an environment](/docs/platform/lab/environments).
5. Under **Test set**, add **Simulated users** or **Questions**, then the **Checks**. For **Analyse real conversations**, this step is **Conversations**: pick the chats to score. Without checks, one overall check scores whether the agent did what the person asked.
6. Under **Review**, check the summary and select **Run evaluation**, **Start improving** or **Analyse conversations**.
The run appears on **Runs**. A run that cannot start yet waits as **Queued**.
Settings [#settings]
| Setting | Where | What it does |
| --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Effort** | **Goal** | **Low**: fastest and cheapest. **Medium** (default): balanced. **High**: slowest and most thorough. |
| **Optimize for** | **Goal**, improve only | **Accuracy** (default) or **Cost**: the same quality at a lower price. |
| **Approval** | **Goal**, improve only | **Automatic** (default), or **Ask me before each change**. |
| **What it may change** | **Goal**, improve only | **Everything** (default), **Prompt only** or **Tools & skills**. |
| **Advanced settings** | **Goal**, not for analysing conversations | **Votes per check**, **Times to run the agent**, **Improvement rounds**, **Minimum improvement** and the models, for this run only, or saved as your own default in this workspace. |
| **Time per agent turn (minutes)** | **Review** | 1–60, default 10. A turn that takes longer ends the conversation there, and that run fails without being judged. |
| **Turns per conversation** | **Review** | 1–20, default **Auto**: the highest any case asks for. |
A run you set up from scratch holds at most 25 cases.
Follow your runs [#follow-your-runs]
**Runs** lists every run you launched, newest first.
| Column | Shows |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Run** | The environment's name, or **Ad-hoc**, and the agent. |
| **Type** | **Baseline** (Measure), **Optimization** (Measure and improve) or **Diagnosis** (Analyse real conversations). |
| **Status** | **Queued**, **Running**, **Cancelling**, **Needs review**, **Done**, **Promoted**, **Rejected**, **Failed** or **Cancelled**. |
| **Score** | The run's score, or its cost for a run that optimizes cost. |
| **Progress** | The round of an optimization, or the number of chats a diagnosis scores. |
| **Started** | When the run started. |
A certification's measurement also appears here, as an **Ad-hoc** **Baseline** run.
**Waiting for you** counts the runs that need your review. Search with **Search runs…**, filter with **All**, **Diagnosis** or **Optimization**, and by agent. **Optimization** also lists **Baseline** runs.
Open **⋮** on a row:
| Action | What it does |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Cancel run** | Stops a running diagnosis. Partial results are discarded. |
| **Re-run** | Opens **Evaluate an agent** with the same environment and goal. Finished runs from an environment only. |
| **Download Markdown** · **Download PDF** | Downloads the report. |
| **Save as environment** | Saves the checks, and the cases of an **Ad-hoc** run, as an environment. |
| **Delete run** | Removes the run and its report. This cannot be undone. |
To stop a **Measure** or **Measure and improve** run, open it and select **Cancel evaluation** or **Cancel gym**.
To compare runs, select two or more finished diagnoses of the same agent and environment and select **Compare**.
Read the result [#read-the-result]
Select a run to open it.
The run's page names it a gym session or evaluation, with its own number.
* **Measure** shows the **Score**, the inputs **Passing**, **Flaky** and **Failing**, latency and cost, then **Per input and per check** and **Checks**. **Prompts** shows each input with its runs and conversations.
* **Measure and improve** shows **Best round in detail**, the **Rounds** and the **Winning config**: what changed in each round and what it scored.
* **Analyse real conversations** shows **Findings**, **Worth preserving** and **Recommendations**: what fails, why, and what to change.
Keep or discard an improvement [#keep-or-discard-an-improvement]
**Measure and improve** works on a copy of the agent. Your agent does not change.
* With **Ask me before each change**, the run stops at every proposed change with **Needs review**: select **Accept**, **Edit**, **Skip** or **Stop**.
* When the run ends, **Keep the tuned agent?** offers:
| Button | What it does |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Promote** | Saves the winning configuration as a new agent, under the name you give it. The status becomes **Promoted**. |
| **Reject** | Discards the tuned copy. The run and its report stay. The status becomes **Rejected**. |