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ResearchMar 31, 20269 min read

Evals aren't tests, they're product specs

By Sana Iyer · Research, NatorOS
Evals as spec

Every team building agents eventually invents an eval suite. The shape of the suite is the shape of the product. Done badly, it is a list of unit tests that pass when the model parrots the right answer. Done well, it is the most precise spec your team has.

What an eval should contain

An eval is not a question and an expected string. It is a scenario, a behavior, and a check. The scenario is the input the agent receives, in the format the agent will see it in production. The behavior is the rule the agent must obey. The check is the rubric a human or model uses to score the output.

Most teams skip the rubric. They write "expected: 'Yes'" and call it done. That tells you nothing about why a different answer was wrong. A good rubric reads like a code-review note: did the agent cite the right policy, did it route to the right approver, did it stop when it should have stopped.

Evals come from exceptions

We do not invent eval cases at a whiteboard. Every case in every NatorOS eval suite originated in a real production exception. The operator marked it as wrong, or the agent paused and asked, or the approver rejected the output. That moment became a fingerprint. The fingerprint became an eval.

By the time a workflow has run a thousand times, its eval suite is the most accurate description of what the workflow is supposed to do. It is more accurate than the prompt, and far more accurate than the original PRD.

Evals gate production

No workflow ships on NatorOS without passing its eval suite. Regressions block deploys. New cases pin themselves as regression tests the moment they are encountered. This is mechanical, not cultural. The runtime will not let you promote a workflow that fails.

This is what makes the operating system safe. Not the prompt, not the model, the eval bus.

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