AgentOps & Managed Operations

Operate agents with defined controls for
evaluation, access, incident response, and change.

Production agents can access data, call tools, and affect downstream workflows. We establish release criteria, permissions, traceability requirements, incident procedures, and lifecycle controls. When ongoing support is required, we define the managed-operations scope separately, including the covered assets, service levels, and responsibilities.

Proof-of-concept accuracy alone does not establish operational readiness

Once an agent is part of a workflow, answer quality is only one aspect of operational readiness. Its access to data and tools, the actions it may take, the evidence it leaves behind, and the response to errors and changes all require defined controls.

Quality & Reliability

Evaluate correctness, completeness, consistency, and repeatability across representative workflows and known exceptions.

Access & Execution Control

Define who may use the agent, which data and tools it may access, which actions are blocked, and where review or approval is required.

Traceability & Audit

Capture inputs, source references, model responses, tool calls, execution outcomes, and user actions so executions within the agreed scope can be reviewed.

Operational Continuity

Define monitoring criteria for latency, usage, cost, errors, and incidents, as well as change, workaround, restoration, and return-to-service procedures.

The control level should reflect the agent’s autonomy, business impact, data sensitivity, execution permissions, and which actions, if any, may be performed without additional approval.

Distinguish the control foundation from the work performed after launch

AgentOps defines and implements the controls needed to operate agents. Managed Operations is a separate ongoing service provided within the agreed coverage, service levels, and responsibilities.

During service design, we distinguish ownership of business criteria and access policies, authority to approve changes, and responsibility for technical operations.

Manage evaluation, runtime controls, observability, incidents, and change in one framework

Evaluation & Release

Define evaluation sets, metrics, and release criteria, and run regression tests before and after changes.

Runtime Observability

Capture execution traces, response-quality indicators, tool calls, latency, errors, and usage patterns according to the agreed monitoring scope.

Access & Guardrails

Set permissions by data, model, and tool; define prohibited actions, escalation conditions, and workflows that require human review or approval.

Cost & Performance

Review usage, processing time, and cost by model and tool, then evaluate tradeoffs among quality, latency, and cost.

Incident & Continuity

Define incident-severity criteria and procedures for notification, impact assessment, workarounds, restoration, and return to service.

Change & Lifecycle

Manage versions and approvals for models, prompts, skills, knowledge, and tools, with release and rollback criteria where applicable.

Use operating evidence to evaluate and approve each release

01
BASELINE
Define the operating scope and risk tier
Identify users, business impact, connected data and tools, allowed actions, and support responsibilities.
02
EVALUATE
Test representative workflows and known exceptions
Use an evaluation set and business metrics to assess quality, safety, repeatability, and failure behavior.
03
APPROVE & RELEASE
Apply release criteria and obtain approval
Review evaluation evidence and residual risk, then record the version, approver, release window, and rollback criteria where defined.
04
OBSERVE
Capture operating evidence within scope
Collect traces, quality and performance indicators, errors, user feedback, cost, and execution outcomes according to the monitoring design.
05
IMPROVE
Evaluate proposed changes before the next release
Classify incidents and improvement requests, then retest changes to models, prompts, skills, knowledge, and tools before approval and release.

Select the operating services required for the agreed assets and responsibilities

Monitoring & Alerts

Monitor availability, execution state, errors, latency, and agreed operating indicators, and route alerts through the defined escalation process.

Evaluation & Quality Review

Run scheduled evaluations and sample reviews to identify changes in quality and track agreed follow-up actions.

Incident & Recovery Support

Receive and classify incidents, assess impact, coordinate workaround and restoration, and track follow-up actions intended to reduce recurrence.

Release & Change Management

Review change requests and assess their impact, coordinate testing and approval, and maintain version, release, and rollback records.

Cost & Performance Review

Analyze model and tool usage, processing performance, and cost, then recommend changes within the service scope.

Knowledge & Skill Updates

Validate approved changes to business rules, exceptions, knowledge, and agent skills before publishing them to the operating environment.

Define coverage, response commitments, change authority, and reporting before service begins

Where service-level commitments are included, we first review business criticality and support responsibilities. We then agree on the assets in scope, service hours, incident-severity definitions, response and recovery targets, change procedures, and reporting cadence.

Service Coverage

Specify the agents, applications, data, models, tools, and operating environments in scope, together with service hours and exclusions.

Severity & Response

Define incident severity according to business impact, together with notification paths, initial-response targets, workaround criteria, and recovery targets.

Change & Release Windows

Define approval paths and windows for standard and emergency changes, with validation and rollback conditions.

Reporting & Review

Agree on the quality, usage, cost, incident, and change information included in scheduled service reports and reviews.

Start with the agents being prepared for release or already in operation

Tell us about the workflows and users, connected data and tools, permitted actions, and current evaluation, monitoring, incident, and change procedures. We will help define the initial scope for an AgentOps foundation or a managed-operations service.

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