eval-engineer

Builds and validates A/B evaluation harnesses that compare skill versions on cost and quality.

Updated Apr 17, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/mistakenot/skills --skill eval-engineer-mistakenot
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: eval-engineer
Source: https://github.com/mistakenot/skills/tree/main/plugins/eval-engineer/skills/eval-engineer
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/mistakenot/skills --skill eval-engineer-mistakenot

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Changing a skill and trusting it based on a single eyeballed run leads to false conclusions, because agent runs are non-deterministic and self-judged output is biased. This Skill provides a rigorous playbook for measuring whether a skill change actually helps, using controlled A/B comparisons with a calibrated noise floor. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Harness selection by skill type: Routes conversational skills to NTM-driven tmux replay harnesses, single-shot transforms to headless claude -p two-arm runs, and description quality to trigger evals. - Fixture authoring from real history: Pins real tasks to immutable start SHAs with mined or requirements-derived prompts and human turns, avoiding contaminated checkouts. - Eval validation before trusting results: Measures the noise floor (same arm, same fixture, ≥3 runs), confirms a quality floor, and proves generality on a second fixture before reading any A/B. - Use Case: Before merging a v3 planning skill, replay two real historical tasks against v2 and v3 with three trials per arm, then compare median tokens and quality to confirm the new version is cheaper at equal quality. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to set up an A/B eval comparing the current and proposed versions of a skill using real tasks replayed from repo history.

Frequently Asked Questions about eval-engineer

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I A/B test two versions of an AI agent skill?▼

Run at least three trials per arm on the same fixture, with arms differing by exactly one variable, and compare median tokens, wall-clock, and quality. Isolate each arm in a clean out-of-repo workspace and keep transcripts and metrics for every run.

How do I measure the noise floor of a non-deterministic agent eval?▼

Run the same arm on the same fixture at least three times and measure the spread in tokens, wall-clock, and quality signals. That spread is your detection threshold; any arm difference smaller than it is indistinguishable from noise.

What harness should I use for a multi-turn conversational skill?▼

Use an NTM-driven replay A/B: host the agent in tmux, drive it turn by turn with the robot API, and replay scripted human turns. Headless single-shot claude -p cannot handle skills that hard-stop and wait for input.

Why is a single eval run comparison unreliable?▼

Agent runs are non-deterministic; identical setups can vary 1.5 to 1.8 times in tokens and wall-clock due to variable subagent fan-out. A single-run difference smaller than that spread is noise, not a finding.

How do I avoid contaminating eval fixtures with the finished work?▼

Pin the fixture to the parent commit of the change that introduced the task's output, and verify with git ls-tree that the feature is absent. Never use HEAD or main, since drifting refs make runs unreproducible.

When should I not build an eval harness for a skill?▼

Skip it for skills with trivially checkable output or one-off scripts you will not iterate on, since the eval costs more than it returns. Build one only when the skill's value is not obvious by inspection and will change repeatedly.