Ensuring Agents Follow Instructions
Learn how to fix issues when AI models ignore your instructions and how to design better prompts for reliable responses.
AI agents sometimes deviate from their assigned tasks, leading to non-compliant or incomplete responses. This often happens when instructions are unclear or when randomness in generation is too high.
What Went Wrong?
- Instructions to the agent were too vague or ambiguous.
- The LLM was allowed too much flexibility in execution.
How It Showed Up in Metrics:
- Low Instruction Adherence: The agent did not follow specific task instructions.
- High Tool Errors: The agent used tools incorrectly due to poor adherence.
Improvements and Solutions
1
Use Galileo’s Metrics to Diagnose the Issue
- Track Instruction Adherence to measure how well the agent follows provided instructions.
- Identify Tool Errors caused by instruction misinterpretation.
2
Strengthen Instruction Adherence
- Use system messages to set explicit constraints on agent behavior.
- Implement zero-shot or few-shot examples to guide response generation.
- Adjust prompts based on Galileo’s Instruction Adherence insights.
3
Adjust Prompting for Compliance
- Be direct and structured: “Summarize Apple’s financial growth over five years. Use financial reports only.”
- Reduce temperature to lower randomness.
4
Validate and Iterate Using Galileo
- Track Instruction Adherence scores in Galileo.
- Flag responses that deviate from expected behavior and iterate on prompts.
- Compare iterations using Tool Selection Quality and Instruction Adherence metrics.