Refining the Agent Using Observability › Making Observability a Habit

Michael BrenndoerferAugust 10, 20252 min read
AI Agent HandbookAll chapters
Part 12 of 15Observability and Debugging - Peering Inside the Agent
Chapter 35Refining the Agent Using Observability › Making Observability a Habit
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Section 8 of 11 · 2 min read

Refining the Agent Using Observability › Making Observability a HabitOne section · Sections in this chapter8 / 11 ↓

The best way to ensure continuous improvement is to make observability part of your regular workflow. Here are some practical tips:

Schedule regular reviews: Block 30 minutes each week to review logs. Make it a recurring calendar event.

Create a dashboard: Build a simple dashboard that shows key metrics at a glance. It doesn't need to be fancy. Even a script that prints a summary is helpful.

In[2]:
Code
def print_weekly_summary(logs):
    """Print a summary of the week's agent performance."""
    print("=== Weekly Agent Performance Summary ===\n")

    print(f"Total queries: {len(logs)}")

    # Tool usage
    tool_calls = [
        log.get("tool_call", {}).get("name")
        for log in logs
        if "tool_call" in log
    ]
    print(f"Tool calls: {len(tool_calls)}")

    # Success rate
    errors = sum(1 for log in logs if log.get("error"))
    success_rate = (len(logs) - errors) / len(logs) if logs else 0
    print(f"Success rate: {success_rate:.1%}")

    # Average response time
    times = [log.get("response_time_ms", 0) for log in logs]
    avg_time = sum(times) / len(times) if times else 0
    print(f"Avg response time: {avg_time:.0f}ms")

    print("\n" + "=" * 40)


## Run this every Monday morning
print_weekly_summary(last_week_logs)

Keep an improvement log: Maintain a simple document where you record what you observed, what you changed, and what impact it had. This creates a history of your agent's evolution.

Share insights with your team: If you're working with others, share interesting patterns you've discovered. Someone else might have ideas for improvements you haven't considered.