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The Fundamental Challenge with AI Agents

AI agents offer powerful automation through their ability to reason, plan, and use tools. However, they create a fundamental challenge: We lack a structured way to specify agent behavior and ensure reliability. Unlike traditional software with explicit code, AI agents powered by LLMs operate on natural language prompts, creating critical gaps:
  • Imprecise specification: Prompts are ambiguous and can’t cover all scenarios
  • Limited reliability: There’s no built-in way to verify if LLM-powered agents follow instructions
  • Flexibility-control tradeoff: Detailed prompts reduce adaptability; general prompts reduce predictability
Prompting Tradeoff Light Prompting Tradeoff Dark This forces developers to choose between agents that are too rigid or too unpredictable. Neither option works well for production, business-critical systems, which require both reliability and flexibility.

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The Solution: Agent Contracts

Agent Contracts provide a structured framework that addresses these challenges by complementing (not replacing) prompts with scenario-based specifications: Role of Contracts Light Role of Contracts Dark

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How Agent Contracts Work

Agent Contracts follow a three-part approach:
  1. Define – Specify expected behavior through contracts
    • Write natural language contracts for specific scenarios
    • Express business logic as verifiable conditions
    • Complement general prompts with precise requirements
  2. Verify Offline – Test agent traces against contracts offline
    • Analyze execution traces to verify contract compliance
    • Measure performance across test scenarios
    • Debug and improve contracts before deployment
  3. Certify in Runtime – Apply contracts during runtime execution
    • Check agent behavior against contracts in real-time
    • Enforce contract conditions when violated
    • Generate execution traces for continuous improvement
This structured approach bridges the gap between natural language instructions and reliable execution, addressing both specification and reliability challenges simultaneously.

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Next Steps

Want to dive deeper? Check out the Agent Contracts Whitepaper Try for yourself? Start with our Installation or explore Core Concepts to learn more.