Evaluating Tool-Using Language Agents: Judge Reliability, Propagation Cascades, and Runtime Mitigation in AgentProp-Bench
Bhaskar Gurram · 2026 · arXiv
WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate
The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.
Abstract (excerpt)
Automated evaluation of tool-using large language model (LLM) agents is widely assumed to be reliable, but this assumption has rarely been validated against human annotation. We introduce AgentProp-Bench, a 2,000-task benchmark with 2,300 traces across four domains, nine production LLMs, and a 100-label human-validated subset. We quantify judge reliability, characterize error propagation, and evaluate a runtime mitigation. Substring-based judging agrees with human annotation at kappa=0.049 (chance-level); a three-LLM ensemble reaches kappa=0.432 (moderate) with a conservative bias. Under valid
Excerpt shown for reference under fair use — read the full paper at the publisher.
About to run something similar?
Run an AI Precheck on your own design to catch failure modes like this one before you spend the time. Your first desk check is free.
Related failures
Leakage and the reproducibility crisis in machine-learning-based science
Negative / Null Result ReportDefining and detecting quantum speedup
Negative / Null Result ReportService robots in hotels: understanding the service quality perceptions of human-robot interaction
Negative / Null Result ReportBoosting methods for multi-class imbalanced data classification: an experimental review
Negative / Null Result ReportFINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: A META‐ANALYSIS
Negative / Null Result ReportThe impact of site-specific digital histology signatures on deep learning model accuracy and bias
WASTE indexes this work — it does not host or republish it. Failure-type classification is automated and approximate.
Metadata source: arXiv