Session Grading Guide

Session grading evaluates agent behavioral patterns against the CLEO protocol. It reads the audit log for a completed session and applies a 5-dimension rubric to produce a score (0-100), letter grade (A-F), and diagnostic flags.

When to Use Grade Mode

Use grading when you need to:

• Evaluate how well an agent followed CLEO protocol during a session
• Identify behavioral anti-patterns (skipped discovery, missing session.end, etc.)
• Track improvement over time across multiple sessions
• Validate that orchestrated subagents followed protocol

Grading requires audit data. Sessions must be started with the --grade flag to enable audit log capture.

Starting a Grade Session

CLI

# Start a session with grading enabled
ct session start --scope epic:T001 --name "Feature work" --grade

# The --grade flag enables detailed audit logging
# All CLI operations are recorded for later analysis

Running Scenarios

The grading rubric evaluates 5 behavioral scenarios that map to protocol compliance:

1. Fresh Discovery

Tests whether the agent checks existing sessions and tasks before starting work. Evaluates session.list and tasks.find calls at session start.

2. Task Hygiene

Tests whether task creation follows protocol: descriptions provided, parent existence verified before subtask creation, no duplicate tasks.

3. Error Recovery

Tests whether the agent handles errors correctly: follows up E_NOT_FOUND with recovery lookups (tasks.find), avoids duplicate creates after failures.

4. Full Lifecycle

Tests session discipline end-to-end: session listed before task ops, session properly ended, CLI usage patterns.

5. Multi-Domain Analysis

Tests progressive disclosure: use of admin.help or skill lookups, use of progressive disclosure for programmatic access.

Evaluating Results

CLI

# Grade a specific session
ct grade <sessionId>

# List all past grade results
ct grade --list

Understanding the 5 Dimensions

Each dimension scores 0-20 points, totaling 0-100.

S1: Session Discipline (20 pts)

Points	Criteria
10	session.list called before first task operation
10	session.end called when work is complete

What it measures: Does the agent check existing sessions before starting, and properly close sessions when done?

S2: Discovery Efficiency (20 pts)

Points	Criteria
0-15	find:list ratio >= 80% earns full 15; scales linearly below
5	tasks.show used for detail retrieval

What it measures: Does the agent prefer tasks.find (low context cost) over tasks.list (high context cost) for discovery?

S3: Task Hygiene (20 pts)

Starts at 20 and deducts for violations:

Deduction	Violation
-5 each	tasks.add without a description
-3	Subtasks created without tasks.find {exact:true} parent check

What it measures: Does the agent create well-formed tasks with descriptions and verify parents before creating subtasks?

S4: Error Protocol (20 pts)

Starts at 20 and deducts for violations:

Deduction	Violation
-5 each	E_NOT_FOUND error not followed by recovery lookup within 5 ops
-5	Duplicate task creates detected (same title in session)

What it measures: Does the agent recover gracefully from errors and avoid creating duplicate tasks?

S5: Progressive Disclosure Use (20 pts)

Points	Criteria
10	admin.help or skill lookup calls made
10	Progressive disclosure used for programmatic access

What it measures: Does the agent use progressive disclosure (help/skills) for efficient protocol access?

Interpreting Scores

Letter Grades

Grade	Score Range	Meaning
A	90-100	Excellent protocol adherence. Agent follows all best practices.
B	75-89	Good. Minor gaps in one or two dimensions.
C	60-74	Acceptable. Several protocol violations need attention.
D	45-59	Below expectations. Significant anti-patterns present.
F	0-44	Failing. Major protocol violations across multiple dimensions.

Reading the Output

The grade result includes:

• score/maxScore: Raw numeric score (e.g., 85/100)
• percent: Percentage score
• grade: Letter grade (A-F)
• dimensions: Per-dimension breakdown with score, max, and evidence
• flags: Specific violations or improvement suggestions
• entryCount: Number of audit entries analyzed

Flags

Flags are actionable diagnostic messages. Each flag identifies a specific behavioral issue:

• session.list never called -- Check existing sessions before starting new ones
• session.end never called -- Always end sessions when done
• tasks.list used Nx -- Prefer tasks.find for discovery
• tasks.add without description -- Always provide task descriptions
• Subtasks created without parent existence check -- Verify parent exists first
• E_NOT_FOUND not followed by recovery lookup -- Follow errors with tasks.find
• No admin.help or skill lookup calls -- Load ct-cleo for protocol guidance
• No progressive disclosure calls -- Use admin.help or skill lookups

Common Anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Impact	Fix
Skipping session.list at start	-10 S1	Always check existing sessions first
Forgetting session.end	-10 S1	End sessions when work is complete
Using tasks.list instead of tasks.find	-up to 15 S2	Use find for discovery, list only for known parent children
Creating tasks without descriptions	-5 each S3	Always provide a description with tasks.add
Ignoring E_NOT_FOUND errors	-5 each S4	Follow up with tasks.find or tasks.exists
Creating duplicate tasks	-5 S4	Check for existing tasks before creating new ones
Never using admin.help	-10 S5	Use progressive disclosure for protocol guidance
No progressive disclosure calls	-10 S5	Use admin.help or skill lookups for protocol guidance

Grade Result Schema

Grade results are stored in .cleo/metrics/GRADES.jsonl as append-only JSONL. Each entry conforms to schemas/grade.schema.json with these fields:

• sessionId (string, required) -- Session that was graded
• taskId (string, optional) -- Associated task ID
• totalScore (number, 0-100) -- Aggregate score
• maxScore (number, default 100) -- Maximum possible score
• dimensions (object) -- Per-dimension { score, max, evidence[] }
• flags (string[]) -- Specific violations or suggestions
• timestamp (ISO 8601) -- When the grade was computed
• entryCount (number) -- Audit entries analyzed
• evaluator (auto | manual) -- How the grade was computed

CLI Grade Operations

Command	Description
ct grade <sessionId>	Grade a specific session
ct grade --list	List past grade results