I Cut 2,490 Agent Test Runs to 206 and Kept the Same Coverage

7.1 relevance

Smart reduction of agent test runs directly applicable to agent orchestration

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Why It Matters

For engineers building agent orchestration systems, this provides a replicable pattern to slash testing costs and feedback loops without sacrificing coverage, especially critical when each test calls an LLM.

Key Takeaways

Replace combinatorial test matrices with covering designs that separate breadth and depth to cut LLM test runs by 10x while maintaining identical coverage.

I Cut 2,490 Agent Test Runs to 206 and Kept the Same Coverage

Summary

A developer cut AI agent test runs from 2,490 to 206 by replacing the cross-product of 83 agents × 30 scenarios with a two-part covering design for agent-tooltrust, an open-source gate for tool calls. Plan A runs one scenario per agent for breadth across 10 frameworks and 5 agent classes, while Plan B tests every decision type per framework (94% coverage). This eliminated redundant LLM calls by using deterministic unit tests for the proven engine and only requiring a local 4B model for adapter validation, reducing time from days to an afternoon.

Author

Debashish Ghosal