Artifact — evals over fine-tuning

Eval operating sheet: AI support answers

How the eval loop from the Evals over fine-tuning case study runs in production: five dimensions scored separately, observability on every answer, and a human-in-the-loop where the stakes demand it. Nothing ships below the bar; every new miss becomes a new eval.

Dimension 1 — Retrieval hit

Did we fetch the right source?

Gate: must cite

Pass = answer cites the exact policy section it relied on. No citation = fail, even if the wording sounds right.

  • Source ID recorded for every answer.
  • Stale or superseded policy version = fail.

Dimension 2 — Grounding

Does the answer stay inside the source?

Gate: no invention

Pass = every claim traceable to the cited source. Any invented detail = fail.

  • Quotes beat paraphrase for regulated answers.
  • Uncertainty must be stated, not smoothed over.

Dimension 3 — Refusal quality

When unsure, does it route cleanly?

Gate: clean handoff

Pass = plain-language stop reason, what happens next, time estimate, full context handed to the human.

  • Legal, access, and billing-edge decisions always route to a human.
  • Handoff that drops context = fail.

Dimension 4 — Observability

Can we see what the agent did?

Gate: full trace

Every answer logs query, retrieved sources with versions, confidence, policy path taken, and outcome.

  • Dashboard: containment, citation rate, reopen rate, and eval pass rate week over week.
  • Any answer without a trace = fail, treated like a wrong answer.

Dimension 5 — Human-in-the-loop

Where do humans stay in control?

Gate: review path

Low-confidence and high-stakes answers queue for agent review before or after send; each reviewed miss becomes a golden-set eval.

  • Weekly review inbox: edge cases triaged, labels corrected, eval set extended.
  • High-stakes categories never auto-send, regardless of confidence.

Field example

How one miss became one eval

From the case study
  • Ticket: “Can I get a refund after the renewal date?” Bot answered yes with no citation.
  • Scores: retrieval fail (wrong policy version), grounding fail (invented exception), refusal fail (should have routed). Observability flagged the missing trace; human review added it to the golden set.
  • Action: added as a golden-set eval; launch gate stays red until this class passes.

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