为长时间运行的智能体设计行为分析框架,让人类能读懂其决策过程。
How to Interpret Agent Behavior

- 构建三级分类体系,将智能体行为拆解为10类动作、46个子动作、120个细粒度类别。
- 通过自动化分析管道,可对比不同智能体行为模式,识别失败特征。
- 开源共享分类体系,支持定制扩展,适合研究者与开发者使用。
自主智能体如Claude Code和Codex已可连续运行数小时甚至数天,理解其运行时行为对诊断效率问题、修复漏洞及实现有效监管至关重要。当前智能体生成的推理轨迹和执行日志仍以非结构化自然语言形式存在,难以大规模解读。本文提出ACT*ONOMY(行动与分类法的结合),一套用于描述和分析智能体运行时行为的分类体系。该体系由两部分组成:(1) 通过扎根理论构建的三层级分类架构,包含10种动作、46个子动作和120个叶节点类别;(2) 开源仓库,提供自动化分析流程,支持对智能体轨迹进行分类,并定义了可扩展的自定义协议。实验表明,ACT*ONOMY能跨智能体比较行为特征,刻画单一智能体在不同任务中的行为模式,揭示潜在失败模式。通过建立统一术语体系,提升研究人员、设计者与使用者对智能体行为理解的一致性,推动更有效的监督与控制。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Autonomous agents such as Claude Code and Codex now operate for hours or even days. Understanding their runtime behavior has become critical for downstream tasks such as diagnosing inefficiencies, fixing bugs, and ensuring better oversight. A primary way to gain this understanding is analyzing the reasoning trajectories and execution traces these agents generate. Yet such data remains in unstructured natural-language form, making it difficult for humans to interpret at scale. We introduce ACT*ONOMY (a combination of Action and Taxonomy), a taxonomy for describing and analyzing agent behavior at runtime. ACT*ONOMY has two components: (1) the taxonomy itself, developed through Grounded Theory and structured as a three-level hierarchy of 10 actions, 46 subactions, and 120 leaf categories; and (2) an open repository that hosts the living taxonomy, provides an automated analysis pipeline that applies it to agent trajectories analysis, and defines an extension protocol for customization and growth. Our experiments show that ACTONOMY can compare behavioral profiles across agents and characterize a single agent's behavior across diverse trajectories, surfacing patterns indicative of failure modes. By providing a shared vocabulary, ACT*ONOMY helps researchers, agent designers, and end users interpret agent behavior more consistently, enabling better oversight and control.
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