Definition
Trajectory
A trajectory is the full execution path an agent actually took for one request: every reasoning step, tool call, retrieval, and response, in order. In the book's evaluation model it replaces hand-written test cases; production trajectories are scored against the system prompt to see how well reality matched the spec. A trace is how a trajectory gets recorded; the trajectory is what gets judged.
Explained in
Chapter 13: Production AI: Deployment, Monitoring, and Evaluation
The reality of running AI agents. It's nothing like the demo.
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