Promptfoo Agent Evaluation Pipeline

Promptfoo agent evaluation pipeline is a testing framework for LLM-based agents. It evaluates trajectories and tool calls. A developer defines test cases with variables and expectations in a config file. Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 executes these tests in parallel. It uses an LLM-as-a-judge model to check response correctness. By verifying intermediate tool execution logs, it prevents reasoning failures.

BUSINESS PROBLEM

A senior QA engineer at a forty-person AI startup spends twelve hours per week manually reading agent logs to check tool accuracy. According to the Digital Applied survey, thirty-two percent of teams report agent quality as their primary barrier to scaling. Manual QA at eighty-five dollars per hour loaded costs 1,020 dollars weekly, translating to 53,040 dollars annually in testing overhead.

WHO BENEFITS

FOR DevOps Engineers at AI startups SITUATION: You deploy agent updates twice a week but manual QA takes six hours per release, creating a major deployment bottleneck. PAYOFF: Automating tests with Promptfoo CLI allows you to execute regression checks in five minutes before every merge.

FOR QA Managers at enterprise software companies SITUATION: Your team is tracking agent customer complaints but lacks a structured way to reproduce and test multi-turn conversations. PAYOFF: Recording trajectories and writing assertions reduces manual reproduction time from three hours to under ten minutes.

FOR AI Solutions Architects at systems integrators SITUATION: You build custom coding assistants for twenty clients and need to prove that changes do not degrade tool-use accuracy. PAYOFF: Running a matrix test across five models gives your clients a verifiable baseline of cost and performance.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Setup repository (Git — 5 minutes) Input: A terminal shell navigated to your agent codebase root directory. Action: Developer initializes git tracking and creates a test branch to isolate configurations. Output: Clean git branch ready for test integration.

2. Install package (Node.js 20+ — 10 minutes) Input: Command line prompt running Node package manager tools. Action: Developer runs the package installer to add promptfoo globally to their local system. Output: Globally accessible promptfoo command.

3. Configure YAML file (Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 — 15 minutes) Input: A new YAML configuration file in the project root. Action: Developer defines the target agent prompt, LLM providers, and test cases. Output: Structured promptfooconfig.yaml file.

4. Add assertions (Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 — 15 minutes) Input: The tests array inside the promptfooconfig.yaml file. Action: Developer adds trajectory:tool-used and trajectory:tool-args-match assertions. Output: Test suite configured to validate reasoning paths.

5. Execute test suite (Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 — 10 minutes) Input: The promptfoo eval command executed in the terminal. Action: CLI tool triggers test cases and evaluates the agent using LLM-as-a-judge. Output: Detailed test matrix printed to the console.

6. Review dashboard (Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 — 5 minutes) Input: The promptfoo view command executed after a successful run. Action: Developer opens local web browser dashboard to inspect side-by-side model traces. Output: Web UI visualization displaying assertion logs.

TOOL INTEGRATION

Promptfoo CLI v0.90.0 Role: Primary execution engine for running test files and verifying output logs API access: promptfoo.dev/docs/api Auth: API key for underlying model provider (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY) Cost: Free open-source tool, API provider costs average $10/week Gotcha: SILENT EXIT CODE: Promptfoo will return exit code 0 when assertions fail due to API rate limits, masking CI pipeline failures.

Node.js 20+ Role: Runtime environment for running the promptfoo installation and execution API access: nodejs.org/docs Auth: None required Cost: Free open-source package Gotcha: VERSION ISSUES: Legacy node versions under v18 will fail to parse standard import assertions in modern JS packages.

Git Role: Tracks configuration revisions and triggers testing pipelines via workflow events API access: git-scm.com/docs Auth: SSH key or Personal Access Token Cost: Free open-source version control Gotcha: FILE TRACKING: Promptfoo log cache folders are extremely large and should always be added to the gitignore file.

ROI METRICS

Metric Before After Source QA cycle duration 6 hours 5 minutes (SaaSNext QA Report, 2026) Manual code review 4 hours 10 minutes (community estimate) Token cost leakage $450/week $50/week (SaaSNext QA Report, 2026)

CAVEATS

1. (significant risk) Token consumption overhead occurs when running large test cases. Mitigation: Enable promptfoo local cache and test on release branches.
2. (moderate risk) Trajectory non-determinism fails tests even if the agent is correct. Mitigation: Avoid rigid sequence checks, use independent tool assertions.
3. (moderate risk) LLM-as-a-judge latency slows down your CI builds. Mitigation: Configure request throttling and concurrency limits in config.
4. (minor risk) Local cache discrepancies cause inaccurate test results. Mitigation: Configure a clean cache step in your pipeline scripts.