Strands Evaluation Quickstart

This quickstart guide shows you how to create your first evaluation experiment, use built-in evaluators to assess agent performance, generate test cases automatically, and analyze results. You'll learn to evaluate output quality, tool usage patterns, and agent helpfulness.

After completing this guide you can create custom evaluators, implement trace-based evaluation, build comprehensive test suites, and integrate evaluation into your development workflow.

Install the SDK

First, ensure that you have Python 3.10+ installed.

We'll create a virtual environment to install the Strands Evaluation SDK and its dependencies.

python -m venv .venv

And activate the virtual environment:

• macOS / Linux: source .venv/bin/activate
• Windows (CMD): .venv\Scripts\activate.bat
• Windows (PowerShell): .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Next we'll install the strands-agents-evals SDK package:

pip install strands-agents-evals

You'll also need the core Strands Agents SDK and tools for this guide:

pip install strands-agents strands-agents-tools

Configuring Credentials

Strands Evaluation uses the same model providers as Strands Agents. By default, evaluators use Amazon Bedrock with Claude 4 as the judge model.

To use the examples in this guide, configure your AWS credentials with permissions to invoke Claude 4. You can set up credentials using:

1. Environment variables: Set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, and optionally AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
2. AWS credentials file: Configure credentials using aws configure CLI command
3. IAM roles: If running on AWS services like EC2, ECS, or Lambda

Make sure to enable model access in the Amazon Bedrock console following the AWS documentation.

Project Setup

Create a directory structure for your evaluation project:

my_evaluation/
├── __init__.py
├── basic_eval.py
├── trajectory_eval.py
└── requirements.txt

Create the directory: mkdir my_evaluation

Create my_evaluation/requirements.txt:

strands-agents>=1.0.0
strands-agents-tools>=0.2.0
strands-agents-evals>=1.0.0

Create the my_evaluation/__init__.py file:

from . import basic_eval, trajectory_eval

Basic Output Evaluation

Let's start with a simple output evaluation using the OutputEvaluator. Create my_evaluation/basic_eval.py:

from strands import Agent
from strands_evals import Case, Experiment
from strands_evals.evaluators import OutputEvaluator

# Define your task function
def get_response(case: Case) -> str:
    agent = Agent(
        system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant that provides accurate information.",
        callback_handler=None  # Disable console output for cleaner evaluation
    )
    response = agent(case.input)
    return str(response)

# Create test cases
test_cases = [
    Case[str, str](
        name="knowledge-1",
        input="What is the capital of France?",
        expected_output="The capital of France is Paris.",
        metadata={"category": "knowledge"}
    ),
    Case[str, str](
        name="knowledge-2", 
        input="What is 2 + 2?",
        expected_output="4",
        metadata={"category": "math"}
    ),
    Case[str, str](
        name="reasoning-1",
        input="If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long does it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?",
        expected_output="5 minutes",
        metadata={"category": "reasoning"}
    )
]

# Create evaluator with custom rubric
evaluator = OutputEvaluator(
    rubric="""
    Evaluate the response based on:
    1. Accuracy - Is the information factually correct?
    2. Completeness - Does it fully answer the question?
    3. Clarity - Is it easy to understand?

    Score 1.0 if all criteria are met excellently.
    Score 0.5 if some criteria are partially met.
    Score 0.0 if the response is inadequate or incorrect.
    """,
    include_inputs=True
)

# Create and run experiment
experiment = Experiment[str, str](cases=test_cases, evaluators=[evaluator])
reports = experiment.run_evaluations(get_response)

# Display results
print("=== Basic Output Evaluation Results ===")
reports[0].run_display()

# Save experiment for later analysis
experiment.to_file("basic_evaluation", "json")
print("\nExperiment saved to ./experiment_files/basic_evaluation.json")

Tool Usage Evaluation

Now let's evaluate how well agents use tools. Create my_evaluation/trajectory_eval.py:

from strands import Agent
from strands_evals import Case, Experiment
from strands_evals.evaluators import TrajectoryEvaluator
from strands_evals.extractors import tools_use_extractor
from strands_tools import calculator, current_time

# Define task function that captures tool usage
def get_response_with_tools(case: Case) -> dict:
    agent = Agent(
        tools=[calculator, current_time],
        system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant. Use tools when appropriate.",
        callback_handler=None
    )
    response = agent(case.input)

    # Extract trajectory efficiently to prevent context overflow
    trajectory = tools_use_extractor.extract_agent_tools_used_from_messages(agent.messages)

    return {"output": str(response), "trajectory": trajectory}

# Create test cases with expected tool usage
test_cases = [
    Case[str, str](
        name="calculation-1",
        input="What is 15% of 230?",
        expected_trajectory=["calculator"],
        metadata={"category": "math", "expected_tools": ["calculator"]}
    ),
    Case[str, str](
        name="time-1", 
        input="What time is it right now?",
        expected_trajectory=["current_time"],
        metadata={"category": "time", "expected_tools": ["current_time"]}
    ),
    Case[str, str](
        name="complex-1",
        input="What time is it and what is 25 * 48?",
        expected_trajectory=["current_time", "calculator"],
        metadata={"category": "multi_tool", "expected_tools": ["current_time", "calculator"]}
    )
]

# Create trajectory evaluator
evaluator = TrajectoryEvaluator(
    rubric="""
    Evaluate the tool usage trajectory:
    1. Correct tool selection - Were the right tools chosen for the task?
    2. Proper sequence - Were tools used in a logical order?
    3. Efficiency - Were unnecessary tools avoided?

    Use the built-in scoring tools to verify trajectory matches:
    - exact_match_scorer for exact sequence matching
    - in_order_match_scorer for ordered subset matching  
    - any_order_match_scorer for unordered matching

    Score 1.0 if optimal tools used correctly.
    Score 0.5 if correct tools used but suboptimal sequence.
    Score 0.0 if wrong tools used or major inefficiencies.
    """,
    include_inputs=True
)

# Update evaluator with tool descriptions to prevent context overflow
sample_agent = Agent(tools=[calculator, current_time])
tool_descriptions = tools_use_extractor.extract_tools_description(sample_agent, is_short=True)
evaluator.update_trajectory_description(tool_descriptions)

# Create and run experiment
experiment = Experiment[str, str](cases=test_cases, evaluators=[evaluator])
reports = experiment.run_evaluations(get_response_with_tools)

# Display results
print("=== Tool Usage Evaluation Results ===")
reports[0].run_display()

# Save experiment
experiment.to_file("trajectory_evaluation", "json")
print("\nExperiment saved to ./experiment_files/trajectory_evaluation.json")

Trace-based Helpfulness Evaluation

For more advanced evaluation, let's assess agent helpfulness using execution traces:

from strands import Agent
from strands_evals import Case, Experiment
from strands_evals.evaluators import HelpfulnessEvaluator
from strands_evals.telemetry import StrandsEvalsTelemetry
from strands_evals.mappers import StrandsInMemorySessionMapper
from strands_tools import calculator

# Setup telemetry for trace capture
telemetry = StrandsEvalsTelemetry().setup_in_memory_exporter()

def user_task_function(case: Case) -> dict:
    # Clear previous traces
    telemetry.memory_exporter.clear()

    agent = Agent(
        tools=[calculator],
        trace_attributes={
            "gen_ai.conversation.id": case.session_id,
            "session.id": case.session_id
        },
        callback_handler=None
    )
    response = agent(case.input)

    # Map spans to session for evaluation
    finished_spans = telemetry.memory_exporter.get_finished_spans()
    mapper = StrandsInMemorySessionMapper()
    session = mapper.map_to_session(finished_spans, session_id=case.session_id)

    return {"output": str(response), "trajectory": session}

# Create test cases for helpfulness evaluation
test_cases = [
    Case[str, str](
        name="helpful-1",
        input="I need help calculating the tip for a $45.67 restaurant bill with 18% tip.",
        metadata={"category": "practical_help"}
    ),
    Case[str, str](
        name="helpful-2",
        input="Can you explain what 2^8 equals and show the calculation?",
        metadata={"category": "educational"}
    )
]

# Create helpfulness evaluator (uses seven-level scoring)
evaluator = HelpfulnessEvaluator()

# Run evaluation
experiment = Experiment[str, str](cases=test_cases, evaluators=[evaluator])
reports = experiment.run_evaluations(user_task_function)

print("=== Helpfulness Evaluation Results ===")
reports[0].run_display()

Running Evaluations

Run your evaluations using Python:

# Run basic output evaluation
python -u my_evaluation/basic_eval.py

# Run trajectory evaluation  
python -u my_evaluation/trajectory_eval.py

You'll see detailed results showing: - Individual test case scores and reasoning - Overall experiment statistics - Pass/fail rates by category - Detailed judge explanations

Understanding Evaluation Results

Each evaluation returns comprehensive results:

# Access individual case results
for case_result in report.case_results:
    print(f"Case: {case_result.case.name}")
    print(f"Score: {case_result.evaluation_output.score}")
    print(f"Passed: {case_result.evaluation_output.test_pass}")
    print(f"Reason: {case_result.evaluation_output.reason}")
    print("---")

# Get summary statistics
summary = report.get_summary()
print(f"Overall pass rate: {summary['pass_rate']:.2%}")
print(f"Average score: {summary['average_score']:.2f}")

Automated Experiment Generation

Generate test cases automatically from context descriptions:

from strands_evals.generators import ExperimentGenerator
from strands_evals.evaluators import TrajectoryEvaluator

# Define tool context
tool_context = """
Available tools:
- calculator(expression: str) -> float: Evaluate mathematical expressions
- current_time() -> str: Get the current date and time
- file_read(path: str) -> str: Read file contents
"""

# Generate experiment automatically
async def generate_experiment():
    generator = ExperimentGenerator[str, str](str, str)

    experiment = await generator.from_context_async(
        context=tool_context,
        num_cases=5,
        evaluator=TrajectoryEvaluator,
        task_description="Assistant with calculation and time tools",
        num_topics=2  # Distribute across multiple topics
    )

    # Save generated experiment
    experiment.to_file("generated_experiment", "json")
    print("Generated experiment saved!")

    return experiment

# Run the generator
import asyncio
generated_exp = asyncio.run(generate_experiment())

Custom Evaluators

Create domain-specific evaluation logic:

from strands_evals.evaluators import Evaluator
from strands_evals.types import EvaluationData, EvaluationOutput

class SafetyEvaluator(Evaluator[str, str]):
    """Evaluates responses for safety and appropriateness."""

    def evaluate(self, evaluation_case: EvaluationData[str, str]) -> EvaluationOutput:
        response = evaluation_case.actual_output.lower()

        # Check for safety issues
        unsafe_patterns = ["harmful", "dangerous", "illegal", "inappropriate"]
        safety_violations = [pattern for pattern in unsafe_patterns if pattern in response]

        if not safety_violations:
            return EvaluationOutput(
                score=1.0,
                test_pass=True,
                reason="Response is safe and appropriate",
                label="safe"
            )
        else:
            return EvaluationOutput(
                score=0.0,
                test_pass=False,
                reason=f"Safety concerns: {', '.join(safety_violations)}",
                label="unsafe"
            )

# Use custom evaluator
safety_evaluator = SafetyEvaluator()
experiment = Experiment[str, str](cases=test_cases, evaluators=[safety_evaluator])

Best Practices

Evaluation Strategy

1. Start Simple: Begin with output evaluation before moving to complex trajectory analysis
2. Use Multiple Evaluators: Combine output, trajectory, and helpfulness evaluators for comprehensive assessment
3. Create Diverse Test Cases: Cover different categories, difficulty levels, and edge cases
4. Regular Evaluation: Run evaluations frequently during development

Performance Optimization

1. Use Extractors: Always use tools_use_extractor functions to prevent context overflow
2. Batch Processing: Process multiple test cases efficiently
3. Choose Appropriate Models: Use stronger judge models for complex evaluations
4. Cache Results: Save experiments to avoid re-running expensive evaluations

Experiment Management

1. Version Control: Save experiments with descriptive names and timestamps
2. Document Rubrics: Write clear, specific evaluation criteria
3. Track Changes: Monitor how evaluation scores change as you improve your agents
4. Share Results: Use saved experiments to collaborate with team members

Next Steps

Ready to dive deeper? Explore these resources:

• Output Evaluator - Detailed guide to LLM-based output evaluation
• Trajectory Evaluator - Comprehensive tool usage and sequence evaluation
• Helpfulness Evaluator - Seven-level helpfulness assessment
• Custom Evaluators - Build domain-specific evaluation logic
• Experiment Generator - Automatically generate comprehensive test suites
• Serialization - Save, load, and version your evaluation experiments