Part 1 of 4 · 1 min read
Overview
Every agent design choice trades something: autonomy for predictability, quality for latency, cost for coverage. Interview panels and design reviews test whether you know what you are paying for and can say what would change your mind.
About the example, and what is real
Real: a weighted decision matrix with constraints, dominance, two scalings, weight and score uncertainty, critical weights, break-even solvers, a break-even on traffic mix, a decision-record template and linter, and 20 tests in code/mini-tradeoff. Illustrative (invented): the scores and token counts in case A. Assumed: the $1 per million token price, the weights, the quality values in case B (0.73 to 0.84), the latency and cost values taken from module 3's simulation, and the hard requirements. Not real: the three decision records are fictional.