The nine rings
| Ring | Name | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Setup & Wiring | Is everything connected properly and internally consistent? |
| 1 | Does the Job | Can the agent complete its task correctly under clean inputs? |
| 2 | Plays by the Rules | Does the agent follow company, legal, and safety rules? |
| 3 | Hard to Trick | Can users manipulate or jailbreak the agent? |
| 4 | Speech Variations | Can meaning survive accents, slang, typos, and ASR errors? |
| 5 | Handles Real People | Can it manage interruptions, emotion, and disfluency? |
| 6 | Works in Real World | Does it function under noise, bad networks, and poor conditions? |
| 7 | Handles Chaos | What breaks when multiple failure modes interact at once? |
| 8 | Stays Good Over Time | Does behavior remain correct across updates and retrains? |
How rings build on each other
Rings are designed to be run in order. Each layer assumes the previous layers pass:- Ring 0 validates your configuration is sound before any testing begins
- Rings 1-2 test correctness — does the agent do the right thing?
- Rings 3-6 test robustness — can it survive real-world conditions?
- Ring 7 combines failure modes from rings 1-6 into compound stress tests
- Ring 8 tracks stability over time as you update your agent
Prerequisites
Some rings require specific agent configuration:| Ring | Requires |
|---|---|
| 1, 5, 6 | Call flow |
| 2 | Call flow + policy/guardrails |
| 0, 3, 4, 7, 8 | No specific prerequisites |