Run Discourse AI evals

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Overview

The Discourse AI plugin ships a Ruby CLI under plugins/discourse-ai/evals that exercises AI features against YAML definitions and records results. Use it to benchmark prompts, compare model outputs, and regression-test AI behaviors without touching the app database.

Core concepts (what users need to know)

  • Eval case: A YAML definition under evals/cases/<group>/<id>.yml that pairs inputs (args) with an expected outcome. Evals can check exact strings, regexes, or expected tool calls.
  • Feature: The Discourse AI behavior under test, identified as module:feature_name (for example, summarization:topic_summaries). --list-features shows the valid keys.
  • Persona: The system prompt wrapped around the LLM call. Runs default to the built-in prompt unless you pass --persona-keys to load alternate prompts from evals/personas/*.yml. Add multiple keys to compare prompts in one run.
  • Judge: A rubric embedded in some evals that requires a second LLM to grade outputs. Think of it as an automated reviewer: it reads the model output and scores it against the criteria. If an eval defines judge, you must supply or accept the default judge model (--judge, default gpt-4o). Without a judge, outputs are matched directly against the expected value.
  • Comparison modes: --compare personas (one model, many personas) or --compare llms (one persona, many models). The judge picks a winner and reports ratings; non-comparison runs just report pass/fail.
  • Datasets: Instead of YAML cases, pass --dataset path.csv --feature module:feature to build cases from CSV rows (content and expected_output columns required).
  • Logs: Every run writes plain text and structured traces to plugins/discourse-ai/evals/log/ with timestamps and persona keys. Use them to inspect failures, skipped models, and judge decisions.

Prerequisites

  • Have a working Discourse development environment with the Discourse AI plugin present. The runner loads config/environment (defaulting to the repository root or DISCOURSE_PATH if set).
  • LLMs are defined in plugins/discourse-ai/config/eval-llms.yml; copy it to eval-llms.local.yml to override entries locally. Each entry expects an api_key_env (or inline api_key), so export the matching environment variables before running, for example:
    • OPENAI_API_KEY=...
    • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
    • GEMINI_API_KEY=...
  • From the repository root, change into plugins/discourse-ai/evals and run ./run --help to confirm the CLI is wired up. If evals/cases is missing it will be cloned automatically from discourse/discourse-ai-evals.

Discover available inputs

  • ./run --list lists all eval ids from evals/cases/*/*.yml.
  • ./run --list-features prints feature keys grouped by module (format: module:feature).
  • ./run --list-models shows LLM configs that can be hydrated from eval-llms.yml/.local.yml.
  • ./run --list-personas lists persona keys defined under evals/personas/*.yml plus the built-in default.

Run evals

  • Run a single eval against specific models:

    OPENAI_API_KEY=... ./run --eval simple_summarization --models gpt-4o-mini

  • Run every eval for a feature (or the whole suite) against multiple models:

    ./run --feature summarization:topic_summaries --models gpt-4o-mini,claude-3-5-sonnet-latest

    Omitting --models hydrates every configured LLM. Models that cannot hydrate (missing API keys, etc.) are skipped with a log message.

  • Some evals define a judge block. When any selected eval requires judging, the runner defaults to --judge gpt-4o unless you pass --judge name. Invalid or missing judge configs cause the CLI to exit before running.

Personas and comparison modes

  • Supply custom prompts with --persona-keys key1,key2. Keys resolve to YAML files in evals/personas; each needs key (optional, defaults to the filename), system_prompt, and an optional description.

  • Minimal persona example (evals/personas/topic_summary_eval.yml):

    key: topic_summary_eval
description: Variant tuned for eval comparisons
system_prompt: |
  Summarize the topic in 2–4 sentences. Keep the original language and avoid new facts.

  • --compare personas runs one model against multiple personas. The built-in default persona is automatically prepended so you can compare YAML prompts against stock behavior, and at least two personas are required.

  • --compare llms runs one persona (default unless overridden) across multiple models and asks the judge to score them side by side.

  • Non-comparison runs accept a single persona; pass one --persona-keys value or rely on the default prompt.

Dataset-driven runs

  • Generate eval cases from a CSV instead of YAML by passing --dataset path/to/file.csv --feature module:feature. The CSV must include content and expected_output columns; each row becomes its own eval id (dataset-<filename>-<row>).

  • Minimal CSV example:

    content,expected_output
"This is spam!!! Buy now!",true
"Genuine question about hosting",false

  • Example:

    ./run --dataset evals/cases/spam/spam_eval_dataset.csv --feature spam:inspect_posts --models gpt-4o-mini

Writing eval cases

  • Store cases under evals/cases/<group>/<name>.yml. Each file must declare id, name, description, and feature (the module:feature key registered with the plugin).
  • Provide inputs under args. Keys ending in _path (or path) are expanded relative to the YAML directory so you can reference fixture files. For multi-case files, args can contain arrays (for example, cases:) that runners iterate over.
  • Expected results can be declared with one of:
    • expected_output: exact string match
    • expected_output_regex: treated as a multiline regular expression
    • expected_tool_call: expected tool invocation payload
  • Set vision: true for evals that require a vision-capable model. Include a judge section (pass_rating, criteria, and optional label) to have outputs scored by a judge LLM.

Results and logs

  • CLI output shows pass/fail per model and prints expected vs actual details on failures. Comparison runs also stream the judge’s winner and ratings.

  • Example pass/fail snippet:

    gpt-4o-mini: Passed 🟢
claude-3-5-sonnet-latest: Failed 🔴
---- Expected ----
true
---- Actual ----
false

  • Comparison winner snippet:

    Comparing personas for topic-summary
Winner: topic_summary_eval
Reason: Captured key details and stayed concise.
  - default: 7/10 — missed concrete use case
  - topic_summary_eval: 9/10 — mentioned service dogs and tone was neutral

  • Each run writes plain logs and structured traces to plugins/discourse-ai/evals/log/ (timestamped .log and .json files). The JSON files are formatted for ui.perfetto.dev to inspect the structured steps.

  • On completion the runner echoes the log paths; use them to audit skipped models, judge decisions, and raw outputs when iterating on prompts or features.

Common features (what to try first)

  • summarization:topic_summaries: Summarize a conversation.
  • spam:inspect_posts: Spam/ham classification.
  • translation:topic_title_translator: Translate topic titles while preserving tone/formatting.
  • ai_helper:rewrite: Prompt the AI helper for rewrites.
  • tool_calls:tool_calls_with_no_tool and tool_calls:tool_call_chains: Validate structured tool call behavior.

This document is version controlled - suggest changes on github.

4 Me gusta
2

Esto parece ser sobre el complemento de IA. Por lo tanto, me gustaría sugerir añadir la etiqueta ai.