Communication Breakdown

Detects when messages between agents are misunderstood or misinterpreted, causing incorrect downstream behavior.

Examples

• Agent A sends JSON data but Agent B parses it as plain text
• Ambiguous instruction "process the results" interpreted differently by two agents
• Agent receives conflicting instructions from two upstream agents
• Critical information missing from inter-agent message, causing incomplete handoff

Detection methods

Intent Alignment

Measures alignment between sender's intent and receiver's interpretation

Format Compliance

Checks message format matches expected schema (JSON, list, code)

Ambiguity Detection

Flags semantically ambiguous instructions

Completeness Check

Verifies all required information is present in messages

Calibration accuracy

From the Pisama calibration set. See detector scoreboard for the full table.

Subtypes

• intent mismatch
• format mismatch
• semantic ambiguity
• incomplete information