I spent a month optimizing my AI agent. Then realized I’d never defined what "optimized" meant.

This is not an agent.

Built a personal agent with a simple job: take a note, structure it, file it, handle version control.

Spent weeks tightening the spec. Hunting redundant rules. Convinced I was making progress.

Toward what, exactly?

Turns out I'd never defined "optimized." So I replaced it with other vague words like "reliable" and "no drift" — which I'd also never defined.

Then I ran tests. With no baseline. Scoring criteria I invented myself. Producing metrics that meant nothing.

The deeper problem: there's no universally accepted way to score the quality of an agent's spec. The industry is standardizing the container (AGENT.md, shared formats) — but not the metric inside it.

That's where I'm restarting from. Not better rules — but what would even count as a better spec.

Full writeup if you want the longer version: https://medium.com/@st00mp/i-spent-a-month-optimizing-an-ai-agent-without-ever-knowing-toward-what-17fce0fba443