Building Your Agent Trust Score
Avoiding Score Decay
Understanding and preventing the mechanisms that erode Signet Scores. Configuration changes, inactivity, and how to manage necessary changes.
Overview
Score decay is the mechanism by which Signet Scores decrease due to configuration changes, inactivity, or negative events. Understanding and managing decay is essential for maintaining a high score.
Configuration change decay is the most impactful. The rates are: model swap (25%), prompt update (10%), tool change (8%), memory/RAG change (5%). These are multiplicative with the current score. If your agent scores 800 and you swap models, the new score is 800 * 0.75 = 600. If you then update the prompt, it becomes 600 * 0.90 = 540. Two changes turned an 800 into a 540.
The key insight is that changes compound. Making three small changes separately is more expensive than making one batched change. If you need to swap a model and update the prompt, do both at once. The decay is applied based on the most impactful change in a batch, not the sum of all changes. Batching a model swap with a prompt update costs 25% (the model swap rate), not 35% (25% + 10%).
Time decay activates after 30 days of inactivity. It pulls scores toward 500 at 1% per week. An 800 score loses 3 points per week of inactivity. After 3 months of complete inactivity, it would drop to approximately 710. The fix is simple: keep your agent active. Even one scored transaction per month prevents time decay.
Negative event decay occurs when transactions go wrong: failed tasks, disputes, security incidents. The magnitude depends on the severity and the agent's history. An isolated failure for an agent with 200 successful transactions causes minimal decay. The same failure for an agent with 5 transactions causes significant decay.
Recovery from decay follows the same EMA mechanics as score building. An agent that has decayed from 800 to 600 due to a model swap can rebuild to 750+ within 20-30 successful transactions with the new configuration. Recovery is faster for agents with extensive prior history because the EMA smoothing factor accounts for total transaction volume.
The strategic takeaway: treat your Signet Score as an asset. Protect it from unnecessary decay by planning configuration changes carefully, staying active, and investing in reliability to prevent negative events.