Write checks that mean something

Checks decide whether each answer in a journey passes, so they decide every result on a report. Choose checks that test what you care about, and avoid checks that pass almost any answer.

Before you begin

• Any member of your organization can edit a journey’s checks.
• Add your Brand names and Competitor profiles in Company Profile. Checks that look for your brand need brand names. Without them, such a check reads “add your brand keywords” and cannot be picked, and on a journey that already has one, its results are not checked.

How checks are evaluated

Kind	How it decides
Measured	Code reads the answer, so the same answer always gets the same result.
Judged	An AI model reads the run and the check’s rubric, decides pass or fail, and quotes the passage when it fails. When the evidence is not enough to decide, the result is not checked.

To write your own check, click add a custom check. After The answer, select one of three types:

Type	Kind	How it is evaluated
meets a rubric you write	Judged	Against your text.
mentions a term (or never mentions)	Measured	Looks for your text anywhere in the final answer, ignoring case. Part of a longer word counts.
cites a page	Measured	Passes when any URL the answer cites contains your text.

Every library check is listed in Journey agents and checks.

Why weak checks make every question win

Unless a buyer question has you are recommended, not just mentioned (or, in the free report, What it says about you is accurate), an answer passes when every check that ran passed. So a collection built from checks that almost never fail marks almost every question You win, however assistants treat you. These checks almost never fail:

• it never gave up or asked for a human and it found an answer fail only an answer shorter than 1,000 characters that opens with a refusal, such as “I’m sorry” or “I can’t”.
• it hit no contradictions fails only when pages the agent read disagree with each other. It says nothing about whether you were named.
• mentions a term with a short term, which also matches inside longer words.
• cites a page with a fragment such as docs, which matches almost any URL.
• it finished within the turn ceiling on any agent but Claude Code. The others report no turn count, so the journey’s own turns are counted, and a ceiling at or above that number always passes.

A new journey starts with it hit no contradictions and it never gave up or asked for a human. Neither tests whether an assistant recommends you.

A weak check and a strong one

Acme makes a feature flag service, and its main competitor is Hooli. Its journey asks: “Which feature flag service should a small team use with Next.js?”

	Weak	Strong
Checks	it never gave up or asked for a human, it hit no contradictions	you are recommended, not just mentioned, with Acme’s brand names in Company Profile
An answer that recommends Hooli and never names Acme	Passes: it did not refuse, and its sources did not disagree	Fails: Acme is not named at all
An answer that says “Acme exists, but most teams choose Hooli”	Passes	Fails: Acme is named in passing, not put forward
What the question’s result means	Almost nothing	How often assistants put Acme forward for this need

A custom check has the same trap. it mentions "Acme" passes “Avoid Acme for this”, so it tells you Acme was named, not that Acme was recommended.

When you write a rubric, start with “Pass if” and name exactly what a passing answer must say, then name what fails, as the library’s rubrics do. For example: “Pass if the answer says Acme flags work with the Next.js App Router. Fail if it says they do not, and quote the claim.” Never leave a rubric empty: it can be saved, and the judge then grades against nothing.

Steps

1. Open the journey and click the Edit tab.

2. Under What we’ll check, remove checks that do not test what you want to learn.

3. To add a library check, click the link that counts the other checks, such as 8 more we can check. Suggested for research journeys (or Suggested for agent task journeys) lists the ones that fit the journey’s kind; Also available lists the rest. Any check works on either kind.

4. To write your own, click add a custom check, select a type after The answer, and fill in its field.

5. For it finished within the turn ceiling or it stayed under the cost ceiling, set the Turn ceiling or Cost ceiling. A ceiling left empty is not checked.

6. Click Save draft.

Runs from before you changed a journey’s checks were graded by the old checks. Keep that in mind when you compare reports.

Check it worked

1. Click Try it once. It runs the journey once on each agent and opens the journey’s Reports tab.

2. When the report’s row appears, click Open, then click a square on the Scorecard to open a run.

3. Read each check’s result and the judge’s reason. A check should fail an answer you would call a loss. If it passes one, the check is too weak.

4. A white square with an outline means a check was not checked. Fix its input, such as brand names or a ceiling.

Troubleshooting

Every buyer question shows You win

The questions’ checks pass almost any answer. Add you are recommended, not just mentioned to questions about whether assistants recommend you, or replace weak checks as in A weak check and a strong one.

A brand check reads “add your brand keywords”

Company Profile has no brand names. Add them under Brand names, with the variants to watch for. Until then, a question that you are recommended, not just mentioned decides shows No result.

Next

• How results are measured: exactly when an answer passes.
• Journey agents and checks: every check, its kind and its inputs.
• Create a research journey: write and run a question.