Agent drift detection

Agent Drift Detection for Runtime Governance

Agent drift detection for teams that compare approved policy with reported runtime state across releases, agents, tools, and guidance.

Drift review

Catch policy drift before it becomes a review problem.

Compare the release your team approved with the state each connected runtime reports back.

DesiredApproved release state
ReportedRuntime heartbeat state
ActionRe-apply, accept, or rollback
Problem

Know when runtime state no longer matches approved policy.

Agent drift detection protects teams when local runtimes, prompt files, tools, and settings move faster than governance review.

Where teams lose control
  • A runtime can keep old guidance, miss a new rule, or enable a tool that was not part of the approved release.
  • Teams often discover drift only after a review failure, unsafe command, or unexpected agent behavior.
  • Desired state, reported state, and release history are difficult to compare when they live in separate runtime files.
Review

Turn mismatched runtime state into a clear decision.

A drift review should show what changed, which object is affected, and what action the operator took.

Questions your team can answer
  • Which release should this runtime be running?
  • What did the runtime report for rules, tools, settings, and guidance?
  • Which differences need re-apply, accept, rollback, or support review?
Product

Compare desired and reported state for every connected runtime.

Agents Control records desired state, receives reported state, highlights drift, and keeps the review decision attached to the release trail.

How Agents Control helps
  • Track approved releases for rules, guidance, skills, plugins, settings, and access policy.
  • Receive reported runtime state through heartbeat and sync reports.
  • Route drift to operator review with re-apply, accept, rollback, and support diagnostics paths.
FAQ

Common questions

Clear answers for teams comparing agent management, orchestration, governance, security, and MCP controls.

What is agent drift detection?

It is the process of comparing approved agent policy with reported runtime state so teams can see when rules, tools, guidance, or settings changed unexpectedly.

What should happen when drift is found?

The team should review the difference, decide whether to re-apply approved state, accept the new state, or roll back the release path.