| # CounselBench evaluation architecture |
|
|
| CounselBench uses the same functional loop as enterprise agent benchmarks: |
| isolated provider state, an agent process, captured trajectories, and an |
| independent deterministic grader. Harbor provides orchestration; the task pack |
| serves a closed multi-provider MCP; CounselScore grades investigation, |
| reasoning, provider state, communication, readback, and containment. |
|
|
| ## Runtime flow |
|
|
| ```text |
| high-level employee question + 97 provider-bound assets |
| | |
| v |
| Clio Manage | Gmail | Drive | Slack sandbox MCP |
| | |
| v |
| identity -> authority -> current fact -> approval/capacity |
| | |
| +----------+----------+ |
| | | |
| supported action evidence hold |
| +----------+----------+ |
| | |
| Clio register + Clio note + task-native communication |
| | |
| native provider readback after each write |
| | |
| v |
| hidden deterministic CounselScore verifier |
| ``` |
|
|
| The agent receives neither gold state nor the verifier capability token. |
| Provider tools expose only task-scoped synthetic resources. Hidden world specs, |
| expected values, and reference trajectories stay outside the agent boundary. |
|
|
| ## Provider fidelity |
|
|
| Each public tool maps to one documented operation: |
|
|
| - Clio Manage v4 matters and notes (`GET`, `POST`, and `PATCH`); |
| - Gmail v1 messages (`list`, `get`, and `send`); |
| - Google Drive v3 files and comments (`list`, `get`, and `create`); and |
| - Slack Web API search, conversation, and post operations. |
|
|
| The sandbox owns deterministic implementation and synthetic state. It does not |
| rename a business outcome into a fake API. Request nesting, identifiers, |
| resource paths, methods, read/write annotations, and provider response shapes |
| remain provider-shaped. A release-time contract audit rejects pseudo-tools, |
| missing upstream metadata, permissive schemas, and incorrect mutation flags. |
|
|
| ## Evidence and state model |
|
|
| Every task has twelve portfolio items, 97 assets in twelve folders and nine |
| native formats, and 58–86 material reads. Each asset has an immutable evidence |
| ID, provider record ID, digest, revision timestamp, source role, and material |
| flag. The remaining assets are inspectable supporting references rather than |
| secretly mandatory padding. |
|
|
| Reference trajectories contain 69–97 successful calls. All 100 raw tool-name |
| sequences and semantic action graphs are distinct. The verifier checks causal |
| prerequisites and resulting provider state; it does not require one arbitrary |
| global order among independent evidence reads. |
|
|
| ## Archipelago/APEX mapping |
|
|
| | Layer | CounselBench / Blobfish | Archipelago / APEX analogue | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | Task state | Immutable provider records plus isolated mutable Clio/collaboration state | Environment image plus initial snapshot | |
| | Tool gateway | Documented provider operations over a closed sandbox MCP | Environment-server APIs and task-specific tools | |
| | Agent execution | Harbor agent container | Agent service and selectable implementation | |
| | Trajectory | Full MCP call/result digest trace plus agent and verifier artifacts | Trajectory, final snapshot, prompts, and agent logs | |
| | Grading | CounselScore semantic milestones backed by atomic evidence, state, containment, and readback checks | Independent grading service with composable graders | |
| | Reproducibility | 100 oracle trials, 1,500 negative controls, 100 exact replays, provider contract audit | Containerized reruns against frozen environment and grader | |
|
|
| The similarity is functional, not a claim that the implementations are |
| interchangeable. Archipelago separates environment, agents, and grading into |
| services. CounselBench delegates orchestration to Harbor, embeds its MCP world |
| inside each task pack, and protects verification with a capability token. |
|
|
| ## Why deterministic grading works |
|
|
| The generator creates raw facts and independently recomputes every branch from |
| four controls. Evidence does not carry the computed disposition. The verifier |
| can therefore check exact IDs, revisions, values, source roles, owners, |
| deadlines, task-scoped state, and trace ordering without a model judge. |
|
|
| The scored claim is intentionally bounded. Open-ended legal persuasiveness is |
| not graded. Whether the agent found the right records, applied the authored |
| decision rule, changed only authorized provider state, communicated the exact |
| supported result, and verified committed state is graded. |
|
|
| ## Public references |
|
|
| - [Mercor Archipelago source](https://github.com/Mercor-Intelligence/archipelago) |
| - [APEX Accounting benchmark](https://www.mercor.com/apex/apex-accounting-leaderboard/) |
| - [APEX Agents leaderboard](https://www.mercor.com/apex/apex-agents-leaderboard/) |
| - [Harbor Framework](https://harborframework.com/) |
| - [Clio Manage API](https://docs.developers.clio.com/api-docs/clio-manage/) |
| - [Gmail API](https://developers.google.com/workspace/gmail/api/reference/rest/v1/users) |
| - [Google Drive API](https://developers.google.com/drive/api/reference/rest/v3) |
| - [Slack Web API](https://api.slack.com/methods) |
|
|
