Agent Temperature
Temperature Scale Reference
| Band | Behaviour | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| Very Low | Always picks the highest-probability token. Identical inputs produce identical outputs. | Exact reproduction, structured output parsing, mathematical computation. |
| Low | Slight variation while staying highly predictable. Minor phrasing differences between runs. | Code generation, factual Q&A, data extraction, tool-calling agents. |
| Medium | Balanced creativity and coherence. Explores alternative phrasings while maintaining accuracy. | Conversational agents, summarisation, general-purpose assistants. |
| High | Significant variation in word choice and structure. May produce novel combinations. | Creative writing, brainstorming, marketing copy, dialogue generation. |
| Very High | Near-uniform sampling across the vocabulary. High risk of incoherence at extreme values. | Experimental generation, style exploration. Rarely used in production agents. |
Code & Engineering
Agents that write, review, debug, or transform source code need low temperatures to maintain syntactic correctness and reliable tool calls.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Code Generator | Very Low | Syntax errors from sampling randomness break compilation. Precise output enables caching and reproducibility. |
| Code Reviewer | Low | Needs slight variation to catch different issues across runs, but must stay grounded in actual code semantics. |
| Bug Fixer / Debugger | Very Low | Fixes must be precise. A creative rewrite risks introducing new bugs while solving the original one. |
| Test Generator | Low | Some variation helps cover edge cases and diverse test scenarios, but assertions must remain logically correct. |
| Code Refactorer | Low | Structural changes require consistency. Too much randomness produces refactors that change behaviour, not just form. |
| Documentation Writer | Medium | Needs enough flexibility for readable prose while staying accurate to the codebase it describes. |
| DevOps / IaC Agent | Very Low | Infrastructure definitions are safety-critical. A hallucinated port number or permission can cause outages. |
| API Designer | Low | Schema design benefits from exploring alternatives, but endpoints and types must be internally consistent. |
Data & Analytics
Agents working with structured data, queries, and analytical pipelines need precision in syntax and logic. Even small deviations can produce incorrect results.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| SQL Query Writer | Very Low | SQL syntax is unforgiving. A misplaced JOIN or wrong column name returns wrong data silently. |
| Data Pipeline Builder | Very Low | Pipeline steps must be precise and idempotent. Random variation risks data corruption or duplication. |
| Data Analyst | Low | Statistical interpretation benefits from exploring different angles, but calculations must be exact. |
| ETL Agent | Very Low | Transformation logic must be precise and repeatable. Schema mapping errors cascade through downstream systems. |
| Dashboard Builder | Low | Visualisation choices benefit from creativity, but the underlying data queries must be accurate. |
| Data Quality Monitor | Very Low | Anomaly detection rules need consistency. False positives from random variation erode trust in monitoring. |
Research & Knowledge
Research-oriented agents balance thoroughness with accuracy. They need enough variation to explore different sources and perspectives without fabricating facts.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Research Assistant | Medium | Needs to synthesise across sources and find non-obvious connections, but must not fabricate citations or data. |
| Fact Checker | Very Low | Verification requires precision. Creative interpretation of facts defeats the purpose of checking them. |
| Literature Reviewer | Medium | Synthesising themes across papers benefits from varied phrasing, while citations must remain accurate. |
| Knowledge Base Curator | Low | Categorisation and tagging need consistency. The same concept should get the same label across runs. |
| Question Answerer | Low | Factual responses should be stable. Users expect the same question to produce the same answer. |
| Competitive Intelligence | Medium | Analysis benefits from exploring different interpretive frames, but market data must be reported accurately. |
| Patent Analyst | Low | Legal precision matters. Claims analysis cannot tolerate creative reinterpretation of patent language. |
Creative & Content
Creative agents benefit from higher temperatures that unlock diverse phrasing, unexpected combinations, and stylistic range. Coherence remains important even at elevated settings.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Creative Writer | High | Fiction and poetry thrive on unexpected word choices and novel combinations that lower temperatures suppress. |
| Marketing Copywriter | High | Headlines and slogans need memorability, which comes from surprising phrasing. Brand voice constrains the upper range. |
| Social Media Agent | High | Engagement requires fresh, varied content. Repetitive posts from low temperature kill audience interest. |
| Blog Writer | Medium | Long-form content needs consistent voice but enough variation to stay engaging across paragraphs. |
| Brainstorming Agent | Very High | Idea generation explicitly benefits from low-probability token selection. Quantity and novelty matter more than precision. |
| Storyteller / Narrator | High | Narrative flow requires unexpected turns and vivid language that precise decoding cannot produce. |
| Dialogue Writer | High | Natural conversation has variation in register, rhythm, and word choice. Too predictable sounds robotic. |
| Email Drafter | Medium | Professional emails need clarity over creativity. Misinterpretation risks outweigh stylistic benefits. |
Customer & Support
Customer-facing agents must balance helpfulness with accuracy. Empathetic tone requires some flexibility, but factual responses about products, policies, and accounts must be precise.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Support Agent | Medium | Empathetic tone needs variation, but policy and product information must be accurate and consistent. |
| Sales Assistant | Medium | Persuasion benefits from natural, varied language. Pricing and feature claims must be factually correct. |
| Onboarding Guide | Medium | Instructions must be clear and correct. Slight variation in phrasing helps avoid sounding scripted. |
| Complaint Handler | Medium | Acknowledgement and empathy benefit from natural language, but resolution steps must be precise. |
| FAQ Bot | Low | Answers should be stable and predictable. Users compare responses and inconsistency erodes trust. |
| Feedback Collector | Low | Follow-up questions need some variation to feel natural, but must stay on-topic and non-leading. |
Planning & Strategy
Strategic agents need moderate temperatures to explore diverse options while maintaining logical coherence in their recommendations and action plans.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Project Planner | Medium | Task decomposition and dependency mapping need logical consistency, with some flexibility for creative structuring. |
| Strategy Advisor | Medium | Strategic recommendations benefit from exploring non-obvious options, but must be grounded in available data. |
| Risk Assessor | Low | Risk identification benefits from breadth, but probability estimates and impact ratings need consistency. |
| Resource Allocator | Low | Allocation decisions involve constraints and optimisation. Random variation produces suboptimal distributions. |
| Meeting Facilitator | Medium | Needs flexible phrasing for prompts and summaries, but action items must accurately reflect discussions. |
| OKR Generator | Medium | Objectives benefit from aspirational language. Key results must be specific and measurable. |
Legal & Compliance
Legal agents operate in high-stakes domains where precision is paramount. Creative interpretation of regulations or contract language can have serious consequences.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Contract Reviewer | Very Low | Legal language is precise by design. Paraphrasing a clause can change its legal meaning entirely. |
| Compliance Checker | Very Low | Regulatory requirements are binary: met or unmet. Creative interpretation of compliance standards is dangerous. |
| Policy Drafter | Low | Policies need clear, readable language (some flexibility), but legal precision in operative clauses is essential. |
| Regulatory Monitor | Low | Change detection must be accurate. Missing a regulatory update or flagging a non-change wastes resources. |
| Privacy Assessor | Very Low | Data classification and privacy impact assessments have direct legal consequences. No room for creative labelling. |
| Audit Trail Logger | Very Low | Audit logs must be precise and reproducible. Any variation between runs indicates a reliability problem. |
Education & Training
Educational agents need enough variation to adapt explanations to different learning styles and levels, while keeping factual content accurate.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Tutor | Medium | Explanations benefit from varied approaches, trying different analogies and framings when students struggle. |
| Quiz Generator | Medium | Question variety is important to avoid predictable patterns, but answers must be unambiguously correct. |
| Curriculum Designer | Medium | Learning pathways benefit from creative structuring, but prerequisite chains must be logically sound. |
| Flashcard Creator | Low | Card content must be accurate and concise. Some phrasing variation prevents rote memorisation of exact wording. |
| Language Teacher | Medium | Natural language exposure requires varied examples and conversational styles. Grammar rules must stay correct. |
| Code Instructor | Low | Code examples must compile and run correctly. Explanatory prose benefits from some variation. |
| Assessment Grader | Very Low | Grading rubric application must be consistent. The same answer should receive the same score across runs. |
Operations & Infrastructure
Operational agents manage systems where errors have immediate impact. Precise behaviour ensures that automated actions are predictable and auditable.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Incident Responder | Very Low | Runbook execution must be precise. A creative diagnostic step during an outage can make things worse. |
| Monitoring Agent | Very Low | Alert rules and thresholds must be consistent. Random variation in alerting creates noise or missed incidents. |
| Capacity Planner | Low | Forecasting benefits from exploring scenarios, but resource calculations must be mathematically sound. |
| Security Scanner | Very Low | Vulnerability detection must be reproducible. False positives from random variation waste security team time. |
| Log Analyser | Low | Pattern recognition in logs benefits from some flexibility, but timestamps and error codes must be parsed exactly. |
| Deployment Agent | Very Low | Deployment scripts must be identical across runs. Any variation between deploys risks configuration drift. |
| Cost Optimiser | Low | Cost analysis requires precise arithmetic. Recommendations benefit from exploring alternatives within constraints. |
Communication & Translation
Translation and communication agents balance fidelity to source material with natural target-language expression. The right temperature depends on whether precision or fluency matters more.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Translator | Low | Technical terminology must be translated precisely. Domain-specific terms have exact equivalents that must be used. |
| Literary Translator | Medium | Capturing tone, idiom, and cultural nuance requires creative choices that mechanical translation misses. |
| Localisation Agent | Medium | Cultural adaptation needs flexibility for idiomatic expressions while preserving the original message intent. |
| Meeting Summariser | Low | Key decisions and action items must be captured accurately. Phrasing variation is acceptable for readability. |
| Press Release Writer | Medium | Needs engaging language for public communication while keeping factual claims precise and verifiable. |
| Technical Writer | Low | Clarity and precision are paramount. Some variation in sentence structure improves readability of dense material. |
Multi-Agent & Orchestration
Agents that coordinate other agents or manage workflows need predictable behaviour. An orchestrator that makes different routing decisions on each run creates chaos in downstream agents.
| Role | Temperature | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestrator / Router | Very Low | Routing decisions must be consistent. An orchestrator that sends the same query to different agents on each run is unreliable. |
| Task Decomposer | Low | Breaking down tasks benefits from exploring different decomposition strategies, but subtask definitions must be clear. |
| Quality Gate / Evaluator | Very Low | Pass/fail decisions must be consistent. The same output should receive the same evaluation across runs. |
| Aggregator / Synthesiser | Medium | Combining outputs from multiple agents benefits from flexible phrasing, but must preserve all source information. |
| Escalation Agent | Very Low | Escalation thresholds must be consistent. Inconsistent escalation creates either alert fatigue or missed issues. |
| Retry / Recovery Agent | Low | Recovery strategies benefit from trying alternative approaches, but each attempt must be well-formed and trackable. |
| Consensus Builder | Low | Synthesising agreement across agents needs flexibility, but the final consensus must accurately represent inputs. |