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auto-arena

Agent Building
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Automatically evaluate and compare multiple AI models or agents without pre-existing test data. Generates test queries from a task description, collects responses from all target endpoints, auto-generates evaluation rubrics, runs pairwise comparisons via a judge model, and produces win-rate rankings with reports and charts. Supports checkpoint resume, incremental endpoint addition, and judge model hot-swap. Use when the user asks to compare, benchmark, or rank multiple models or agents on a custom task, or run an arena-style evaluation.

QUICK START

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Auto Arena Skill

End-to-end automated model comparison using the OpenJudge AutoArenaPipeline:

  1. Generate queries — LLM creates diverse test queries from task description
  2. Collect responses — query all target endpoints concurrently
  3. Generate rubrics — LLM produces evaluation criteria from task + sample queries
  4. Pairwise evaluation — judge model compares every model pair (with position-bias swap)
  5. Analyze & rank — compute win rates, win matrix, and rankings
  6. Report & charts — Markdown report + win-rate bar chart + optional matrix heatmap

Prerequisites

# Install OpenJudge
pip install py-openjudge

# Extra dependency for auto_arena (chart generation)
pip install matplotlib

Gather from user before running

InfoRequired?Notes
Task descriptionYesWhat the models/agents should do (set in config YAML)
Target endpointsYesAt least 2 OpenAI-compatible endpoints to compare
Judge endpointYesStrong model for pairwise evaluation (e.g. gpt-4, qwen-max)
API keysYesEnv vars: OPENAI_API_KEY, DASHSCOPE_API_KEY, etc.
Number of queriesNoDefault: 20
Seed queriesNoExample queries to guide generation style
System promptsNoPer-endpoint system prompts
Output directoryNoDefault: ./evaluation_results
Report languageNo"zh" (default) or "en"

Quick start

CLI

# Run evaluation
python -m cookbooks.auto_arena --config config.yaml --save

# Use pre-generated queries
python -m cookbooks.auto_arena --config config.yaml \
  --queries_file queries.json --save

# Start fresh, ignore checkpoint
python -m cookbooks.auto_arena --config config.yaml --fresh --save

# Re-run only pairwise evaluation with new judge model
# (keeps queries, responses, and rubrics)
python -m cookbooks.auto_arena --config config.yaml --rerun-judge --save

Python API

import asyncio
from cookbooks.auto_arena.auto_arena_pipeline import AutoArenaPipeline

async def main():
    pipeline = AutoArenaPipeline.from_config("config.yaml")
    result = await pipeline.evaluate()

    print(f"Best model: {result.best_pipeline}")
    for rank, (model, win_rate) in enumerate(result.rankings, 1):
        print(f"{rank}. {model}: {win_rate:.1%}")

asyncio.run(main())

Minimal Python API (no config file)

import asyncio
from cookbooks.auto_arena.auto_arena_pipeline import AutoArenaPipeline
from cookbooks.auto_arena.schema import OpenAIEndpoint

async def main():
    pipeline = AutoArenaPipeline(
        task_description="Customer service chatbot for e-commerce",
        target_endpoints={
            "gpt4": OpenAIEndpoint(
                base_url="https://api.openai.com/v1",
                api_key="sk-...",
                model="gpt-4",
            ),
            "qwen": OpenAIEndpoint(
                base_url="https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
                api_key="sk-...",
                model="qwen-max",
            ),
        },
        judge_endpoint=OpenAIEndpoint(
            base_url="https://api.openai.com/v1",
            api_key="sk-...",
            model="gpt-4",
        ),
        num_queries=20,
    )
    result = await pipeline.evaluate()
    print(f"Best: {result.best_pipeline}")

asyncio.run(main())

CLI options

FlagDefaultDescription
--config—Path to YAML configuration file (required)
--output_dirconfig valueOverride output directory
--queries_file—Path to pre-generated queries JSON (skip generation)
--saveFalseSave results to file
--freshFalseStart fresh, ignore checkpoint
--rerun-judgeFalseRe-run pairwise evaluation only (keep queries/responses/rubrics)

Minimal config file

task:
  description: "Academic GPT assistant for research and writing tasks"

target_endpoints:
  model_v1:
    base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
    api_key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
    model: "gpt-4"
  model_v2:
    base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
    api_key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
    model: "gpt-3.5-turbo"

judge_endpoint:
  base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  api_key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
  model: "gpt-4"

Full config reference

task

FieldRequiredDescription
descriptionYesClear description of the task models will be tested on
scenarioNoUsage scenario for additional context

target_endpoints.<name>

FieldDefaultDescription
base_url—API base URL (required)
api_key—API key, supports ${ENV_VAR} (required)
model—Model name (required)
system_prompt—System prompt for this endpoint
extra_params—Extra API params (e.g. temperature, max_tokens)

judge_endpoint

Same fields as target_endpoints.<name>. Use a strong model (e.g. gpt-4, qwen-max) with low temperature (~0.1) for consistent judgments.

query_generation

FieldDefaultDescription
num_queries20Total number of queries to generate
seed_queries—Example queries to guide generation
categories—Query categories with weights for stratified generation
endpointjudge endpointCustom endpoint for query generation
queries_per_call10Queries generated per API call (1–50)
num_parallel_batches3Parallel generation batches
temperature0.9Sampling temperature (0.0–2.0)
top_p0.95Top-p sampling (0.0–1.0)
max_similarity0.85Dedup similarity threshold (0.0–1.0)
enable_evolutionfalseEnable Evol-Instruct complexity evolution
evolution_rounds1Evolution rounds (0–3)
complexity_levels["constraints", "reasoning", "edge_cases"]Evolution strategies

evaluation

FieldDefaultDescription
max_concurrency10Max concurrent API requests
timeout60Request timeout in seconds
retry_times3Retry attempts for failed requests

output

FieldDefaultDescription
output_dir./evaluation_resultsOutput directory
save_queriestrueSave generated queries
save_responsestrueSave model responses
save_detailstrueSave detailed results

report

FieldDefaultDescription
enabledfalseEnable Markdown report generation
language"zh"Report language: "zh" or "en"
include_examples3Examples per section (1–10)
chart.enabledtrueGenerate win-rate chart
chart.orientation"horizontal""horizontal" or "vertical"
chart.show_valuestrueShow values on bars
chart.highlight_besttrueHighlight best model
chart.matrix_enabledfalseGenerate win-rate matrix heatmap
chart.format"png"Chart format: "png", "svg", or "pdf"

Interpreting results

Win rate: percentage of pairwise comparisons a model wins. Each pair is evaluated in both orders (original + swapped) to eliminate position bias.

Rankings example:

  1. gpt4_baseline       [################----] 80.0%
  2. qwen_candidate      [############--------] 60.0%
  3. llama_finetuned      [##########----------] 50.0%

Win matrix: win_matrix[A][B] = how often model A beats model B across all queries.

Checkpoint & resume

The pipeline saves progress after each step. Interrupted runs resume automatically:

  • --fresh — ignore checkpoint, start from scratch
  • --rerun-judge — re-run only the pairwise evaluation step (useful when switching judge models); keeps queries, responses, and rubrics intact
  • Adding new endpoints to config triggers incremental response collection; existing responses are preserved

Output files

evaluation_results/
├── evaluation_results.json     # Rankings, win rates, win matrix
├── evaluation_report.md        # Detailed Markdown report (if enabled)
├── win_rate_chart.png          # Win-rate bar chart (if enabled)
├── win_rate_matrix.png         # Matrix heatmap (if matrix_enabled)
├── queries.json                # Generated test queries
├── responses.json              # All model responses
├── rubrics.json                # Generated evaluation rubrics
├── comparison_details.json     # Pairwise comparison details
└── checkpoint.json             # Pipeline checkpoint

API key by model

Model prefixEnvironment variable
gpt-*, o1-*, o3-*OPENAI_API_KEY
claude-*ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
qwen-*, dashscope/*DASHSCOPE_API_KEY
deepseek-*DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
Custom endpointset api_key + base_url in config

Additional resources