> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.acmeagentsupply.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Score Explained

> How RadCheck calculates your reliability score

# RadCheck Score Explained

Your RadCheck score is a composite of four components, each contributing up to 25 points for a maximum of 100.

## Score Components

### Stall Risk (0-25 points)

Measures patterns that indicate potential hangs or infinite loops.

**What we check:**

* Recursive call patterns without exit conditions
* Unbounded retry loops
* Blocking operations without timeouts
* Deadlock-prone resource access patterns

**Scoring:**

* 25: No stall patterns detected
* 15-24: Minor concerns (e.g., missing timeouts on non-critical paths)
* 5-14: Moderate risk (e.g., retry loops without backoff)
* 0-4: High risk (e.g., detected infinite loop patterns)

### Silence Gaps (0-25 points)

Identifies unexpected periods of inactivity that may indicate silent failures.

**What we check:**

* Time between context updates
* Heartbeat regularity (if configured)
* Response latency patterns
* Activity gaps that exceed expected bounds

**Scoring:**

* 25: Activity patterns consistent and within bounds
* 15-24: Occasional gaps, likely benign
* 5-14: Frequent or long gaps suggesting reliability concerns
* 0-4: Extended silence periods indicating likely failures

### Compaction Pressure (0-25 points)

Evaluates context window utilization and memory management.

**What we check:**

* Context window fill percentage
* Compaction frequency and efficiency
* Memory growth patterns
* Token budget management

**Scoring:**

* 25: Context well-managed, compaction healthy
* 15-24: Approaching limits but stable
* 5-14: Frequent compaction, potential information loss
* 0-4: Context overflow risk, aggressive compaction

### Hygiene (0-25 points)

Assesses configuration best practices and common misconfigurations.

**What we check:**

* Provider fallback configuration
* Error handling completeness
* Logging and observability setup
* Security configuration (API key management, etc.)

**Scoring:**

* 25: Best practices followed
* 15-24: Minor gaps in configuration
* 5-14: Several misconfigurations present
* 0-4: Critical configuration issues

## Interpreting Your Score

### Overall Score Bands

| Range  | Band      | Action                                                       |
| ------ | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 80-100 | 🟢 GREEN  | Maintain current practices. Schedule periodic re-scans.      |
| 60-79  | 🟡 YELLOW | Review specific warnings. Address within 1-2 weeks.          |
| 40-59  | 🟠 ORANGE | Prioritize fixes. Consider adding Sentinel for protection.   |
| 0-39   | 🔴 RED    | Immediate action required. Do not deploy without addressing. |

### Component-Level Analysis

A low overall score with one component dragging it down is different from evenly distributed issues:

* **Single low component**: Focused remediation. Fix the specific area.
* **Multiple low components**: Systemic issues. Review architecture.

## Common Findings

### "Silence gap detected: Xs between context updates"

Your agent went X seconds without updating context. This might be:

* Normal (long-running computation)
* Concerning (waiting on a hung external call)

**Fix:** Add heartbeat logging or reduce timeout thresholds.

### "Missing retry configuration in provider fallback"

Your provider fallback doesn't include retry logic, meaning transient failures cascade.

**Fix:** Add exponential backoff retry to your provider configuration.

### "Context utilization at X%"

You're using X% of available context window. Above 80% starts impacting quality.

**Fix:** Review context compaction strategy or reduce context size.

## Trending Your Score

Run RadCheck regularly and track scores over time:

```bash theme={null}
# Save to file with timestamp
acme radcheck --format json > "radcheck-$(date +%Y%m%d).json"
```

A declining score trend indicates reliability degradation before incidents occur.

## Next Steps

<Card title="Sentinel" icon="shield" href="/products/sentinel/overview">
  RadCheck shows risk. Sentinel protects against it continuously.
</Card>