Anomaly Detection
Notices when an agent starts behaving unusually compared to its own normal pattern.
What It Does
Anomaly Detection learns what "normal" looks like for each of your agents — how often they typically use each tool, and how long a session usually runs — and flags it when something suddenly deviates a lot from that pattern. It's like a bank noticing an unusual charge on your card: nothing about a single transaction is inherently wrong, it's just very unlike your usual spending.
The guard builds this baseline automatically from real usage over time; there's nothing to set up.
Why It Matters
A sudden, large spike in how often an agent calls a particular tool — far more than it ever has before — can be an early sign that something has gone wrong: a compromised skill, a misbehaving automation stuck in a loop, or a subtler manipulation attempt that other guards didn't catch outright. Catching that early, even just as a heads-up, gives you a chance to look before it becomes a bigger problem.
What Gets Flagged
- A tool used far more than usual — many times more than its normal average for that agent
- An unusually long session — significantly longer than the agent's typical session length
An agent that normally sends a handful of emails a day suddenly sends dozens in a short session — well beyond anything in its history. Anomaly Detection notices the spike and logs a warning with the details (how many calls, how that compares to the baseline), so you can check whether it's a legitimate burst of activity or something worth investigating.
How It Responds
This guard observes and alerts — it doesn't block anything on its own. When it flags something, the event is recorded in your audit log and, depending on your alert settings, you may also get a notification.
If You See an Anomaly Alert
- Check the audit log entry for details — which tool, how many times, and how that compares to normal.
- Decide whether the activity is expected (a legitimately busy day) or worth investigating further.
- If it's expected and likely to recur, no action is needed — the guard will simply adjust its sense of "normal" as more usage accumulates.
Default Behavior
Enabled by default. It takes a handful of sessions before the guard has enough history to judge what's normal for a given agent — you won't see alerts until then.
Related Guards
- Audit & Alerts — where anomaly notifications show up
- Escalation Detection — catches specific attack patterns rather than general deviations