FREE LLMs & agents LESSON · LLMs & agents
Design the complete model system
Multimodality, evaluation, governance, and final defense
A foundation-model system combines models, context, tools, people, and institutional rules.
Text, image, audio, and structured inputs each create representation and trust boundaries. Model versions change silently meaningful behavior; providers, datasets, evaluators, and tool owners share responsibility. A complete design records provenance, permissions, intended use, task evaluations, abuse cases, monitoring, incident response, and decommissioning—not only a prompt and endpoint.
The system is safe and useful only within a named purpose, authority boundary, and evidence envelope.
A benchmark can certify a version that no longer exists.
Providers update models, retrieval corpora change, tools evolve, and policies shift. Pin versions where possible, record complete evaluation inputs and environment, run regression gates on change, and maintain a fallback or shutdown path. When exact pinning is impossible, treat upstream behavior as a monitored dependency.
Capability evidence expires when the evaluated system changes.