Measure behavioral agent progress by displacement rate…

Track agent displacement by measuring the percentage of times your designed agent fires instead of the default, not by whether you execute perfectly every time, because replacement is gradual and competes against thousands of prior reinforcements.

When This Fires

When evaluating whether a new behavioral agent is working
When you feel discouraged because a habit "isn't sticking" — check displacement rate rather than perfection
During weekly agent reviews (Review new agents weekly, established ones monthly…) when assessing progress
When coaching others on behavior change and they report "failure"

Common Failure Mode

Using streak-based tracking: "I did it 12 days in a row, then missed a day — back to zero." Streaks create fragile motivation structures that collapse on first failure. Displacement rate is resilient: a missed day changes the percentage slightly but doesn't erase progress. It also reveals trends: 60% this week vs. 40% last week vs. 20% the week before shows acceleration even though you're far from 100%.

The Protocol

(1) For each active behavioral agent, track two numbers per week: total trigger instances (how many times the trigger condition occurred) and new agent firings (how many times you executed the designed response). (2) Calculate displacement rate: firings ÷ trigger instances. (3) Track the trend over weeks. Rising displacement rate = the agent is installing. Flat rate = something needs adjustment (see Diagnose failing behavioral agents by component — trigger… for diagnosis). Declining rate = the agent is losing to the default. (4) Celebrate displacement improvement, not perfection. Going from 30% to 50% is significant progress that deserves reinforcement. (5) Target 80%+ displacement before considering the agent "installed" — 100% is aspirational, not required.