How do I practice agent retirement criteria?

The most direct way to practice agent retirement criteria is through a focused exercise: Select three cognitive agents you currently run — habits, routines, decision protocols, or review systems. For each one, write three retirement criteria: one based on performance (a measurable decline in the output that originally justified the agent), one based on relevance (a change in your context that makes the agent's purpose obsolete), and one based on cost (the maintenance burden exceeding the value produced). Set a calendar reminder for 30 days from now to evaluate each agent against its criteria. If any criterion is met, formally decide: retire, replace, or deliberately recommit with a written justification.

Common pitfall: Treating retirement criteria as theoretical rather than operational. You read this lesson, nod, and think 'I should probably retire some agents.' But you do not write specific, measurable criteria in advance. Without pre-committed criteria, every retirement decision becomes a real-time judgment call — and real-time judgment calls about your own systems are exactly where sunk cost bias, identity attachment, and status quo preference are strongest. The criteria must exist before the retirement question arises, not after.

This practice connects to Phase 30 (Agent Lifecycle) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.