What does it mean that alert thresholds?

Define clear thresholds that distinguish normal operation from problems requiring your attention.

Example: You have a morning planning agent — a routine that reviews your calendar, priorities, and energy level to produce a daily plan. Some days the plan misses a meeting or ranks a low-value task too high. That's normal variance. But when the plan misses meetings three days in a row, or when it consistently ignores your top priority for a week, something has changed. The difference between those two situations is a threshold. Without one defined in advance, you'll either shrug off a real problem or panic over routine noise.

Try this: Pick one agent (a habit, a routine, or a delegation) that you monitor. Write down three numbers: (1) the metric you track (e.g., completion rate, accuracy, time-to-fire), (2) the value you consider 'normal,' and (3) the value that would make you stop and investigate. Now ask: how did I arrive at that third number? If the answer is 'gut feeling,' run the agent for two weeks, record the metric daily, compute the mean and standard deviation, and set your threshold at the mean minus two standard deviations. You now have a threshold grounded in your agent's actual behavior rather than your anxiety about it.