Feature Engineering for Agents: An Adaptive Cognitive Architecture for Interpretable ML Monitoring

Abstract

Monitoring Machine Learning (ML) models in production environments is crucial, yet traditional approaches often yield verbose, low-interpretability outputs that hinder effective decision-making. We propose a cognitive architecture for ML monitoring that applies feature engineering principles to agents based on Large Language Models (LLMs), significantly enhancing the interpretability of monitoring outputs. Central to our approach is a Decision Procedure module that simulates feature engineering through three key steps: Refactor, Break Down, and Compile. The Refactor step improves data representation to better capture feature semantics, allowing the LLM to focus on salient aspects of the monitoring data while reducing noise and irrelevant information. Break Down decomposes complex information for detailed analysis, and Compile integrates sub-insights into clear, interpretable outputs. This process leads to a more deterministic planning approach, reducing dependence on LLM-generated planning, which can sometimes be inconsistent and overly general. The combination of feature engineering-driven planning and selective LLM utilization results in a robust decision support system, capable of providing highly interpretable and actionable insights. Experiments using multiple LLMs demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, achieving significantly higher accuracy compared to various baselines across several domains.