Glossary

Shadow Deployment

Running a new AI agent version in parallel with the production agent on real incoming requests, with the new version's output discarded rather than served to users. Shadow mode surfaces systematic differences in cost, latency, or quality that unit tests miss. Typically runs 24+ hours before advancing to canary testing.

Shadow mode is the first of four gates in a staged rollout. Teams that skip it usually catch the same problems later, during canary, at a higher cost — with real users already affected.