Research

Where agents fail on long engineering documents

Specifications run to hundreds of pages. We tested where reading breaks down, and what fixes it.

August 13, 2026By Alexandre Collet and JB Collet

Engineering specifications are long, cross-referenced and full of tables. Agents read them less well than their size suggests.

We tested where the reading breaks down: references across sections, values in tables, and requirements stated twice in different words.

Structure helps more than size. Linking the document to a model of its requirements fixed most of what we found.

Hours saved is the easy number. The ones that matter are quality, review time and what people do instead.

Agents that work on native engineering files and checks, discipline by discipline, with engineers making every decision.

Interviews, shadowing and one spreadsheet: the method behind every engagement we start.

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