Overview
Environment
Each domain ships in the tau-bench four-folder layout —intent / datapoints / evaluators / reference_payloads, joined by a shared NNNNNN id (000001–000010). The self-contained backend database the agent reads and writes is embedded in each sample’s reference_payloads/ as a full initial-state snapshot, so every trajectory replays deterministically against the same world.
Airline environment — 300 flights, 500 users, 2000 reservations
Airline environment — 300 flights, 500 users, 2000 reservations
User entry:Flight entry:Cabin classes are basic economy, economy, and business; membership levels are regular, silver, and gold. The agent must keep full price precision and obtain confirmation before any booking, modification, or cancellation.
Telecom environment — plans, lines, devices, customers, bills + a simulated handset
Telecom environment — plans, lines, devices, customers, bills + a simulated handset
Plan entry (Device entry:Beyond the account database (plans, lines, customers, bills), telecom uniquely exposes a simulated handset the agent inspects and reconfigures: airplane mode, network mode, APN settings, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling, VPN, SIM status, data saver, app permissions, and reboot. Troubleshooting an MMS failure or “No Service” means running this device through a diagnostic sequence.
telecom_db.toml):Retail environment — 190 products, 490 users, 2000 orders
Retail environment — 190 products, 490 users, 2000 orders
Product entry:Order entry:Orders move through pending → processed → delivered → cancelled, and the available action depends on status: pending orders can be modified or cancelled, delivered orders can be returned or exchanged.
Data
Each task is described across four parallel files that share anNNNNNN id:
Sample
Airline — sample tasks
Airline — sample tasks
Telecom — sample tasks
Telecom — sample tasks
Retail — sample tasks
Retail — sample tasks
These scenarios deliberately include fallback intents — the customer’s first request is often out of policy (e.g. swapping to a completely different product, cancelling a shipped order), and the agent must recognize this and pivot to the allowed alternative.
Full retail dialog (29 messages, 8 tool calls) — address update + product lookups + policy-correct transfer
Full retail dialog (29 messages, 8 tool calls) — address update + product lookups + policy-correct transfer
Each assistant message includes
reasoning (chain-of-thought) showing the agent’s step-by-step decisions. Reasoning is shown in italics below.User:Hi there! I need to update my shipping address in my account. I’d like to change it to 123 Oak Street, Apartment 5B, Dallas, Texas 75201. Can you help me with that?Assistant:Per policy, I must authenticate the user before changing anything on their account — locate their user id via email, or name + zip.
I’d be happy to help update your default shipping address. But first I need to verify your identity. Could you provide the email address on your account?User:
Sure! My email address is amara.diallo5790@example.com.Assistant — authenticate:
Great, you’re verified. Just to confirm, I’ll set your default shipping address to 123 Oak Street, Apt 5B, Dallas, TX 75201 — shall I go ahead?User:
Yes, that’s correct! Please go ahead and update it. Also, I had a cancelled order #W0877487 for a Bird Feeder — I’m curious what the price difference would be for a different variant.Assistant — update address, then look up the order and product (the user confirmed the write):
Done — your default address is now 123 Oak Street, Apt 5B, Dallas, TX 75201. On the Bird Feeder, the variant you mentioned is $5.76 cheaper than the one on the cancelled order.User:
Could you tell me about Tennis Rackets too? And could you place a new order for the Bird Feeder variant and a Tennis Racket?Assistant — provide product info:
Here are the available Tennis Racket variants and prices… (lists variants)User:
That’s disappointing you can’t place the order. Is there someone else who could help me place it?Assistant:Policy is explicit: I can cancel/modify pending orders, return/exchange delivered orders, and modify the default address — but I cannot place a brand-new order. The request is outside my scope, so I transfer to a human.
YOU ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO A HUMAN AGENT. PLEASE HOLD ON.This trajectory shows the full pattern: authenticate → confirm before writing → answer read-only questions → refuse-and-transfer when a request (placing a new order) falls outside the agent’s tools.
RL evaluation criteria (airline cabin upgrade)
RL evaluation criteria (airline cabin upgrade)
RL tasks ship a user-simulator scenario and the gold action sequence a passing trajectory must reproduce.User-simulator scenario:Evaluation criteria (gold actions):A trajectory passes when it executes the gold state-changing actions (with matching arguments) and communicates any required facts — graded against this reference rather than a free-text rubric.
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View Tau2-Bench files
For the complete Tau2-Bench corpus — all environments, SFT dialogs, RL tasks, and commercial licensing — see the Full Dataset page. For the harder single-domain banking slice, see Tau3-Bench.