Beyond the 'Diff': Addressing Agentic Entropy in Agentic Software Development

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16323v2
• Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:30:47 GMT
• Title: Beyond the 'Diff': Addressing Agentic Entropy in Agentic Software Development
• Abstract summary: We propose a process-oriented explainability framework that exposes how agentic decisions unfold across time, tool calls, and architectural boundaries.<n>Our approach provides intent-level telemetry that complements, rather than replaces, existing review practices.<n>By treating cognitive drift as a first-class concern alongside code quality, our framework supports the minimum level of human comprehension required for agentic oversight to remain substantive.
• Score: 42.371764229953165
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: As autonomous coding agents become deeply embedded in software development workflows, their high operational velocity introduces a critical oversight challenge: the accumulating divergence between agentic actions and architectural intent. We term this process agentic entropy: a systemic drift that traditional code diff-based and HCXAI methods fail to capture, as they address local outputs rather than global agentic behaviour. To close this gap, we propose a process-oriented explainability framework that exposes how agentic decisions unfold across time, tool calls, and architectural boundaries. Built around three pillars (conformity seeding, reasoning monitoring, and a causal graph interface) our approach provides intent-level telemetry that complements, rather than replaces, existing review practices. We demonstrate its relevance across two user profiles: lay users engaged in vibe coding, who gain structural visibility otherwise masked by functional success; and professional developers, who gain richer contextual grounding for code review without increased overhead. By treating cognitive drift as a first-class concern alongside code quality, our framework supports the minimum level of human comprehension required for agentic oversight to remain substantive.

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