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Evaluators in LangSmith are workspace-level resources. You can attach a single evaluator to multiple tracing projects and datasets, so you can apply consistent evaluation logic across your work without recreating it each time.
The LangSmith Engine suggests custom evaluators for detected issues and can deploy them with one click.

View evaluators

In the LangSmith UI, select Evaluators in the left sidebar to view all evaluators in your workspace. The evaluators table shows the following columns:

Create an evaluator

  1. In the LangSmith UI, select Evaluators in the left sidebar.
  2. Click + Evaluator to open the new evaluator panel.
  3. The panel lets you:
    • Create from scratch: Build a new LLM-as-a-Judge or Code evaluator.
    • Create from a template: Start from a ready-made evaluator (also known as a prebuilt evaluator) for common evaluation patterns. A Recommended section surfaces popular templates first, followed by templates organized by the following categories:
You can also add an evaluator directly from a tracing project or dataset. In that flow, you can additionally attach an existing evaluator from your workspace, or create a Composite evaluator. Refer to Set up LLM-as-a-judge online evaluators and Automatically run evaluators on experiments.

View evaluator details

Click any evaluator in the table to open its detail view. The detail view has four tabs:
  • Overview: The evaluator’s feedback configuration and prompt or code definition.
  • Traces: Traces processed by this evaluator across all attached resources.
  • Logs: Execution logs for this evaluator across all attached resources.
  • Resources: The tracing projects and datasets this evaluator is attached to.

Edit an evaluator

Open an evaluator. In the Overview tab, click the Edit evaluator icon to open the Configure Evaluator panel. Update the evaluator’s configuration. Click Save. Because the evaluator is shared, changes apply across all tracing projects and datasets it is attached to.

Manage evaluator trace retention

When an online evaluator scores a trace, it attaches feedback to that trace, which auto-upgrades the trace to extended retention. Extended retention keeps the trace longer but costs more. When you set up an online evaluator on a tracing project, you can opt out of this upgrade so that scored traces stay at the project’s base retention. This control is available only when the project’s default retention is the base tier. If the project defaults to extended retention (set at the project or workspace level), traces scored by the evaluator follow that default and the option is locked. To opt out of extending retention for scored traces:
  1. When you create or edit an online evaluator, set the source to a tracing project, rather than a dataset.
  2. Expand the Advanced section in the evaluator configuration panel.
  3. Clear Extend trace retention.
The change applies to traces scored after you save the evaluator. Existing scored traces keep their current retention tier.

Delete an evaluator

An evaluator cannot be deleted while it is attached to a tracing project or dataset. To delete an evaluator, first remove it from all resources via the Resources tab, then delete it.