Chain-of-thought monitoring examines intermediate reasoning text produced by some models alongside their actions and final outputs. A monitor may look for prohibited plans, contradictions, attempts to exploit scoring, or evidence that the model is trying to bypass a control.
Reasoning traces are useful evidence but are not guaranteed to reveal every internal computation or intent. Models may omit or alter what they expose, and monitoring can influence behavior. Strong oversight combines reasoning analysis with protected execution logs, external outcomes, and independent tests.
