# Decision classes

URL: /agents/autonomy-levels/decision-classes · Id: `page:agents/autonomy-levels/decision-classes`

> A decision class sorts every Verb by whether its effect can be undone and what is at stake, and the class sets how long an Action waits.

A decision class sorts every [Verb](/business/nouns/verb) by two questions: can its effect be undone, and is money, a customer or the brand at stake? The class sets the tier, and the tier sets the [delay window](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows).

## Two questions
The first question is reversibility. A two-way door can be walked back by a later [Action](/business/nouns/action) at little cost: a draft edited, a backlog re-ranked, a sync retried. A one-way door cannot: money has left, a [Message](/business/nouns/message) has been read, buyers have seen a [Price](/business/nouns/price).

The second question is stakes: money, customers or the brand. An Action that touches none of them is low tier whatever its size. An Action that touches one of them broadly is high tier, even when a later Action could undo part of it.

## The classes
| Kind of door | Typical Actions | Tier | Window |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Two-way | Edit a draft, rank a backlog, retry a failed sync, answer a customer in an open conversation | Low | None |
| Two-way, visible | Publish a [Page](/business/nouns/page), change DNS, turn on a [Flag](/business/nouns/flag) | Medium | 1 business hour |
| One-way, bounded | Refund within a [Limit](/business/nouns/limit), pay a bill, send one quote | Medium | 1 business hour |
| One-way, broad | Raise a Price, start ad spend, send an outbound campaign, sign an [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement) | High | 1 business day |

Answering a customer in an open conversation is low tier on purpose. Speed is the customer's stake there, and review still runs before every reply.

## Floors and raises
Verbs that move money, carry legal effect, publish, change DNS or retire a record never sit below medium. A namespace's [Settings](/business/nouns/setting) may raise any Verb's class. Nothing lowers a class below its floor.

An [Evaluator](/business/nouns/evaluator) may raise one Action's tier by amount or by blast radius: how many [Startups](/business/nouns/startup), customers or pages it touches. It never lowers one. Every Verb's reference row shows its default class, and every pending Action shows the class it ran under.

## In practice
A [b2c](/business/motions/b2c) meal-planning app runs with no humans. Its [Content Lead](/agents/marketing/content-lead) edits recipe drafts all day with no window. Publishing a new landing page waits one business hour, and a $300 weekly paid-social test waits one business day.

One morning the [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) queues a 30 percent discount email as a bounded send. An Evaluator counts 40,000 recipients and raises it to high tier. The email waits a business day, which gives the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio)'s watchers time to read it.