# Autonomy and approvals

URL: /agents/autonomy · Id: `page:agents/autonomy`

> What an agent does without asking you: three rungs per seat, defaults by decision class, and the short list that always comes to you.

An [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) acts alone inside its seat's bounds and asks above them. Its rung on the ladder sets how much a person sees before an [Action](/business/nouns/action) runs.

## The ladder
Every [Role](/business/nouns/role) holds one rung per decision class. The same seat can answer routine questions on its own and still draft every refund promise for review.

| Rung | The agent | You |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `assist` | Does the work and stops before it runs | Approve each Action, edit it, or discard it |
| `supervised` | Acts on its own | See only the exceptions in the pending feed |
| `full` | Acts on its own | Read a sample, and anything a [watcher](/agents/autonomy-levels/watchers) flags |

A rung changes who looks, never what is allowed. [Limits](/business/nouns/limit), delay windows and the legal floor hold at every rung.

## Defaults by seat
A seat starts on the rung its kind of work earns. Every [Verb](/business/nouns/verb) has a [decision class](/agents/autonomy-levels/decision-classes): `low` is two-way with nothing at stake, `medium` is visible or bounded, `high` is one-way and broad.

| Kind of seat | `low` | `medium` | `high` | Seats |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Moves money or signs | `supervised` | `assist` | `assist` | [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead), [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist), [Contracts Manager](/agents/legal/contracts-manager), [Paid Media Manager](/agents/marketing/paid-media-manager) |
| Most seats | `supervised` | `supervised` | `assist` | [Product Lead](/agents/product/product-lead), [Content Lead](/agents/marketing/content-lead), [Prospector](/agents/sales/prospector) |
| Answers or builds at volume | `full` | `supervised` | `assist` | [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead), [Engineering Lead](/agents/engineering/engineering-lead), [Analyst](/agents/marketing/analyst) |

Each Role page states its own rungs in its contract. A seat in an [autonomous](/agents/operating-models/autonomous) [Startup](/business/nouns/startup), with no human founder, runs every class at `full` and relies on delay windows and watchers.

## How a seat climbs
A class moves up one rung when the seat passes 95 percent of its last 50 graded Actions there. It drops one rung the moment that rate falls, and a breach of a [Guard](/business/nouns/guard) drops it to `assist` at once.

A [Role Review](/business/nouns/role-review) that finds a missed standard also moves the seat down one rung. Grading and the eval record are on [Evals](/agents/evals).

## What always comes to you
The founder holds the [Approvals](/business/nouns/approval), not the seats. These reach you whatever the rung:

- An Action above a [Team](/business/nouns/team) lead's Limit, or above the Limit of any seat that answers to you.
- The Verbs in a seat's Approvals, such as [launching the Startup](/business/nouns/startup/launch) and [raising a Limit](/business/nouns/limit/raise).
- An act the law reserves to a credentialed person, as a [Reserved Act](/business/nouns/reserved-act).
- Accepting revenue-based financing, which only the owner of record may do.

One thing never asks: a customer's call past an [Offer](/business/nouns/offer)'s bound. Each Offer declares `atBound` (stop, overage or upgrade), so the answer exists before the call arrives.

## Bounds at every rung
| Bound | What it decides | Read |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Permission](/business/nouns/permission) | Which Verbs the seat may call at all | [What a seat may call](/agents/tools-and-permissions) |
| Limit | How much: an amount, a count, a period | [Spend and authority](/agents/mandates-and-limits) |
| [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) | What it may do without asking, for whom, until when | [Spend and authority](/agents/mandates-and-limits) |
| Delay window | A one-way call waits so any watcher can stop it | [Delay windows](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows) |
| Approval | Above a Limit, the call waits for the seat it escalates to | [Escalation and approvals](/agents/escalation-and-approvals) |
| Stop | Any agent, Team or every customer-facing agent pauses in one call | [Pause and replace](/agents/pause-and-replace) |

Guides: [approve what agents spend](/agents/approve-what-agents-spend), [let the support agent refund up to $50](/agents/let-an-agent-refund), or [pause every customer-facing agent](/agents/pause-customer-facing-agents).