Joining

A Human joins a Startup that is already running. They take a share of a Role the Agent keeps working, read a briefing compiled from the record, and earn authority the way Agents do.

Day oneCopy Anchor Link

Joining starts when the Agreement is signed, and the first day is ready before the Human arrives. They get an identity, a Mailbox, and the Permissions for their share of the Role, nothing wider.

The first Human wakes the controls that apply only to people: lawful background checks where required, an acceptable-use Agreement, and security training. The Payroll Specialist adds them to the next pay run.

Tasks are already waiting. The tryout found the work the Agent failed, escalated, or left waiting, and that work is the new teammate's first queue.

The briefingCopy Anchor Link

The incumbent Agent compiles a briefing from the Role's record: Goals, Metrics, open Tasks, recent Decisions, Policies, and key Customers. Each item links to its source, so the Human reads records, not a summary of them.

The Human then replays the last 30 days of the Role's Decisions. Where they would have chosen differently, they say so, and each disagreement becomes a draft Decision that supersedes the old one.

Take a cofounder joining a scheduling API for dental clinics. In her first week she replays 40 pricing and onboarding Decisions and disagrees with six. Four of the six concern clinics with more than three chairs, which tells the Agents where her judgment differs and why.

Earning authorityCopy Anchor Link

A Human earns authority per decision class, on the same ladder as an Agent. At assist the Human drafts and the Agent acts; at supervised the Human acts and the Role's Evaluators check; at full the Human acts alone.

The exceptions run the other way. Acts the law reserves for a person, such as signing, filing, or a Reserved Act under the Human's Credential, are full from day one. The tryout already proved the Human can do the work; the ladder proves they can do it inside this Startup's Limits.

Each Human sets an attention budget: hours per week and quiet hours. The escalation router fits their Tasks to it and sends overflow to the Role's Agent. Stakes override quiet hours, so an Action that waits on a one-way decision still reaches them.

Judgment becomes the contractCopy Anchor Link

A Human's value compounds when their judgment changes what the Agents do. Every night, a Workflow reads the Human's overrides and drafts the change to the Role contract that would have produced them. It back-tests each draft against the Role's history.

The Human accepts or rejects each proposal. An accepted change runs in every Task the Agents handle from then on, including the ones the Human never sees. The dental cofounder's six disagreements become one responsibility on multi-chair clinics, and the Agents apply it to every new clinic that signs up.

The cliff yearCopy Anchor Link

The tryout's shadow arm keeps running. The incumbent Agent works a sample of the Human's Tasks in parallel, unseen, so every assessment compares the same work two ways. They arrive at months three, six, nine, and twelve.

A cofounder also gets a monthly check-in with the other founders on how the company runs: decision rights, time, and where they disagree. These are relationship signals and never grade performance.

At month twelve the cliff Decision is recorded with three options: continue, re-scope, or separate on the terms agreed at signing. The Agents compile its pre-read from the assessments and the Role's Metrics since joining.

Joining by operating modelCopy Anchor Link

What joining changes depends on the operating model.

• In an autonomous Startup, the first Human is a floor holder who signs and performs reserved acts, and nothing else changes.
• In a single-human Startup, the founder holds every one-way decision the Agents have not earned.
• In a multi-human Startup, Humans share Roles with Agents and with each other. Each has a Mandate and Limits, and the cofounder Agreement names who signs which floor act.

LeavingCopy Anchor Link

Leaving is the reverse of joining, and it leaves the Startup whole because the Agent never stopped working the Role. Open Tasks return to the Agent by query. Floor acts move to the officer desk the same day, and Permissions end within one business hour.

What the Human built stays. Their changes to the contract keep running, their Decisions stay on the record forever, and vesting stops under the Agreement. Both sides sign a separation record of how the Role was handed back, which travels with the Human's Consent to their next Startup.

NextCopy Anchor Link

• Sharing a Role: how a Human and an Agent divide one Role.
• Handoffs: how work moves between them.
• Evals: how authority is earned and lost.