# Who decides

URL: /agents/operating-models/who-decides · Id: `page:agents/operating-models/who-decides`

> How the gates on a Startup's Decisions shift as people join it.

In every operating model, an [Action](/business/nouns/action) within its [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) runs, and an Action over them opens an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval). As [Humans](/business/nouns/human) join, who answers, who watches, and how far each [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) acts alone all change.

## With no humans
An autonomous [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) routes every Approval to the approving [Role](/business/nouns/role), whose Agent answers by the Role's [Policy](/business/nouns/policy). No Action waits on a person.

Two-way decisions run at once. One-way decisions, such as refunds, ad spend, price changes, and outbound campaigns, first wait out a [delay window](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows). Its length follows the [decision class](/agents/autonomy-levels/decision-classes): how reversible the decision is, and what it puts at stake.

During the window, any [watcher](/agents/autonomy-levels/watchers) can pause, [redirect](/business/nouns/action/redirect), or [cancel](/business/nouns/action/cancel) the Action. A watcher is another Agent, a [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) partner, or a person's personal agent. When the window closes untouched, the Action proceeds.

Every intervention is a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision). Pending decisions show in the inbox and the stream as pending items, never as [Tasks](/business/nouns/task).

An autonomous store selling standing desks spends $300 a month on Instagram. After a winning test, its [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) Agent proposes $1,200. The increase is one-way money, so it waits one business day while a Studio partner reads the [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence) and lets it run.

## With one human
A single Human holds the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) Role. Agents still answer most Approvals by Policy, and the Founder answers those above a threshold set per [Verb](/business/nouns/verb), such as a discount over 15 percent. An Approval left unanswered past its deadline ends its Action `canceled`, so an absent Founder stops only what needed them.

Autonomy is [earned by evals](/agents/autonomy-levels/evals), one decision class at a time. At `assist` the Agent drafts and the Founder sends. At `supervised` it acts, and every Action waits in the Founder's pending feed; at `full` it acts under the normal window.

A class moves up a level when the Role passes 95 percent of its last 50 graded Actions. It drops a level the moment that rate falls below 95 percent.

The two regimes mix in one Startup. A class at `full` runs behind delay windows as it would with no Human, while a class at `assist` routes drafts to the Founder. A window is not an Approval: a window proceeds when it closes, and an Approval waits for an answer.

A founder runs a podcast-editing service alone. Her [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist) Agent is at `full` on refunds up to $100, behind a one-hour window. Her [Sales Lead](/agents/sales/sales-lead) Agent is still `supervised` on quotes, so each [Quote](/business/nouns/quote) waits in her feed before it goes.

## With several humans
Approvals still go to Roles, so each reaches the Human who holds the approving Role. Each Human answers within their own Limits and [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate), and an Approval above them escalates along the Role's chain to the Founder.

No [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) approves their own Action. An Approval a Human raises routes to the next Role with authority for that decision class. A cofounder's own budget increase reaches the Founder.

Watching multiplies too. Each Human watches the one-way decisions in the Roles they hold, and their personal agent watches on their behalf. Spend states bind everyone, whoever proposed the spend.

A managed bookkeeping firm runs with two cofounders and a staff accountant. The accountant approves refunds above $500 for the [Customers](/business/nouns/customer) she serves, one cofounder approves vendor payments, and the Founder approves anything above both.

## What never changes
Limits are [Settings](/business/nouns/setting) that inherit from the Studio down, and a child only tightens them. A guardrail stop never waits for a window or an answer.

Every Approval, intervention, and override lands on the record as a Decision. A Startup is audited the same way in every operating model.

## Next
- [Who signs](/agents/operating-models/who-signs): the legal floor and the owner of record.
- [Escalation and approvals](/agents/escalation-and-approvals): stakes tiers, deadlines, and change requests.
- [Mandates and limits](/agents/mandates-and-limits): where each Limit comes from.