# Recruiting

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

> How a Startup computes its need for a Human from its own record, tests Candidates on paid real work against its Agents, and hires on Evidence.

No one at a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) writes a job description. The [Recruiter](/agents/people/recruiter) computes each need for a [Human](/business/nouns/human) from the Startup's record, tests [Candidates](/business/nouns/candidate) on paid work against the incumbent [Agent](/business/nouns/agent), and hires on [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence).

## The need is computed
Every [Role](/business/nouns/role) starts with an Agent in it. A Human is worth adding only where the record shows a gap the Agents cannot close. [Compute openings](/workflows/processes/hiring/compute-openings) reads five signals every day:

- Roles whose eval pass rate sits below the autonomy threshold for a decision class.
- Escalations and [Approvals](/business/nouns/approval) that waited on a person.
- Legal floor acts with no natural person to perform them.
- [Reserved Acts](/business/nouns/reserved-act) that no [Credential](/business/nouns/credential) holder in the Startup covers.
- [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric) that stall while the Agents work.

When a gap crosses its [Setting](/business/nouns/setting), the [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow) opens an [Opening](/business/nouns/opening), unlisted at first. Every requirement on it cites the Evidence that produced it. The need is recomputed as Agents improve, so an Opening for a builder last quarter becomes an Opening for a seller this quarter.

## Kinds and reasons
An Opening states what kind of commitment it asks for and why the Startup needs a person at all.

| Kind | What the Human does | Paid by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `floor` | Performs the acts the law reserves for a person, across one or many Startups | Cash per act |
| `contractor` | Takes a bounded share of a Role for a fixed scope | Cash, under an engagement [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement) |
| `employee` | Takes a standing share of a Role | Salary and an option grant |
| `cofounder` | Owns a share of the Startup's judgment and its outcome | Equity on published terms |

The reason is one of seven: `floor`, `credential`, `edge`, `relationship`, `capital`, `capacity`, or `distribution`.

Take an autonomous Startup that prepares visa petitions for employers. Agents gather documents and draft every petition, but the filing is a Reserved Act for a licensed attorney. Compute openings opens a `floor` Opening with reason `credential`, a few hours a week.

A headless scheduling API for veterinary clinics shows a different gap. Its technical founder ships quickly, but deals with clinic groups stall at the second call while the [Sales Lead](/agents/sales/sales-lead) Agent wins single clinics. The Opening is `cofounder`, reason `relationship`: someone clinic owners already trust.

The match is on the residual, never on similarity. A Candidate is scored on what the Startup needs, minus what the founder covers, minus what the Agents already do.

## Sourcing in order
Each Opening looks for people in three places, cheapest first.

1. A Startup in a [Studio](/business/nouns/studio)'s [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio) queries the Studio's talent pool, where each [Person](/business/nouns/person)'s record arrives with past Evidence and their [Consent](/business/nouns/consent).
2. Prospecting with an occupational [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) searches for people who do the work today, under the same consent and suppression rules as any outbound [Message](/business/nouns/message).
3. The Opening is listed publicly, in a form a candidate's personal agent can read and answer.

The Best users [Play](/business/nouns/play) adds a fourth source: [Customers](/business/nouns/customer) whose own results show they already understand the work.

## Screening reads Evidence
An Agent [screens](/business/nouns/candidate/screen) each Candidate in writing, over email or chat, on the Candidate's schedule. It asks only what the Opening's [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis) still lacks, so a strong record means a short screen.

Every claim is graded. Behavior counts most: shipped work, revenue verified at its source, Credentials in good standing, and acts performed.

Commitment counts next: hours offered, notice given, money put in. Self-description and praise with no incident behind it weigh zero.

Reference checks ask what the person did in a named situation, such as the week a launch slipped. Opinions of character weigh zero.

## The paid tryout
The decisive test is real work. [Run a tryout](/workflows/processes/hiring/run-tryout) cuts [Tasks](/business/nouns/task) from the Role's backlog, preferring those the Agent failed, escalated, or left waiting. The Candidate works under a scoped [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) that expires with the tryout, and is paid in full whatever the grade.

The incumbent Agent runs the same Tasks in shadow. The Role's own [Evaluators](/business/nouns/evaluator) grade both arms blind. The result is a difference per [Verb](/business/nouns/verb): where the Human beats the Agent, where they tie, and where the Agent is better.

That difference writes the hire's share of the Role. The veterinary Candidate closes three of the five clinic groups the Agent stalled on, and ties on everything else. The proposed split gives them group deals and leaves single clinics to the Agent.

For Roles shared with Agents, the tryout also measures how much the Candidate lifts the Agents they direct.

The [Work trial](/workflows/people/plays/work-trial) Play is the default tryout: two weeks on the Startup's own [Issues](/business/nouns/issue).

## Deciding and agreeing
The Recruiter drafts a hiring [Decision](/business/nouns/decision): the Hypothesis, the graded Evidence, the tryout result, and the proposed split. The Candidate, or their personal agent, reads the Startup's live view: its Metrics, the split, and the Tasks waiting on day one.

The first [Meeting](/business/nouns/meeting) is between people. Hiring is a one-way decision, so the accepted Decision waits its delay window before anything is signed.

Terms are standard and published before anyone meets, so nothing is negotiated deal by deal. A cofounder joins on four-year vesting with a one-year cliff and IP assignment. Acceptance runs the paperwork: the Agreement, a [Company](/business/nouns/company) where the Startup has none, the stock purchase, the tax election by its deadline, and identity checks.

## Recruiting learns
Outcomes land in the same record: who vested at the cliff, how the Role's Metrics moved by month twelve, and who left. Recruiting runs as an [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment) on which Evidence and which tryout designs predict a good hire. Winning designs become [Startup Template](/business/nouns/startup-template) defaults.

A Candidate declined at one Startup is ranked for every other open Opening in the Portfolio that night. Their record travels only with their Consent.

## Next
- [Joining](/agents/joining): the first weeks after the Agreement is signed.
- [Sharing a Role](/agents/sharing-a-role): how the split divides the work.
- Cofounders and capital: recruiting across a Portfolio.