# Who acts

URL: /business/who-acts · Id: `page:business/who-acts`

> Who may call each Verb, from the agent in a seat to the Customer on its own records, what only a person may do, and how every call is checked.

Every [Verb](/business/nouns/verb) names who performs it, and every [Action](/business/nouns/action) records who did. Five kinds of caller move a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup)'s records, and [Events](/business/nouns/event) with no caller move the rest.

## Six sources of change
| Who | What they are | Verbs such as | What bounds them |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A [Role](/business/nouns/role)'s agent | The [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) filling a Role, which does most of the work | [`Offer.publish`](/business/nouns/offer/publish), [`Lead.assign`](/business/nouns/lead/assign), [`Invoice.bill`](/business/nouns/invoice/bill) | The Role's [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission) and [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) |
| Any [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) | An Agent or a [Human](/business/nouns/human), whichever fills the seat | [`Task.complete`](/business/nouns/task/complete), [`Task.claim`](/business/nouns/task/claim) | The same Permissions and Limits, whoever sits there |
| A person only | The owner or an officer, for acts the law reserves for a Human | [`Startup.claim`](/business/nouns/startup/claim), [`Agreement.sign`](/business/nouns/agreement/sign), [`Action.attest`](/business/nouns/action/attest), [`Risk.accept`](/business/nouns/risk/accept) | No agent performs these, at any autonomy rung |
| The [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) or [Contact](/business/nouns/contact) | Someone outside, acting on their own records | [`Offer.accept`](/business/nouns/offer/accept), [`Order.dispute`](/business/nouns/order/dispute), [`Gathering.register`](/business/nouns/gathering/register), [`Contact.unsubscribe`](/business/nouns/contact/unsubscribe) | Their own sign-in or key, and only their own records |
| A [Party](/business/nouns/party) to the record | Whoever an [Agreement](/business/nouns/agreement), [Quote](/business/nouns/quote) or [Dispute](/business/nouns/dispute) names | [`Agreement.terminate`](/business/nouns/agreement/terminate), [`Dispute.answer`](/business/nouns/dispute/answer) | The terms of that record |
| No caller | The payment rail, the clock, or the runtime | `Transaction.settled`, `Invoice.overdue`, `Action.done` | Nothing: the Event records a fact |

Each Verb's page names the Role that performs it, such as the [Sales Lead](/agents/sales/sales-lead) for `Lead.assign`. [Events no Verb emits](/business/events/custom) lists the callerless ones.

## How a call is checked
Every call runs as a Worker or under a key, and both hold Permissions. A call the Permissions do not cover refuses with [`forbidden`](/code/api/errors/forbidden).

A call over its Limit waits for an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) and runs once it is approved. A one-way Verb also waits its delay window, and each seat's [autonomy rung](/agents/autonomy) sets both.

## The founder holds approvals, not seats
At the start an agent fills every seat, the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) included. You answer the Approvals over each Limit and perform the acts reserved for a person, and you take any seat when you choose to.

A Human in a seat works under the same Role contract an agent does. [Role reviews](/agents/role-reviews) judge the seat, whoever fills it.

## Who did what
Every Action carries three fields, and every Event it emits carries the Action.

| Field | Holds |
| --- | --- |
| `by` | The Worker that performed it |
| `for` | The Party it was done for, such as the Human whose [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) let an agent send in their name |
| `via` | The [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) or request it arrived through |

An agent that reads `by` and `for` on any record knows who changed it and on whose authority.