# Agents

URL: /products/agent/agents · Id: `page:products/agent/agents`

> An Agent Product is a Role plus an eval suite, sold to Customers who each get their own Agent, minted in their Tenant and billed on verdicts.

An [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) [Product](/business/nouns/product) is [Software](/business/nouns/software) that acts: each [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) gets its own Agent, minted in its [Tenant](/business/nouns/tenant). [SoftwareBuilder](/code/builders/software) builds it from two authored parts, a [Role](/business/nouns/role) and an eval suite.

## A Role plus an eval suite
The Role says what the Agent may do: its [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission), [Goals](/business/nouns/goal), [Limits](/business/nouns/limit), and [Skills](/business/nouns/skill). The eval suite says what good work is, as graded cases. Everything else is compiled from those two.

The Agent's [Tools](/business/nouns/tool) are the Role's Permissions, each one a [Verb](/business/nouns/verb) with the same name and description its reference page shows. Its MCP [Interface](/business/nouns/interface), [Memory](/business/nouns/memory) layout, price, and agent card in `agents.json` derive from the same records. Grant the Role a new Permission, and the toolbelt gains a Tool.

ledgerhand.ai is a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) that sells a bookkeeping Agent to freelancers and small firms. The Agent categorizes bank transactions, matches receipts, chases the missing ones, and closes each month. Its Role grants `Transaction.reconcile` and `Period.close`, and its suite holds 400 graded months of real books.

## Seated or sold
The same anatomy serves two employers. An Agent seated in one of a Startup's Roles works for that Startup, as a member of its [Team](/business/nouns/team). An Agent minted from an Agent Product works for the Customer who bought it.

The default [role agents](/agents/role-agents) of every new Startup are Agent Products, hired into Roles. One Agent identity holds many seats, each with its own [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) and Memory.

## Minting and authority
When a Customer accepts the [Offer](/business/nouns/offer), [mint](/business/nouns/agent/mint) creates the Customer's own Agent in its Tenant. That Agent acts only within the Customer's [Entitlements](/business/nouns/entitlement) and their Limits. Its Memory belongs to the Tenant, and it stays with the Customer.

Authority is data, never instructions. "Close my books" grants nothing; a Mandate grants the right to reconcile and close, within Limits. A recategorization that changes a filed quarter waits as an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) for the freelancer.

The Agent reaches the Customer's own accounts through the Customer's [Integrations](/business/nouns/integration). The Customer's credentials never mix with the Startup's, or with another Customer's.

A minted Agent runs the [Version](/business/nouns/version) its Customer bought. A new Version reaches an existing Customer only through an upgrade the Customer reviews.

## Evals are the contract
An [Evaluator](/business/nouns/evaluator) grades each piece of work against a rubric and records its verdict beside the [Action](/business/nouns/action). The doer is never the checker: an Evaluator never shares the model of the Agent it grades.

The suite serves four jobs at once:

| Use | What the suite decides |
| --- | --- |
| Spec | What the Agent must do on each task type the Offer sells |
| Gate | Whether the Startup enters [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live#entry-checks): every task type passes |
| Autonomy | Which Verbs run without review |
| Billing | Which pieces of work the Customer pays for |

Autonomy advances one Verb at a time: `assist`, then `supervised`, then `full`. A Verb moves up when the Evaluator agrees with at least 95% of a sample. It moves down on its own when agreement drops.

## Billed on the verdict
A fluent reply never stands in for work done. An Agent Product earns on the Evaluator's passing verdict, not on a `done` Action. A month the Evaluator fails is redone, and the Customer pays nothing for the failed attempt.

Before any charge, a caller asks whether the Agent can take the task. The answer is yes, yes with one missing piece (an Integration, a raised Limit), or no. A no costs nothing, so an Agent buying on its Customer's behalf can compare Agents before it spends.

## Software or Service
The Offer's promise decides the kind, never its price unit. Billing per closed month keeps the bookkeeping Agent Software: the Customer pays for graded work. Warranting a result under an [Outcome Contract](/business/nouns/outcome-contract), such as "books audit-ready by the 5th or the fee back", makes it a [Service](/business/nouns/service).

The same Agent can power both Offers. The [Agent as a Service](/products/templates/agent-as-a-service) [Product Template](/business/nouns/product-template) starts the Software one, and [ServiceBuilder](/code/builders/service) builds the Service.

## Next
[Interfaces](/code/builders/software/interfaces) covers how Customers and their Agents reach every Product.