We need to build agents that get better every run. We need the same harness rules for every agent, whether it's reshaping a fellow's portal or running outreach. ## 1. Real self-recursive loops Every agent runs: ==observe → decide → act → verify → remember → (maybe) retry==. - Cap the loop (6–12 steps). Infinite "keep thinking" is a bug. - Retry only when there's a verifier (send confirmed, CRM write landed, schema passed, citation found). Reflection without a check is theatre. - Persist the plan before spawning sub-agents - a crash shouldn't lose the thread. - Always allow a quiet path: nothing useful to do → do nothing. ## 2. Auto-research, grounded - Cheap checks / change-detection first; spend on deep research only when something new shows up. - Cite before you show. No claim or "comparable company" without a source. Can't cite it? Send to studio review, don't show the fellow. - Keep research isolated — it runs in its own context and returns a short, verified brief. Don't let a research dump pollute the message you send. ## 3. Memory in four layers (not "the chat") - **Working** — this run only - **Episodic** — what we did + what happened (source of truth) - **Semantic** — durable facts (ICP, stage, tone, prefs) - **Procedural** — playbooks/skills (human-owned) Garbled summary? Rebuild from the activity log + raw facts. Agents can update notes on a fellow; they must not silently rewrite shared playbooks. ## 4. Skills/helpers as inventory Every helper ships with a named owner, a playbook (skill), tests, and a trust level (supervised → semi-trusted → independent). One studio registry for all of them — no per-product inventories. ## 5. Human-in-the-loop by default for anything touching people or money - Small, reversible tweaks can be automatic (e.g. reorder a layout module). - Bigger changes, any message to a fellow, pricing/legal, and outbound sends → studio approval first. - Approvals must be resumable — pause the workflow, don't lose state if a tab closes. ## 6. Cost + blast-radius discipline - Cheap models/rules for routine work; strong models only for hard judgment and fellow-facing copy. - Log every billable step. - Prefer flipping flags/settings over auto-writing prod code. Specs and PRs are fine; silent codegen into prod is not — not for pilot. ## 7. Compounding is the point Production traces → eval cases → improve the skill → next fellow benefits.