How much the agent may do before it asks
In the lesson on delegating you added one line to the brief, and the line set how much the agent may do before it comes back to you. This lesson explains that choice. We name three settings and show that the setting follows from what a wrong step costs. Then we look at the first run of a new kind of task, and at the end you write the setting as one sentence the agent can follow.
The tasks come from the calibration team at Brindlewick Instruments, the fictional company from the earlier lessons. You don’t need an agent open for this lesson.
Settings you write into the brief
Section titled “Settings you write into the brief”The concepts course placed a workflow on a scale by asking who decides the next step, and named three points on it: the system suggests, the system acts and asks before anything hard to undo, and the system runs unattended (Three points on one scale) [1]. When you delegate one task, the same three points become three settings you write into the brief.
- Draft only. The agent gathers and drafts, and you decide and take every action yourself. Next week has one free calibration slot, and two customers want it. Mira asks the agent to lay out both requests with their due dates. She decides who gets the slot and writes to both customers herself.
- Act, and ask before anything that can’t be undone. The agent does the ordinary steps on its own and stops for a yes at each step that can’t be taken back. Mira asks the agent to answer twelve customers who want to know when their instruments come back. It looks up each date, writes each reply, and asks before it sends each one.
- Run to completion. The agent finishes the whole task, and you check the result afterwards. Mira asks the agent for a summary of this week’s team meeting in her own notes file. It writes the summary, and she reads it the next morning.
In the lesson on delegating the same three settings were called “human decides”, “agent proposes, human approves” and “agent acts, human reviews after”. The names differ and the settings are the same.
Which setting fits each task?
Section titled “Which setting fits each task?”The lesson names three settings for a delegated task: draft only (you take every action), act and ask before anything that can't be undone, and run to completion (you check the result afterwards). The tasks come from a fictional calibration team.
Match each task to the setting it needs.
For each task, find the step that goes wrong worst. Can you take that step back, does it reach anyone but you, and is the choice itself one you answer for?
The cost of a wrong step sets the level
Section titled “The cost of a wrong step sets the level”The setting comes from what a wrong step costs and how easily you can undo it. The blast radius from the safety course answers the cost part: say what the step can reach, including the things you didn’t mean it to reach (Blast radius). The undo part asks whether a wrong step can be taken back once it has happened.
- When every step is cheap and can be undone, the agent may run to completion. A wrong summary in your own notes costs you one reread.
- When most steps are cheap and a few can’t be taken back, the agent acts and asks before those few. A wrong lookup costs a redo, and a wrong reply that has been sent is in a customer’s inbox.
- When the task is a choice only you may make, such as a judgment about a person or a customer, the agent gathers and drafts, and you decide and act. A wrong choice costs trust, and once you announce it you can’t take it back.
How capable the agent seems plays no part in the cost or the undo. Suppose Mira’s agent writes twenty replies to customers, and all twenty are right. That tells her the agent is good at this task. It doesn’t change what the twenty-first reply costs if it gives a customer the wrong return date. The customer still plans around the date, and a correction email later doesn’t take the first one out of their inbox. The meeting summary shows the other side. A wrong summary reaches only Mira’s own notes and costs her one reread, so a check-in would save her nothing, and she lets it run unattended even on the first run.
Twenty good replies
Section titled “Twenty good replies”A team member has an agent that looks up return dates and writes replies to customers, and it asks before it sends each reply. Twenty replies in a row have been correct.
A colleague has watched the agent write twenty correct replies to customers in a row, each one approved before it went out. They suggest that it is time to let it send on its own. What do you do?
Did the twenty good replies change what one wrong reply costs, or only how likely it is?
The first run of a new kind of task
Section titled “The first run of a new kind of task”Cost and undo give the setting you work toward. On the first run of a new kind of task you also don’t know how the agent reads the input, which source it picks, or how it handles an odd case. A mistake in the first step then affects every later step, and you find it at the end. The lesson on delegating said to sit one step below the target setting for the first runs. On a task with more than one step, check-ins are how you do that: ask the agent to show its plan before it starts, and to stop after the first item. A person then approves the early steps as well as the one that can’t be undone. Each check-in costs you a minute, and a misreading then costs one item instead of the whole task.
When a few results have passed your review against the brief without a surprise, drop the extra check-ins [2]. That’s how autonomy widens as results pass. It widens up to the setting that cost and undo gave, and stops there. A task whose send reaches anyone else keeps its approval before the send, whatever the number of results that passed.
The first stock report
Section titled “The first stock report”The lesson says that on the first run of a new kind of task you add check-ins, such as seeing the plan and stopping after the first item, on top of the setting the task needs. The task here ends in a send to a manager.
Sam wants the agent to turn the monthly counts from four storerooms into a stock report and send it to the operations director. It’s the first time anyone has given the agent this task. Which setting fits this first run?
Where in this task would a misreading of the counts first show, and which setting shows it to you there?
The boundary in one sentence
Section titled “The boundary in one sentence”The setting only works when the agent can follow it, and the agent follows what the brief says. Write the setting as one sentence with two parts: what the agent may do on its own, and the step where it stops and asks. “Look up the dates and write the replies on your own, and ask me before you send any of them” is one such sentence. The agent can check each step against it, and so can you when you review.
Which boundaries can the agent follow?
Section titled “Which boundaries can the agent follow?”The lesson asks for the autonomy setting to be written as one sentence that says what the agent may do on its own and names the step where it stops and asks.
Which of these lines are boundaries that an agent can follow and that you can check afterwards?
For each line, could the agent tell from the words alone whether its next step needs a yes?
Write the boundary
Section titled “Write the boundary”Rewrite Sam’s line as one sentence that says what the agent may do on its own and names the step where it stops and asks.
Move and rename the files in the shared drafts folder on your own, and stop and ask me before you delete any file.
Which step in this task can't be taken back, and what may the agent do before it?
Sort by the cost of a wrong step
Section titled “Sort by the cost of a wrong step”Each item is a task you could delegate to an agent. The three settings are draft only (you take every action), act and ask before anything that can't be undone, and run to completion (you check the result afterwards). The setting follows from what a wrong step costs and how easily it is undone.
For each task, find the worst wrong step. Does it reach anyone but you, and can it be taken back?
After six good reports
Section titled “After six good reports”An agent writes a monthly stock report that is sent to a manager. On the first runs it showed its plan, stopped after the first storeroom, and asked before sending. Six reports in a row have passed review.
The agent has written six monthly stock reports, and each one passed review. Which check-ins do you keep?
Which check-ins were there because the task was new, and which one is there because of what the send reaches?
Which line sets the boundary?
Section titled “Which line sets the boundary?”The lesson asks for the autonomy setting to be written as one sentence that says what the agent may do on its own and names the step where it stops and asks.
You delegate booking the train travel for a site visit. Which line in the brief sets a boundary the agent can follow?
Which line lets you point at one step and say whether it needed a yes?
What decides the setting?
Section titled “What decides the setting?”A delegated task can be set to draft only, to act and ask before anything that can't be undone, or to run to completion. A team at Brindlewick Instruments, a fictional company, is choosing the setting for an agent that files supplier invoices and answers the suppliers.
Which of these should decide the setting the team works toward for this task?
Which of these would still be true on the day the agent makes its first mistake?
Exercise
Take these tasks from the calibration team. On paper or in a note, put each one under draft only, act and ask before anything that can’t be undone, or run to completion.
- Summarize this week’s calibration notes into your own notes file.
- Rename the scanned certificates in a copy of the folder by date.
- Answer twelve customers who asked when their instruments come back.
- Remove old drafts from the team’s shared drive.
- Decide which team member covers the weekend shift next month.
- Choose which of two job applicants the team invites back.
Then write the one-sentence boundary for tasks 3 and 4, in the form of what the agent may do on its own and the step where it stops and asks. It takes five minutes, and it is the same choice you make each time you delegate. In a good result each placement names the worst wrong step and says whether it can be taken back, and each boundary sentence names one step that you could point at in a review. Which of the six would you give more check-ins on the first run, and which check-ins?
Stretch: Take one task you delegated in the last month and write its boundary sentence. Then say whether the brief you actually sent contained that sentence, and what the agent did at the step it names.
Recap
- Most delegated tasks fit one of draft only, act and ask before anything that can’t be undone, or run to completion [1].
- The setting follows from how costly a wrong step is and how easily it is undone. Name the blast radius of the worst step to judge the cost.
- Good results say the agent is capable. They don’t change what one wrong step costs, so they don’t move the setting past what the cost allows.
- On the first run of a new kind of task, add check-ins such as the plan and the first item, and drop them as results pass review [2].
- Write the setting as one sentence: what the agent may do on its own, and the step where it stops and asks.
You can now
- Chooses how much the agent may do before checking in
References
Section titled “References”- DeepLearning.AI. Agentic AI: M1 workflows and autonomy, M2 reflection, M4 evals and error analysis, M5 autonomous agents. DeepLearning.AI. Course.
DLAI-11 - Anthropic. Introduction to Claude Cowork. Claude Academy. Course.
Academy introduction-to-claude-cowork