agent-operated-workflows

1# Agent-Operated Workflows
2 
3An **Agent-Operated Workflow** is a bounded procedure whose control loop belongs to an agent. The
4agent observes, interprets, sequences bounded actions, verifies their effects, adapts, and escalates
5genuine ambiguity. Deterministic code remains the exact substrate; it does not pretend to understand
6every state of a brownfield world.
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8## Name the architecture before using it
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10- **AI-enabled software:** application code owns the control loop and calls a model as one capability.
11- **Agent-Operated Workflow:** an agent owns one bounded procedure with a start and stop condition.
12- **Agent-Operated Software:** an OpenRig agent or rig participates in an ongoing application's live
13  backend or control loop. It may run many workflows; see `agent-operated-software`.
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15Calling a model is not enough. A deterministic program that consults a model still owns its loop.
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17## Decide whether the agent earns the loop
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19Use an agent when the happy path is deterministic but the environment is brownfield, variable,
20partially knowable, or disproportionately expensive to model exhaustively. The judgment is in
21discovering what is true and choosing the next safe act.
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23Prefer ordinary code when the state space is closed and code is simpler and more reliable than
24judgment. A parser, fixed data transformation, or fully enumerated state machine does not become
25better because an agent drives it.
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27## Keep ownership explicit
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29| Owner | Responsibility |
30|---|---|
31…