01
Start with the workflow.
Map handoffs, exceptions, and the cost of being wrong before choosing a model. If the operating model would not change, it is not an agent problem.
In the workSetup Agent
Approach
Model capability is only one layer.
Consequential workflows need context, bounded tools, deterministic services, human control, and evidence that the system deserves more scope. That is the product.
ContinueAgent Platform & Controls
Five layers, in the order a request passes through them
5systems, one control model
Schematic · five systems, one control plane · Evals decide the next inch
Control layers1-5 · select to hold
Reading the schematic interfaceFive enterprise systems on one control plane, passing context through MCP servers and domain APIs, typed actions, deterministic services and a human approval gate, and finishing at shared evaluation baselines.
Five systems. Same control interfaces.
Principles
Three rules I build by. In markets and in agents.
02
Agents should earn autonomy.
Context, bounded tools, deterministic services, and human control are the product. Autonomy grows one rung at a time, on evidence.
In the workIncident AgentAgent Platform
03
Reliability is a feature.
In markets and in agents, a late failure is a product failure. Validation, evals, and operator visibility belong in the design, not in the cleanup.
Autonomy ladder
Scope expands when the evidence says it should.
I standardized this pattern across five enterprise systems: reusable MCP servers, domain APIs, Pydantic-typed actions, deterministic services, human approval, and evaluation baselines.
Platform case04 / 06 · Supervised
Supervised Act with approval. Human remains the gate.
1-5 layers · j / k when ladder in view · y link · ⌘K jump