Before we build.

This is how our session becomes building time instead of discovery time. Answer honestly, not impressively: “it’s a mess and it lives in my head” is a genuinely useful answer.

Expect 20 to 30 minutes. Be brief anywhere you like, except the one question where we ask you to be boring and thorough. We mark it clearly.

One rule before anything else Never put a password in this form. Not here, not in email, not in a text. During our session you type your own credentials on your own screen. Nobody needs them but you, and we will never ask.

Leave this empty:

You and the business

Your name, and the best way to reach you Your business, or businesses: what each one sells, to whom, and roughly how many customers pass through in a month A few sentences per business is plenty. Who else works with you, and who else would touch or rely on this agent? What do you personally spend time on that you wish you didn't? If this works, what's the first thing you'd stop doing yourself?

The agent’s job

If we’re building two agents, fill this in for the first and use the second-agent section further down.

Which template is this agent starting from? Pick the closest fit and we tailor from there. "Not sure" is a perfectly good answer; the questions below adjust either way. A working name or nickname for this agent, if one comes to mind In one sentence: what is this agent for? Walk us through what happens today, step by step, without the agent. Where does the work start, who touches it, where does it end? Be boring and literal. This is the single most valuable answer in the whole form, so this is the one place to take your time. Where does it currently break, get slow, or fall through the cracks? What would you check to know the agent had done a good job this week?

Which inboxes and calendars should it hold? List the email accounts and calendars, and who owns each. What is it allowed to draft, and what should it never send without you seeing it first? What does a normal week contain that it should hold for you? Meetings that need prep, follow-ups that slip, travel, recurring deadlines.

What runs the money and operations side today? Invoicing tool, payment methods, onboarding steps, spreadsheets. Name the actual tools. What triggers an invoice, and what happens today when one goes unpaid? What operational state currently lives only in your head? Who has paid, who is onboarded, what was promised to whom.

Describe the job in your own words, as if briefing a new hire on their first day. Agents that fit no template are normal, and it's what the live sessions are best at. Your step-by-step walkthrough above carries most of what we need; here, just add whatever makes this job unlike the usual ones.

Where do leads come from, and what makes one worth your time? List every source, including the informal ones: website form, Instagram DMs, referrals, someone handing you their number at an event. Then say what makes a good lead the way you'd say it out loud, not the way a sales book would. Skip if not relevant. What are the stages between “first heard from them” and “they bought”, in your own words? How fast should someone hear back, and who follows up today? Where does this information live right now: a CRM, a spreadsheet, your inbox, your head? Name the actual tool if there is one.

III

Boundaries

These answers become the agent’s rules, so say them plainly.

What must this agent never do without asking you first? What is it fine for it to just handle, and tell you about afterward? What would be the worst thing it could get wrong? Anything it must never see or touch? Answer carefully. This becomes a hard rule. What do you eventually want it to handle on its own, once it has proven itself? Things you'd want to watch it do under supervision first. Trust arrives in rungs; this tells us what the next rungs should be.

Voice

When this agent writes to a customer, whose voice is it in: yours, the company’s, or its own as a named member of your team? Anything it should never say or sound like? Our default is that people are told plainly when they're talking with an AI. If you want it writing in your voice: paste two or three real messages you’ve written that sound like you. Actual sent emails or DMs, not polished samples. Remove anything private. This is worth more than any description of your style.

Setting up a second agent too? Open this. Same questions, shorter. If the second agent shares the same business and boundaries, just describe what’s different.

Which template is the second agent closest to? In one sentence: what is the second agent for? Walk us through what happens today for this job, step by step. Boring and literal, same as before. Boundaries and voice: what’s different from the first agent?

Where the work lives

What tools does this part of your business run on today? List everything, including the humble ones: Gmail, Google Calendar, Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot, Squarespace, Stripe, WhatsApp, Instagram, a paper notebook. Which computer will you use for our session, how old is it, and what does it run? Not sure? On a Mac: click the apple in the top left, then “About This Mac”, and copy what it says here. On Windows: press the Windows key, type “winver”, press enter, and copy what pops up. The software we install needs Windows 10 or newer, or a Mac from roughly the last five years, so it’s better to know now than mid-session.

The access check

The single most common reason a build session stalls, and it can’t be fixed during the session. For each tool you listed above, please confirm the following before our day together. It takes about 20 minutes. Tick what’s true today. And if any of these words mean nothing to you, that’s completely fine: leave the box unticked and tell us in the notes at the bottom, in your own words. “I don’t know what two-factor is” is a genuinely useful answer, and we’ll sort it together in the session.

For each tool, I know which email address owns the account. I can sign in to each one right now, on the computer I'll use for the session. I'm an admin or owner on each, not a limited user. Where there's two-factor login, I know how I receive the code, and I'll have that device with me. Where a colleague owns an account instead of me, I've already asked them for access. Anything that failed a check, or that you’re unsure about We'll plan around it rather than lose session time discovering it. “I don't know who owns the Instagram login” is exactly the kind of thing to write here.

VII

How you want to work with it

Short, and it matters more than it looks. Most people set up an assistant and never say how they want to be worked with, then wonder why it doesn’t fit.

When the agent is unsure, would you rather it ask you, or make a reasonable call and tell you what it chose? What do you want it to notice and raise on its own, without you asking each time? This is the question almost nobody thinks to answer, and it's the difference between a tool you have to remember to use and something actually in your corner. What has frustrated you about AI tools so far? Be specific and unkind if you want. This is diagnostic.

VIII

The day itself

Confirm our date and start time (with your time zone), whether anyone else is joining, and whether we may record the session You'll want to rewatch the part where we set the agent's rules.