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. Your answers save on this device as you type, so you can step away and pick up where you left off, as long as you come back in the same browser.

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 Your email Your packet and session details land here, so this one has to be right. Your pronouns, if you'd like your agent to know them Your agent writes about you in its own notes from day one; this saves it guessing. Skip it and it'll ask you once, live. Your business, or whatever this agent is for: what it does, who it’s for, and roughly how many people pass through in a month A few sentences is plenty, and “it isn’t a business” is a real answer. Setting up agents for two separate parts of your life, two businesses, or a business and your personal world? Fill this form once for each, so every agent gets its own clean picture. There’s a link at the end to come back for the next one. 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

Building two agents for this same business? Fill this in for the first, then open the second-agent section further down. If the second agent is for something separate, another business, or your personal life, fill this form again instead, so each one gets its own picture.

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 Or let the agent suggest its own name in your first session. 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? And which languages does it need? 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 that shares all of this, the same team, the same tools, the same you? Open this. Same questions, shorter: everything above carries over. Just tell us what’s different about this one. An agent for a separate business or for your personal life wants its own form instead.

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

Access problems stall more build sessions than anything else, so let’s make sure we’re set before we start building. For each tool you listed in the last question (e.g. your Gmail, your website, your booking system), tick what’s true today. If a line doesn’t apply, skip it. If the words mean nothing, say so in the notes at the bottom; that’s a real answer, and we’ll sort it together.

For each tool, I know which email address owns the account. I can sign in to every tool I listed, right now, on the computer I'll use for the session. My account on each tool has full control, not limited or guest access. Tools call this admin or owner. Not sure? Use the notes. Where signing in also sends me a code, I know where the code arrives, and I'll have that device with me. The code-on-your-phone thing, called two-factor. Never noticed it? Leave unticked. Where someone else holds a login (a colleague, your spouse, the friend who built the website), I've asked for access, or they'll be with me on the day. Anything skipped, failed, or fuzzy 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? If it depends: which topics get asked, which get decided? A rough split is plenty: “anything a customer sees, ask; scheduling, just decide” is a perfect answer. 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

The date and time you have for our session, with your time zone. Anyone else joining? May we record? If your date differs from ours, we catch it here. Recording is worth a yes: you'll want to rewatch the part where we set your agent's rules.