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source_hash: dcb2d4799b0f369c4dbbb14a778bd973b23a34c4b0abd403626da9418f573a49
post: /posts/ari-os/build-your-team
---

# Build Your Team: Agent Context Pack

Define observable work and handoffs before assigning owners. This method is not a scheduler, model ranking or permission grant. The essay uses Ari's notebook habit and her 25 September conversation; the five-stage video example came from another participant, not a new personal production claim.

## Verbatim excerpts

> Before you choose the team, draw the work.

> **Enough context means enough to do this job and judge its output.**

> Responsibility needs a boundary.

## Stage contract

Start with Input, Output, Receiver and Check. Identify the accepted input revision, prerequisites, required judgement, owner and authority. The next receiver determines what context and evidence it needs. Share relevant agreed artefacts, not every conversation or private transcript.

Separate three acceptance claims: structure (exists, parses, declared form); relationship (accepted source and revision); outcome (serves receiver and brief). A parser cannot certify accurate words, timing or creative fitness. A timestamp contract needs units, ordered/range-valid values, the audio revision and meaningful sync comparisons; a sampled check does not prove all words correct.

## Dependencies and staleness

Illustration: Script → Voice → Timed Transcript → Animation → Publish. Assumption: animation follows reviewed recorded voice and timings from that same audio. It is not a universal production order. Preserve the five-row input/output/receiver/check table.

Accepted prerequisites matter, not merely box order. Invalid prerequisites propagate: Animation following an unusable transcript does not repair the input. Order is distinct from staleness: later accepted audio can make previously accepted timings/animation stale. Record output, input revision, acceptance state and responsible person. Mark dependants for review and retain earlier artefacts until replacements are accepted. Branch only when work has accepted independent inputs.

## Owners and authority

Scripts perform explicit transformations/checks and need missing/malformed/already-processed handling. Models can propose interpretations or results. People define the outcome and own consequential judgement and release. Stages can combine scripted checks, model proposals and human acceptance. Name who can propose, transform, accept and release; ownership is not permission.

File formats structure information. Application retrieval, tool and access controls determine what a model can read/change. Markdown, CSV or database storage is not itself a security boundary.

## Labs and failure path

WorkFirstHero and StageOrderLab illustrate this graph. WorkOwnerLab compares oversight for human/script/model owners. StepCheckLab simulates two defects: pronunciation in Voice or timestamp offset in Timed Transcript. Only a check that examines the relevant defect can detect it; an earlier unrelated check gets no credit. Animation preview can inspect the relevant speech/sync issue. No performance measurement or whole-production certificate follows from the simulation. Final human review remains.

Hold acceptance when a check fails, keep the failed output for diagnosis, return a concrete failure to its owner and rebuild affected work from accepted inputs. Retain previous artefacts while evaluating replacements. Do not restart a whole production without naming the failed boundary.

## Start with one stage

Name one result, deliverable and receiver. Write its first stage contract, choose the owner after identifying judgement, and follow the output into the next stage. Check the handoff, staleness response, failure return path and whether the contract survives an owner change.

- Worksheet: /downloads/build-your-team/stage-owner-worksheet.md
- Full essay: /documents/ari-os/build-your-team
- Lab components: WorkFirstHero, StageOrderLab, WorkOwnerLab, StepCheckLab

The worksheet's worked contract remains explicitly invented and its publication stage requires human approval.