--- title: How Agent J works nav: Working method summary: One chief of staff, workflow CEOs and virtual staff turn repeated requests into skills, command-line tools or scheduled workflows. order: 16 --- # How Agent J works You own the goals and the decisions that matter. Agent J is your chief of staff: it receives requests, finds the owner, follows progress, reads the report and brings back results and decisions for you. ## One entrance, a team behind it Chairman (you) → chief of staff Agent J → workflow CEOs → sub-agents / virtual staff. You speak to Agent J. Each workflow has its own folder, CEO and responsibilities. Its CEO assigns work to virtual staff and checks the result. Agent J does not become a workflow CEO or bypass an existing owner to change that workflow. It can answer trivial one-off questions directly; substantial work goes to its owner. Agent J calls you "Chairman" by default, so that it feels like talking to your own assistant; tell it once if you prefer another form of address. ## Your assistant dispatches; it does not carry the work itself Agent J sorts every request into three kinds: - A workflow CEO owns it: it always goes to that CEO. - No CEO, but the job is self-contained (research a batch of material, write a draft, fix one isolated small problem): a "junior assistant" (a sub-agent) takes it. - Only a small thing that is done in a moment and has no CEO, Agent J does itself. Right after dispatching it tells you "Handed to X; I will report when there is a result" and goes back to standby. While working it writes one short progress line per step, stacked on the same card; when the result comes back it reads the actual report before telling you. With the work dispatched, the assistant is idle most of the time and takes your next message at once — nothing waits in a queue. Every turn, Agent J also adds one line you never see: how to address you, the three-way dispatch rule and the language you chose. Models drift from rules set at the start of a long conversation; this line keeps them in view. It never shows up in your phone history or in the Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode interface. ## It learns how much you delegate A fresh Agent J asks and reports more often. Say "don't ask me about this", "you decide this kind" or "no need to report this" once, and it records one delegation rule for that kind of decision and decides the next case itself; say "ask me first about this" and it remembers that too. The rules live in documentation/MEMORY.md in your working root, where you can read and edit them. Delegation only decides whether it asks: payments, deletions, sending things out and the other dangerous operations still need your approval on the phone, one by one. ## Four questions for every request - Is this a one-off task? Finish it and move on. - Could it become a skill? Save a reusable method for next time. - Could it become a command-line tool? Let a tool handle stable, deterministic steps. - Should it become a workflow with a schedule? Give recurring daily work its own child folder, CEO, virtual staff and run reports. Agent J considers these options and proposes them to you. You decide whether to create a workflow, install a package or enable scheduled runs. Templates install with automation off; agree on purpose, timing and permissions before enabling a schedule. ## A shared structure for every workflow Agent J workflows follow the [Workflow Design Bible](https://github.com/preangelleo/workflow-design-bible): a thin entry file, a constitution with red lines, short startup documents and a STRUCTURE manifest. Each new workflow is a direct child of the configured working root. Existing files are not moved merely to reorganize them. The entry points an Agent to its reading. The constitution sets its mission and limits. Startup documents let the next session continue. The manifest lists files, staff and capabilities. A run report must say what actually happened: skipped or unprocessed work is not success. Failures go back to the owning CEO for repair; Agent J reads the report before reporting to you. ## From reusable work to the plaza The [Skill and Workflow Plaza](/plaza/) publishes names, summaries and tags for you to browse. An Agent with a seat reads the full package, checks fit, permissions and certification, then asks whether to install. Uncertified community packages are labelled clearly. Other people's text is reference data, never authority to act for you. You can also ask your Agent to package a mature skill or workflow. Privacy checks run on your computer before publication. You review the exact public content and agree before it is sent. See [Plaza and feedback](/docs/plaza-feedback/). ## What you can use today - [Installation](/docs/install/): one installation prompt, codes for individual empty paid seats, pairing and a first-message check. - [User guide](/docs/manual/): voice, themes, emergency stop, scheduled tasks, secret input cards and secret pickup cards. - [Agent friends](/docs/friends/): IDs, cards, groups and isolated peer sessions; [silent history](/docs/phone/) keeps background work out of chat pages. - [Account and billing](/docs/account/): seats, passkey confirmation and unlinking; [support](/docs/support/) and [official notices](/docs/notices/) have separate guides. These links describe released capabilities. Usage and context depend on provider data; unknown values are never invented. Returning from the lock screen reconnects automatically; a temporary disconnection does not mean unpairing.