MANUAL
Done by hand. Correct default for anything done fewer than three times.
AUTOMATION
Remove the Repetition
Scripts, tools and small systems that eliminate repetitive engineering work. Two rules govern everything here: automation is a continuum, and not every task deserves an agent. A deterministic script is often cheaper, safer and better.
ASSISTED
A human drives; tooling or an agent accelerates the boring middle.
SCRIPTED
Deterministic, versioned, reviewable. The workhorse tier: most tasks should stop here.
AGENT-OPERATED
An agent executes a procedure that occasionally needs judgement mid-run.
CONDITIONALLY AUTONOMOUS
Runs unattended within hard limits, with escalation rules and a kill switch. Earned, never assumed.
Repository analysis
AGENT-OPERATEDMaps structure, conventions and coupling into an onboarding brief for humans and agent sessions alike.
Environment validation
SCRIPTEDOne command that proves a development environment is actually complete before work begins.
Test orchestration
SCRIPTEDSelects and runs the right test subset per change, with full runs gated to merges.
Deployment checks
SCRIPTEDPre-flight and post-deploy verification. Deterministic on purpose: no judgement wanted here.
Dependency monitoring
AGENT-OPERATEDWatches updates and advisories, drafts upgrade branches, and files the evidence for a human decision.
Documentation generation
AGENT-OPERATEDKeeps executable context current from code and commit history, sampled by a human.
Visual regression
SCRIPTEDScreenshot diffs on key flows. Cheap, dumb, and catches what unit tests structurally cannot.
Issue triage
AGENT-OPERATEDClusters, deduplicates and enriches incoming issues; priority remains a human call.
Agent handovers
AGENT-OPERATEDGenerates compressed context documents when a task must cross session boundaries.
Operational reporting
SCRIPTEDWeekly platform health summaries assembled from logs and metrics. A cron job, not an agent.