When it fits
A process jams every day, or a prototype only works in the demo, with someone next to it steering.
How I work
Scope first: what the agent has to finish, what it needs to know, when it stops and hands over to a person. Then the harness: typed tools, permissions in code, evals on real cases, observability. The model is the last thing I pick.
Contractor for an MVP, partner for a product, fractional for a team. Same method.
What I need
- Real examples, ugly ones included.
- Someone who knows the domain and answers questions.
- Access to the real systems.
What you get
An agent in production: you know when it gets something wrong, and it can only act where it's allowed to.