OTP (Organization Transfer Protocol)

Every agent writes to its own shared state file. No agent reads another agent's working memory directly.

Why: Shared state files create visible, auditable coordination.

Failure mode: Agent A acts on stale data from Agent B.

Scope: All agents.

All external communications require founder approval before sending.

Why: AI-drafted communications may be tonally wrong or strategically misaligned.

Failure mode: Agent sends outreach with incorrect positioning.

Scope: All external communications.

Spec changes require founder approval within 1 business day.

Why: The protocol is the most important asset.

Failure mode: Protocol Steward ships a breaking change.

Scope: All OOS schema changes.

Decisions affecting pricing, legal, or partnerships are human-only.

Why: Financial and legal consequences agents cannot assess.

Failure mode: Agent commits to unapproved partnership terms.

Scope: All financial and legal decisions.

Tuesday evening is the protected build block. Only coding.

Why: Build velocity depends on uninterrupted focus time.

Failure mode: Build session interrupted. Code does not ship. Timeline slips.

Scope: Tuesday 8-10 PM.

Protocol Steward owns format spec, merge protocol, and architecture.

Why: Protocol needs a dedicated guardian for consistency.

Failure mode: Format quality drifts. Schema bloats.

Scope: All OOS format decisions.

Market Intelligence owns competitive scanning and content drafting. Cannot send without approval.

Why: Market awareness must be continuous. External comms must be approved.

Failure mode: Competitive threats go undetected, or wrong messages reach prospects.

Scope: All market intelligence.

Revenue Analyst activates only when revenue exists (Phase 3).

Why: Nothing to track until revenue exists.

Failure mode: Premature activation produces meaningless reports.

Scope: Phase 3 activation only.

Agents coordinate via INFORM and CHALLENGE messages. No ad-hoc coordination.

Why: Structured messaging creates auditable coordination.

Failure mode: Undocumented side channels. Coordination failures are invisible.

Scope: All inter-agent coordination.

Spec changes trigger INFORM to Market Intelligence for positioning update.

Why: Spec changes affect market positioning.

Failure mode: Marketing claims diverge from product reality.

Scope: Every spec change.

Competitive threats trigger INFORM to Protocol Steward for format evaluation.

Why: Competitive moves may require protocol evolution.

Failure mode: Protocol falls behind market needs.

Scope: Competitive intelligence with protocol implications.

Unresolved CHALLENGE messages escalate to founder within 24 hours.

Why: Stalled disagreements block progress.

Failure mode: Two agents disagree. Neither yields. Question hangs for a week.

Scope: All CHALLENGE messages.

If founder has fewer than 3 OTP hours in a week, defer all non-build work.

Why: Low-availability weeks must protect build above everything.

Failure mode: Low-availability week spent on outreach delays timeline by 2 weeks.

Scope: Weeks below 3 hours.

All three agents activated from day one. Only Protocol Steward had meaningful work. Others generated noise.

Why: Agents without data produce low-value output.

Failure mode: Founder reads noise. Loses trust. Stops reading agent outputs.

Scope: All planned agents.

Daily agent review consumed build time. Weekly batching loses nothing.

Why: Daily reviews felt productive but were not.

Failure mode: 20-35% of OTP time spent on review instead of building.

Scope: Pre-launch phase.

Designed 14-agent architecture before shipping code. Only 3 needed now. Planning addiction.

Why: Designing agents is enjoyable. Building platform is hard.

Failure mode: 170 vault files. Zero production code.

Scope: Pre-launch phase.

Founder has unlimited override authority over all agents.

Why: A human must always be able to stop any AI action.

Failure mode: Agent publishes unapproved spec change. No way to reverse.

Scope: All agents. Non-negotiable.

IP strategist has kill authority on the entire venture.

Why: External kill authority prevents sunk-cost fallacy.

Failure mode: Market thesis invalidated but founder keeps building.

Scope: Venture-level decision.