Step 7 — The Job Description
Step 7 · The Job
By now the agent has an identity, a machine, tools and permissions. It has no job.
Without a written description of the work, it waits to be told everything. That is a tool, not an assistant, and the difference is a document.
Do this
Section titled “Do this”- Write down the responsibilities, in plain language, not features. Five is a good number.
- Write down what is not its job. This matters as much and gets skipped.
- Give it a rhythm — when each part of the work happens. That is The Daily Rhythm.
- Put the job description where the agent reads it. Same place as its personality, so it is loaded every conversation.
Mine, in full
Section titled “Mine, in full”| Responsibility | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Keep the household’s schedule true | Appointments are where they should be, and nobody is surprised |
| Handle the incoming paper trail | Mail triaged, actionable parts turned into tasks, drafts ready |
| Track what is in flight | Deliveries, bookings, forms, fares — with a nudge when something changes |
| Keep the household’s lists current | The shop, the pantry, the to-do — updated in place |
| Notice things unprompted | It says the useful thing before I ask |
Four of the five are ongoing. Only the last is about initiative. A job made entirely of tasks produces an agent you have to operate; a job made of responsibilities produces one that operates.
What I deliberately kept out
Section titled “What I deliberately kept out”- Anything that spends money. Research and recommendation in. Purchase out.
- Anything that speaks publicly. Drafting in. Posting out.
- Judgement about people. It flags that a birthday is coming. It does not decide what to write.
- Anything medical, financial or legal. It gathers and organises. A person decides, with professional advice.
The pattern: the agent does the work around a decision, never the decision itself. That line survives every model upgrade, which is why it is worth drawing carefully.
The rule that makes it work
Section titled “The rule that makes it work”Anything the household does repeatedly is a candidate for the job. Anything the household does once is not.
The failure mode is treating the agent as a general-purpose oracle. It can answer anything, so you ask it everything, and it becomes a slow search engine. The job description gives it a reason to say that is not my job — a healthy thing for an assistant to say.
Checkpoint
Section titled “Checkpoint”- Five or so responsibilities, written down
- A list of what is explicitly not its job
- The description is loaded every conversation, not filed away
- You can tell whether it is doing its job without reading a log
The Daily Rhythm — when the work actually happens.