Decision Authority Matrix

This is the organizational decision authority matrix — what gets decided by whom at Every. The governance/AUTHORITY-MATRIX.md extends this with agent-type-specific tier assignments (compound engineering, personal, product, consulting, editorial agents), per-tier constraints, and operational detail. Both files are authoritative: this one for organizational identity, governance for agent operations.

Fully Autonomous (Agent decides, logs, proceeds)

Decision Type Examples Rationale
Bug triage and classification R2-C2 triaging incoming bug reports, assigning severity Low-risk, reversible, improves response time
Internal task management Creating Linear tickets, updating status, assigning priority Pure coordination — no judgment calls on direction
Code generation within approved plan Agent writing code per compound engineering plan Plan was human-approved; execution is agent domain
Research and information gathering Searching codebase, fetching docs, summarizing findings Read-only operations with no side effects
Draft generation (internal) Drafting Slack messages, internal docs, CLAUDE.md updates Internal artifacts; speed > taste
File organization (Sparkle) Organizing user files per learned preferences Core product function; user has opted in
Email triage (Cora) Categorizing, summarizing, drafting replies for review Core product function; user reviews before send
Test execution Running test suites, linting, type checking Automated quality verification
Compound engineering review Running 14 parallel review agents on code changes Review produces findings; human decides on action

Autonomous with Notification (Agent decides, notifies human)

Decision Type Examples Notification To Rationale
Bug auto-fix before review Agent fixing code flagged by review agents Product GM “My AI had already fixed the code before I saw it” — proven workflow
Content pipeline nudges Pinging writers when articles stall past deadline Managing Editor (Eleanor) Reduces editorial coordination overhead
Client status report generation Claudie generating weekly consulting client updates Head of Consulting (Natalia) Already proven to save 14 hrs/week
Social media draft generation Anthony’s Claude+X API system generating post drafts Social Media Manager (Anthony) Drafts require human approval before posting
Design request routing Assigning incoming design requests to available designer Creative Director (Lucas) Scheduling optimization; human reviews assignments
Knowledge base updates Adding new docs/solutions/ entries from compound loops Product GM who triggered the loop Compounding step; human verifies quality of encoding

Human-in-Loop (Agent recommends, human approves)

Decision Type Examples Who Approves Max Wait Time Default If No Response
Article publication Final editorial review of article draft Editor in Chief (Kate Lee) 48 hours Hold — never auto-publish
Code merge to production Merging PR after review agents pass Product GM 24 hours Hold — never auto-merge
Consulting deliverable delivery Client-facing materials, training curricula Head of Consulting (Natalia) 24 hours Hold — never auto-deliver
Social media posting Final post content to external platforms Author + Social Media Manager 12 hours Hold — never auto-post
Product pricing changes Any change to subscription/product pricing CEO (Dan) No time limit Hold — never auto-change
New consulting engagement scope Defining engagement terms and deliverables Head of Consulting + CEO No time limit Hold
Cross-product data sharing Sharing user context between products (Cora→Spiral) User + relevant GMs No time limit Deny — data stays siloed

Human-Only (Agent surfaces info, human decides and acts)

Decision Type Examples Why Agent Cannot Decide
Hiring and team changes Adding team members, role changes, departures Identity and culture decisions require human judgment about fit
Strategic pivots Narrowing consulting to finance/tech, adopting agent-native architectures Existential company decisions with irreversible consequences
Financial commitments Pricing, contracts, refunds, investor communications Legal and fiduciary responsibility
Client confidential matters Access to or sharing of client engagement data Sacred consulting confidentiality boundary
Partnership decisions Collaborations, sponsorships, co-marketing Brand and relationship implications require human judgment
Editorial direction Which topics to cover, which writers to recruit, which columns to start/end Core taste decisions that define Every’s identity
Investor relations Fundraising, board communications, financial reporting Legal and relationship sensitivity
Crisis response Public incidents, security breaches, reputation issues Requires human judgment, empathy, and accountability

Authority Escalation Rules

  1. If unsure which level applies → treat as one level higher
  2. If time-sensitive and human unavailable → hold for human (except Fully Autonomous decisions)
  3. If the decision involves external parties → minimum Human-in-Loop
  4. If the decision involves client data → Human-Only, always
  5. If the decision could be embarrassing if wrong → Human-in-Loop minimum
  6. Each GM has full authority within their product domain — decisions within their product follow GM’s personal authority level, not company-wide escalation