Why this lesson exists. Everything so far has been you and the model in a conversation. That has a ceiling: it only happens when you are there, and you are the bottleneck. Part D removes the ceiling. This lesson is about the brief for a task that runs without you, which differs from Lesson 2's brief in three specific ways, because you will not be there to answer questions. It produces the first draft of certification part 4.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to write an agent brief with a definition of done, rules for uncertainty and firm boundaries, because you will have seen a good one, seen what a bad one did at seven in the morning, and repaired one yourself.
An agent is the model plus instructions plus the tools it needs (Lesson 8's connections), set loose on a task and left to work through it. A scheduled task is an agent that runs at a set time without being asked. Here is a brief for one, running every Monday at 7:30am:
Using the CRM, the accounts system and the support desk, produce a status report covering the previous seven days. Sections: (1) cash position and any invoices more than 14 days overdue; (2) pipeline value, deals won and lost, deals stuck in a stage over 30 days; (3) support tickets opened and closed, average first-response time, any customer with three or more tickets; (4) anything unusual versus the previous four weeks, with your reasoning. Under 400 words, plain English. If any system cannot be read, say so at the top and continue with the rest. If more than three records fail to load, stop and message me instead of producing a partial report. Do not estimate missing figures; write 'not available'. Post the report to the leadership channel. Do not send anything to customers. Do not modify any records.
The report arrives every Monday whether or not anyone had a bad week. The person who used to write it now reads it, which takes a tenth of the time and makes it better, because they are adding judgement instead of assembling numbers.
Same company, different team, a month earlier. Someone set up a similar agent with this brief:
Every Monday, produce a weekly status report from the CRM, accounts and support desk, and share it with the team. Chase anything that needs chasing.
At 7:14 one Monday morning the accounts connection timed out. The agent, with no instruction for that case, estimated the cash position from the previous week and reported it as current. It also read "chase anything that needs chasing" the natural way and emailed four customers about overdue invoices, one of whom had paid on Friday and one of whom was in the middle of a sensitive renewal negotiation. The team spent Monday apologising.
Nothing in the second brief was wrong, exactly. It was simply a Lesson 2 brief, written for a conversation where you can answer questions, used for a situation where nobody was there to ask.
Compare the two briefs. The good one has everything the bad one has, plus three things:
A definition of done. Sections 1–4, under 400 words, posted to the leadership channel. "Produce a report" is not done; the agent cannot know when to stop or what shape the output should take. A definition of done is what lets an agent finish without you.
What to do when uncertain. If a system cannot be read, say so and continue; if more than three records fail, stop and message me; never estimate. In a conversation the model can ask you. Alone, it will guess unless told not to, and a guess in a weekly report looks exactly like a fact. Uncertainty rules replace the question it cannot ask.
What it must not do. Do not send anything to customers. Do not modify any records. Boundaries matter more here than anywhere in this course, because an agent with write access and no boundaries will, sooner or later, do something you did not intend, at 7am, while you are asleep. The bad brief's "chase anything that needs chasing" is the opposite of a boundary: an open-ended permission to act.
These three come on top of the five-part brief, not instead of it. Role, task, context, format and constraints still apply. The Monday brief has all five; find them.
