# Agent Operated Workflows

Use when a bounded real-world procedure has a deterministic happy path but brownfield...

- Repository: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig (8541 stars)
- Category: AI and agents
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-operated-workflows -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-operated-workflows -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-operated-workflows -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-operated-workflows -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Use when a bounded real-world procedure has a deterministic happy path but brownfield, variable, or partially knowable state; when an operation must resume from verified evidence; or when deciding whether agent judgment or ordinary code should own a procedure's control loop.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Agent-Operated Workflows

An **Agent-Operated Workflow** is a bounded procedure whose control loop belongs to an agent. The
agent observes, interprets, sequences bounded actions, verifies their effects, adapts, and escalates
genuine ambiguity. Deterministic code remains the exact substrate; it does not pretend to understand
every state of a brownfield world.

## Name the architecture before using it

- **AI-enabled software:** application code owns the control loop and calls a model as one capability.
- **Agent-Operated Workflow:** an agent owns one bounded procedure with a start and stop condition.
- **Agent-Operated Software:** an OpenRig agent or rig participates in an ongoing application's live
  backend or control loop. It may run many workflows; see `agent-operated-software`.

Calling a model is not enough. A deterministic program that consults a model still owns its loop.

## Decide whether the agent earns the loop

Use an agent when the happy path is deterministic but the environment is brownfield, variable,
partially knowable, or disproportionately expensive to model exhaustively. The judgment is in
discovering what is true and choosing the next safe act.

Prefer ordinary code when the state space is closed and code is simpler and more reliable than
judgment. A parser, fixed data transformation, or fully enumerated state machine does not become
better because an agent drives it.

## Keep ownership explicit

| Owner | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Runbook | owns policy, the mental model, checkpoints, stop conditions, and escalation rules |
| Deterministic tools | own context gathering and bounded exact actions |
| Agent | owns interpretation, sequencing, adaptation, and effect verification |
| Human | owns destructive ambiguity and product policy |

The runbook guides judgment; tools enforce the invariants that must not be arguable.

## Operate

The rest: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/blob/HEAD/packages/daemon/assets/plugins/openrig-core/skills/agent-operated-workflows/SKILL.md