← Concept IndexDEFINITION WHY IT MATTERS COMMONLY CONFUSED WITH
Agents in everyday & working life
Delegating to an agent
Also called: how much autonomy, the leash
Deciding which actions an agent may take on its own and which need your say-so, by matching the leash to the stakes: reversible and low-cost, let it run; irreversible or affecting others, gate it or keep it.
It's the same judgment you'd use with a new human assistant, made explicit. Get it right and an agent saves real effort; get it wrong and a rare failure lands on your most consequential task.
Trusting the agent more over time. Reliability on easy tasks isn't evidence it will handle the high-stakes one — that's exactly where you keep the checkpoint.