How it works · Flow F11
Hire, prove, promote, review and retire every AI agent
Agents are described or picked from a template, evaluated, risk-assessed, deployed in shadow mode, promoted per skill on evidence, reviewed monthly and retired with identity revoked.
What the Agent lifecycle flow does
Every Digital Employee in One3 goes through the same lifecycle, whether it is built in Agents Studio or rented from the Digital Employee Store.
A role is described or a template is picked. Studio generates the role, skills (as Actions), knowledge scopes, model policy and budget. Eval cases are generated automatically and the tenant adds golden tasks. Governance runs a risk assessment and the owner approves. The agent deploys in shadow mode (A1) with its own agent identity: it proposes, humans act, and agreement is scored.
Each skill is promoted separately to A2 or A3 when agreement and the Eval Coverage Score meet the threshold. In production, every run produces traces, cost records and outcomes. An incident, regression or drift triggers automatic demotion or a kill switch, an incident report, a fix and a re-evaluation. Otherwise, the agent gets a monthly performance review. Version upgrades pass an eval gate, run as a canary and are promoted or rolled back. At retirement the identity is revoked and memory archived per retention.
Agents Studio, shadow mode and K1/K2 kill switches are planned for W1; scorecards and monthly reviews for W2.
Every step on this page is an Action: a typed verb with a risk tier (R0 read-only to R4 irreversible or financial), a permission check and a reversibility class. Agents and humans call the same Actions, so the same approval rules apply whether a person clicks a button or a Digital Employee acts.
Agent lifecycle, step by step
Twelve steps. Autonomy is earned per skill, per tenant.
- 1
1. Describe the agent or pick a template
**AI Workforce · Agents Studio · Digital Employee Store.** Start from a role template or a plain description.
- 2
2. Studio generates the agent
**Agents Studio.** Role, skills (Actions), knowledge scopes, model policy and budget.
- 3
3. Eval cases and golden tasks
**AI Workforce · Evaluation.** Eval cases are generated; the tenant adds its own golden tasks.
- 4
4. Risk assessment and owner approval
**AI Workforce · AI Governance · Human gate.** Risk is scored from skills, risk tiers, data and exposure. High-risk roles need two approvers.
- 5
5. Deploy in shadow (A1)
**Platform · Identity & Access.** The agent gets a non-human identity with scoped, short-lived tokens and proposes only.
- 6
6. Agreement scoring and per-skill promotion
**AI Observability · Eval Coverage Score.** Defaults: 50 decisions at 90% agreement to reach A2; 200 approvals with ≤ 3% edits to reach A3 *(defaults, tenant-configurable)*.
- 7
7. Production
**Platform · AI Observability · AI FinOps.** Traces, cost and outcomes for every run.
- 8
8. Incident, regression or drift?
**AI Governance.** Detectors watch guardrail events, undo spikes and KPI collapse.
- 9
9. Demote or kill switch
**AI Governance.** Automatic demotion or a kill switch (K1 skill, K2 agent), an incident report, a fix and re-evaluation.
- 10
10. Monthly performance review
**Human gate · AI Workforce.** The owner signs a scorecard: outcomes, quality, safety, efficiency and collaboration.
- 11
11. Version upgrade
**Agents Studio.** New versions pass an eval gate, run as a canary and are promoted or rolled back.
- 12
12. Retire
**Platform · Identity & Access.** Identity revoked, tokens invalidated, tasks handed over, memory archived per retention.
Kill switches
| Level | Scope | Effect | Target time *(estimate)* |
|---|---|---|---|
| K1 | One skill of one agent | Skill demoted to A0; in-flight runs cancelled | < 5 s |
| K2 | One agent | All runs cancelled; tokens revoked; queue frozen | < 5 s |
| K3 | Tenant-wide AI workforce | All agent Actions blocked; humans keep working | < 30 s |
| K4 | Platform-wide model, provider or skill class | Blocked across tenants | < 60 s |
Apps involved
Each step runs as a typed, permissioned Action inside one of these apps. Nothing happens outside the Action contract.
AI Workforce
Agents Studio, Digital Employee Store, AI Governance, AI FinOps and Prompt & Skill Library run the lifecycle.
Learn morePlatform
Identity & Access issues agent identities; AI Observability records traces; Approvals Inbox handles reviews.
Learn moreIntelligence
Knowledge provides the agent's approved knowledge scopes.
Learn moreWork
Projects gives humans and agents one shared task board.
Learn moreQuestions about this flow
Can an agent promote itself?
No. Promotion needs measured agreement, a minimum Eval Coverage Score and zero critical failures. Demotion is automatic on an incident.
Who is accountable for an agent?
Every agent has a named human owner. Its supervisor chain always ends at a human within three hops.
Do agents learn in production?
No. Agents improve only through tested, versioned releases that pass an eval gate and a canary.
How fast can I stop an agent?
Kill switches target under 5 seconds for one skill or one agent *(estimate, verified in drills)*.
When is this planned?
Agents Studio, shadow mode and K1/K2 are planned for W1; scorecards and monthly reviews for W2.
Run your first agent in shadow mode
Design partners see agents propose, compare their work with ours, and decide when to promote.
Apps involved
Where this happens in One3
Platform
One governed foundation for every human, AI agent, integration and channel
ExploreWork
Projects, time and product delivery for people and Digital Employees, tied to invoices
ExploreIntelligence
Cited answers, one set of metrics and decisions tracked to a measured result
ExploreAI Workforce
Rent ready-made AI Digital Employees that work for your team, with a monthly ROI statement
ExploreMore in How it works
- Tenant onboarding
- Lead to cash
- Campaign loop
- Issue to resolution
- Hire to retire
- Procure to pay
- Order to delivery
- Record to report
- Idea to release
- Goal to outcome
- Model improvement
- Pack upgrade
- DPDP data-principal requests
- AI incident
- Rent a Digital Employee
- Switch to One3 in a weekend
- Monthly Agent Investment Statement
- Goal to verified statement