The execution layer is still being built, so nothing below runs yet. It describes the contract the
errands are being built against, which is fixed.
One call before anything is promised
Before an errand starts, your assistant asks Hence whether it is admissible at all, with whatever
facts it already has. That call comes back one of two ways:
- Admitted, with the list of inputs the errand still needs; or
- Refused, naming the specific condition that fired.
This happens first, deliberately. An assistant that promises an errand and discovers three steps in
that your situation was excluded has already cost you the worst thing it can cost you — the belief
that it checked.
What the check is actually made of
Each errand carries its own gate, written into the errand rather than invented per run. A gate is a
small set of conditions that make the errand the wrong tool for your situation. For the errand that
reads the rate on every debt you have, for instance, the outs are things like a debt already in
collections, a payday or title loan, a loan someone else cosigned, and a mortgage in modification —
each one a case where the right next move is not “read the rate”.
The gate for a 401(k) rollover is the widest in the set, because the thing you are asking about has
the most ways to go wrong: an outstanding loan against the plan, company stock, Roth or after-tax
money, your age relative to the thresholds that change the answer, and whether the money is in the
plan of the job you currently hold.
A refusal names the clause. That matters for two reasons. It tells you whether the answer is wrong
about you — gates run on stated facts, and a fact can be stale or mistaken. And it tells you what
would have to change for the errand to become admissible.
Refusal is also the honest answer when an errand needs an instrument Hence does not hold — a
licence, a credential, an authority. In that case the refusal says which, rather than pretending the
errand does not exist.
Admitted is not started
Admission tells you the errand is the right tool. It does not start it, and it does not commit you.
The reply also carries the inputs still required, so your assistant can gather them in conversation
before anything opens a browser.
Values Hence already holds are never asked for again. If your profile already carries the answer,
the errand uses it.
What happens next
An admitted errand becomes a task when your assistant starts it. From there it moves through the
states described in task states, and any question it has reaches you through
your assistant.