Rules

Every dog has three lists of rules, written as plain sentences:

• Just do: happens at once, with a 10-second undo. "Refunds up to $50." "Archive newsletters and receipts."
• Ask first: comes to Decide. "Refunds over $50." "Send any reply." "Publish a page or post."
• Never: refused, and recorded as refused. "Promise a feature date." "Delete an email." "Change bank details."

How a rule decides

When a dog proposes something, it names the rule it falls under, in the rule's own words. Then:

1. A Never rule it named, or one whose words all appear in the proposal, refuses it. The Ledger records it as declined, decided by that rule ("Never: Promise a feature date").
2. A Just do rule it named decides it at once: the first approving option, with a 10-second undo. The Ledger records it as decided by that rule.
3. Anything else waits in Decide for a person.

Just-do work happens without you and shows up on Today as a sentence and in the Ledger as a row. A new team starts careful: the templates have it ask about things like spending money, messages that leave the company and anything that can't be undone. As the Ledger shows what goes well, move those things to Just do and the team asks less.

Writing good rules

• Name the limit. "Refunds up to $50" and "Refunds over $50" split cleanly; "small refunds" doesn't.
• Start strict. Put things in Ask first, watch them in the Ledger for a week, then move what always goes well to Just do.
• Use Never for the irreversible. Deleting, signing, changing bank details, sharing one customer's data with another.

Changing rules

Rules are edited on each dog's page: add a sentence to any list, or remove one. A team template sets each dog's starting rules (Team template format).

Through the API, POST /v1/workspace/dog {id, rules} replaces all three lists at once. See API reference.