01 · the cube, exploded
Six faces. One firm.
The cube is the function. Faces are its architectural layers. Humans steer it; agents execute.
02 · architecture stack
Four layers, stacked.
Sense → substrate → cognition → action. Feedback wraps the right edge.
03 · the company brain
Five components, one closed loop.
Sensors feed. Policy gates. Tools execute. Quality judges. Learning closes the loop. The brain is permanent; the software disposable.
04 · zoom out
The firm is many cubes.
Each cube is a function. The firm is the network they form.
05 · zoom in
Inside one cube: humans amplified.
Humans don't become agents. Agents amplify humans. The cube is the team + its fleet.
05b · cube anatomy
Each cube is a four-tier stack.
Workers propose. Manager verifies. Humans handle what doesn't fit. Manager-verify is how a cube scales safely.
06 · proximity is a choice
Cubes that work together cluster.
Cluster cubes that talk all day. Thinner connections across clusters when needed.
07 · scale
From 12 to 1,200 - the pattern holds.
The pattern compounds. The cube is the unit. The constellation is the org.
07b · escalation lattice
Where humans land.
Same 5-tier ladder, every cube - support, finance, legal, eng. Humans land where judgment is required.
08 · the cube rotates · 4 speeds
Four loops.
Continuous correction. The slowest loop bends the org chart.
09 · inter-cube bus
No direct calls. Every cube subscribes.
The substrate IS the bus. deep dive →
09b · the trust plane
A perpendicular plane of trust.
Identity. Risk. Liveness. Authorization. The plane lets 1,200 people talk to themselves safely.
10 · memory pyramid
Five tiers, the firm's brain.
Onboarding a new agent is a config commit. deep dive →
11 · the knowledge graph
What the agent walks.
Bitemporal facts. Move the as-of marker; the graph answers from that moment. deep dive →
12 · trust chain
Every action signed.
The receipt outlives the agent. deep dive →
13 · constellation talks to constellation
Constellations that talk to constellations.
Agents hire agents across org boundaries. deep dive →
13b · the gateway seam
One seam. Every call passes.
N cubes × N cubes is N² edges. One gateway turns it into a single auditable seam.
14 · maturity model
L0 manual → L3 native.
Most firms claim L2. Most operate at L1.
15 · 90-day first cube
One face first. Then more.
The cube assembles face by face. Stop / scale / pivot at every checkpoint.
16 · ways to break the cube
Five anti-patterns.
NO EVAL
Shipping prompts without pass/fail gates
CHAT ONLY
Isolated chat boxes disconnected from systems
PILOT PURGATORY
Endless demos that never reach production
HERO OPS
One engineer holding all prompts in their head
VENDOR CAPTURE
Black-box SaaS owning your domain memory
17 · org shape
Pyramid → constellation.
The constellation isn't flatter - it's differently shaped.
18 · what to cube first
Prioritize work by readiness.
TIER 1 · NOW
Commodity
repetitive · schema-clear · async
support triage
invoice ops
QA / lint
TIER 2 · NEXT
Leveraged
structured · contextual
research
contract review
forecasting
TIER 3 · LATER
Judgment
human-led · agent-assisted
hiring
strategy
key sales
TIER 4 · NEVER
Trust
human-only · agents stay out
firing
board calls
ethics
Migrate left-to-right. Tier 3 looks important. Tier 1 pays.
19 · cube lifecycle
Cubes are mortal.
Three exits: scale, absorb, retire. No cube runs forever.
20 · the metric that matters
% work touched by agents.
Track two lines, not one. Adoption without humans-freed is theatre.
21 · a human's week
Agents do. Humans curate.
MON
design evals
what does good look like?
TUE
review runs
spot-check escalations
WED
write playbooks
capture the new pattern
THU
prune memory
delete stale facts
FRI
retro + bet
decide next week
AGENTS · 24/7
~ 30 h human · ~ 168 h agent
Five verbs: design, review, write, prune, retro. Doing is delegated.
21b · the token spend
~99% on planning. 1% on code.
"HTML is the new Markdown" · Thariq Shihipar, Anthropic
Spend tokens where they buy understanding, not keystrokes.
22 · year one
One cube to seven. Four quarters.
A constellation is a 12-month commitment, not a hackathon.
23 · go deep · pick a face
Twelve deep dives.
Knowledge Graphs
Entities & provenance
Eval Harness
Quality gates & CI
Agent Memory
Tiered state & TTL
Protocols
Tool & agent contracts
Agent Identity
Scoped auth & receipts
Observability
Traces, spans & costs
Orchestration
Durable state & retries
Sensing & Ingestion
Events & doc parsing
Governance
Policy, risk & EU AI Act
Agent Frameworks
Graphs, crews & handoffs
Feedback Loops
Four cadences of learning
End-to-End Trace
One request across 6 faces
· · ·
Vollko is a small senior team. The cube above is what we help firms build - one face at a time.
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