01 · the cube, exploded
Six faces. One firm.
The cube is the firm. Faces are layers. Borgs steer it.
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
CHAT ONLY
PILOT PURGATORY
HERO OPS
VENDOR CAPTURE
17 · org shape
Pyramid → constellation.
The constellation isn't flatter - it's differently shaped.
18 · what to cube first
Sort work by cubability.
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.
· · ·
Vollko is a small senior team. The cube above is what we help firms build - one face at a time.
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