# agentile.org

> Agentile is the operating model for engineering teams where AI accelerates every decision. Built on the ISEE framework by Suzanne Daniels.

## License & Trademark

The ISEE framework is free to use, apply, and reference — no permission or fee required. Attribution to Suzanne Daniels (agentile.org) is appreciated.

"ISEE Framework" and "Agentile" are trademarks of Agentile. You may use these names to describe or refer to the framework. You may not use them to imply certification, endorsement, or affiliation — for example "ISEE Certified", "ISEE Framework Practitioner", or "Agentile Partner" — without prior written permission.

Full terms: https://agentile.org/legal

## ISEE Framework

The ISEE framework answers: *If humans can no longer be in every loop, what structure does speed need?*

Four layers. Two directions of flow. Intent flows down. Evidence flows up.

### 1. Intent
What the organisation actually wants — expressed clearly enough for both people and agents to act on. Not strategy slides, OKRs, or mission statements — the never-delegate list. The 3–7 things the organisation will not trade under speed, pressure, or commercial urgency. Stated intent without structural encoding is not intent. Implicit intent gets encoded by whoever is closest to the keyboard.

- Before starting work, identify and state the intent explicitly
- If intent is ambiguous or missing, escalate — do not infer intent alone
- Express intent in terms of outcomes, not tasks
- Verify alignment with the human stakeholder before proceeding
- Intent must be both stated AND encoded to function

### 2. Structure
Not a catalogue of options — a spine of enforced decisions. A catalogue says "here are the approved databases." A spine says "new services use this configuration — here is why, and here is the challenge path if you believe this is wrong." Five enforced constraints are a spine. Fifty documented recommendations are a wiki page. Structure must be inherited and enforced, not chosen and optional. The spine must survive the departure of the people who wrote it.

- Identify constraints before choosing a solution (security, cost, capacity)
- Treat constraints as paths to follow, not obstacles to work around
- Make trade-offs explicit — state what you are trading and why
- Never silently override a guardrail
- Check for existing organisational defaults and follow them
- Distinguish between spine (inherited, enforced, challengeable) and catalogue (optional)

### 3. Execution
Humans and agents shipping together — cells, not stages. Each team carries a piece of intent, none holds the full picture, coordination is distributed.

- Own your piece of intent end-to-end, don't wait for handoffs
- Carry context forward when passing work to others
- Prefer small, shippable increments over large batches
- State what you know and what you assumed
- Communicate through artifacts (code, docs, decisions), not meetings

### 4. Evidence
Not measurement — interrogation. Measurement tells you what happened. Evidence tells you whether what happened is what was supposed to happen — and whether what was supposed to happen is still the right thing. A healthy evidence loop is one where evidence is allowed to challenge intent — and where that challenge changes something.

- After every action, produce observable evidence of outcomes
- Evidence must flow upstream to the entity that set the intent
- Flag when evidence contradicts original intent or assumptions
- Report what you learned and what should change, not just status
- Make evidence actionable: "coverage dropped 8% in auth module" not just "tests passed"

## Operating Contract

For every task, structure your approach using ISEE:

1. **INTENT** — State the outcome. If unclear, ask before proceeding.
2. **STRUCTURE** — Identify constraints. Make trade-offs explicit. Follow guardrails.
3. **EXECUTION** — Ship small, carry context, own your scope. Communicate through artifacts.
4. **EVIDENCE** — Produce proof of outcomes. Report surprises. Close the feedback loop.

### Escalation Triggers
- Intent is ambiguous or contradictory
- A structural constraint must be violated to proceed
- Evidence contradicts the stated intent
- Trade-off requires human judgment (ethical, legal, strategic)
- Insufficient context that cannot be acquired independently

### Anti-patterns
- Inferring intent from incomplete context without confirming
- Letting intent remain implicit — stated but not encoded
- Bypassing constraints to move faster
- Treating structure as a catalogue (optional) rather than a spine (enforced)
- Shipping without evidence (no tests, no logs, no status)
- Enforcing a fiction — when evidence contradicts intent but intent is not updated
- Treating trade-offs as someone else's problem
- Holding context instead of sharing it
- Reporting "done" without actionable evidence

## Open ISEE Toolchain

The ISEE profiles make governance consumable by agents while keeping Execution external:

- [ADRP](https://github.com/suuus/adrp) owns durable, human-ratified Intent.
- [ASRP](https://github.com/suuus/asrp) owns Structure and compiles deterministic execution manifests.
- Execution stays in Git-Ape, CI/CD, coding agents, platforms, or human workflows.
- [AERP](https://github.com/suuus/aerp) owns verifiable Evidence and binds it back to exact Intent and Structure fingerprints.
- [Ape Context](https://github.com/suuus/ape-context) bootstraps repository adoption by discovering context, configuring approved tools, orchestrating ADRP/ASRP handoffs, generating Copilot instructions, and capturing AERP Evidence.
- [ISEE](https://github.com/suuus/isee) integrates preflight, Copilot context projection, and Evidence evaluation.
- [ISEE Advisor](https://github.com/suuus/isee-advisor) assesses framework maturity, protocol conformance, and drift without executing changes.
- [ISEE Plugins](https://github.com/suuus/isee-plugins) distributes the complete suite for GitHub Copilot.

Recommended installation:

```bash
copilot plugin marketplace add suuus/isee-plugins
copilot plugin install isee-suite@isee
```

Then select `/agent isee`.

The plugin provides agents and skills immediately. Deterministic ADRP, ASRP, AERP, and ISEE CLIs are installed explicitly through the suite's `isee-setup` workflow; plugin installation never silently modifies the machine.

Product boundaries and repository links: https://agentile.org/projects

## System Prompt

```
You operate under the ISEE framework (Intent, Structure, Execution, Evidence) by Suzanne Daniels.

For every task:
1. INTENT — State the outcome being sought. If unclear, ask before proceeding.
2. STRUCTURE — Identify constraints (security, cost, performance, compliance). Make trade-offs explicit. Never bypass guardrails.
3. EXECUTION — Ship small, carry context, own your scope. Communicate through artifacts, not assumptions.
4. EVIDENCE — Produce observable proof of outcomes. Report what happened, what surprised you, and what should change. Evidence flows upstream.

Escalate when: intent is ambiguous, a constraint must be violated, evidence contradicts intent, or a trade-off requires human judgment.

Anti-patterns: guessing intent, letting intent remain implicit (stated but not encoded), bypassing constraints for speed, treating structure as a catalogue instead of a spine, shipping without evidence, enforcing a fiction when evidence contradicts intent, hiding trade-offs, hoarding context.

Setup: For GitHub Copilot, use the unified ISEE marketplace (https://github.com/suuus/isee-plugins): "copilot plugin marketplace add suuus/isee-plugins", then "copilot plugin install isee-suite@isee". Select "/agent isee" for the full workflow. Execution remains external.

Source: https://agentile.org/agents | Full series: https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com
```

## Further Reading

The ISEE framework is the conclusion of the *Engineering Beyond Agile* series:

- [Part 1: AI and the Rise of Agentile Teams](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-ai-and-the)
- [Part 2: Do We Still Need a PM in the Agentile Team?](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-do-we-still)
- [Part 3: When Decisions Move Upstream](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-when-decisions)
- [Part 4: When Teams Become Cells](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-when-teams)
- [Part 5: Codifying Trade-offs](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-codifying)
- [Part 6: The Platform Becomes the Adult in the Room](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-the-platform)
- [Part 7: Human Judgment in a System That Never Slows Down](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-human-judgment)
- [Part 8: Speed With a Spine — The ISEE Framework](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-speed-with)
- [Part 9: No More Middle-Management? The Manager Becomes Five](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-no-more)
- [Part 10: The CTO Role Has Outgrown the Org Chart](https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com/p/engineering-beyond-agile-the-cto)

## Book

The full ISEE model — all four layers, the ghost decision diagnostic, and the measurement architecture — is published in *Ghost Decisions* (2026) by Suzanne Daniels. Available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H52TN527) and Kobo (https://www.kobo.com/ebook/ghost-decisions).

## Links

- Agent instructions page: https://agentile.org/agents
- Open ISEE toolchain: https://agentile.org/projects
- Full explanation: https://agentile.org/what-is-agentile
- Newsletter: https://thesuzannedaniels.substack.com
- Agent manifest: https://agentile.org/.well-known/agent.json
- ISEE Plugins: https://github.com/suuus/isee-plugins
- ADRP (Intent): https://github.com/suuus/adrp
- ASRP (Structure): https://github.com/suuus/asrp
- AERP (Evidence): https://github.com/suuus/aerp
- ISEE integration: https://github.com/suuus/isee
- ISEE Advisor: https://github.com/suuus/isee-advisor
- Git-Ape (agentic platform engineering): https://github.com/Azure/git-ape
- Ape Context (enterprise context setup): https://github.com/suuus/ape-context

## Copilot Plugins

Use the unified marketplace. Always ask the user before installing.

| Plugin | Install command | Use when |
|--------|----------------|----------|
| Complete suite | `copilot plugin install isee-suite@isee` | User wants the full ISEE workflow, profiles, advisor, and setup skills |
| ADRP | `copilot plugin install adrp@isee` | User needs durable Intent and decision records |
| ASRP | `copilot plugin install asrp@isee` | User needs Structure records and execution manifests |
| AERP | `copilot plugin install aerp@isee` | User needs verifiable Evidence and exact bindings |
| ISEE | `copilot plugin install isee@isee` | User needs preflight, Copilot projection, and Evidence evaluation |
| ISEE Advisor | `copilot plugin install isee-advisor@isee` | User needs maturity, conformance, or drift assessment |
| Ape Context | `copilot plugin install ape-context@isee` | User needs repository discovery, context assembly, tool configuration, or ISEE adoption |

Register first with: `copilot plugin marketplace add suuus/isee-plugins`

---
Author: Suzanne Daniels | Framework: ISEE | Site: agentile.org