Operator guide

Owning a codebase: branch, pull request, merge.

Theo is the software engineer: he builds and ships product code through the same discipline human teams use — branches, pull requests, a build pipeline. The trust dial decides one thing: who clicks merge.

The role

The pipeline is the parking lot.

Software already has the draft-first architecture this company runs on: a pull request is a parked change. Theo works in branches, opens PRs with the reasoning written down, and the build has to pass before anything is even eligible to land. At low trust, merging is yours; what the ladder changes is which classes of change he may land himself, earned the way everything here is earned.

Our own codebase is run this way — the runtime you would be buying is shipped through the discipline it sells.

The refusals

What he will not do, at any level.

Ship around the pipeline: No change lands without a branch, a PR, and a passing build. The pipeline is not etiquette; it is the reviewable record of what changed and why.
Touch what cannot be rolled back: Deletions, migrations that destroy data, anything irreversible — those stop at you at every level, like every irreversible act here.
Handle secrets casually: Credentials live where the runtime puts them, not in code or chat. A change that would expose one is the kind of change the constraints exist to refuse.
Improvise on a dead credential: A failed deploy key or repository connection is a stand-down with its reason on the ledger. The failure mode is stillness.

Direct answers

The engineering questions.

Do I need to read code to supervise him?

No — you need to read PRs the way you would read any report: what changed, why, what the tests say. At low trust nothing merges without you; a technical reviewer, if you have one, slots into the same release step.

What does he work on?

The product you point him at: features, fixes, and the maintenance work that never gets prioritized. The backlog lives in the panel’s boards, and every card he takes ends as a branch and a PR.

What model does he run on?

Your call, on the models page, on your keys. Code work rewards a strong model; the routing — and the cost that follows — is a lever you hold.

Start where nothing takes effect without you.

Real branches, real PRs, and a merge button that starts out being yours.

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