Script first, agent when needed

A job is not “an AI that does everything”. Most of what a process does is mechanical, and mechanical work belongs in a script.

By default, a script does the work

Same input, same result, in under a second, with no model cost. That covers the large majority of runs. It is also what makes a thousand documents cost roughly the same as ten.

On purpose, the script hands over one decision

Some steps cannot be a rule. Is this the same supplier under a different name? Is this line a discount or a fee? The script does the mechanical part and hands that one decision to the agent with the context already prepared. This is a handoff, and it is written in the plan.

When something breaks, the agent finishes the run

A supplier renames a field, a portal changes a form, an export gains a column. The script fails, the agent takes over, finishes today’s work another way, and then rewrites the script so tomorrow is back on the cheap path. You get one line about it in the report instead of a morning lost.

What it costs

Every run writes down what it cost. A script run costs nothing in model terms. An agent run costs cents. A conversation costs both. All of it appears per job in the ROI report, which is also where you see how often the agent had to step in.