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# What ContextStack Is

ContextStack is building an owned organization of durable AI workers. Its Bots
have missions, inboxes, commitments, scoped memory references, bounded authority,
and performance history. A Bot remains the same accountable worker when the
model, process, or machine performing one operation changes.

> **Product status:** ContextStack is in active development and is not generally
> available. This page describes the finished product destination. The
> [roadmap](/docs/roadmap) separates that destination from what has been
> demonstrated with evidence today.

The application uses the familiar grammar of threaded conversation, but chat is
only a presentation and steering surface. Commitments, handoffs, approvals,
evidence, and outcomes remain structured records so completed work can be
reconstructed without reading a transcript.

## The product model

The simplest way to understand the surface is:

- **Bot is who.** A durable worker accepts responsibility across threads,
  workrooms, models, and time.
- **Workroom is where.** Humans and Bots share commitments, decisions, evidence,
  and an outcome context.
- **Commitment thread is what.** A conversation follows one Signal or Commitment,
  with a visible owner, state, next action, and outcome.
- **Run is how.** Models, tools, sub-agents, execution cells, retries, and gates
  perform bounded work beneath the commitment.

Bot workspaces and shared workrooms are two views into one canonical work graph.
Several Bots may contribute, but every accepted commitment has exactly one
accountable Bot. Handoffs change ownership only when they are explicitly accepted.

## Delegation is the interface

Work begins with a direct assignment or an external event normalized into a
Signal. The organization routes that Signal to one accountable Bot according to
mission and responsibility. People delegate an outcome; they do not have to draw
an agent graph or select a workflow before useful work can begin.

Model choice is secondary by default. Gateway purchases the cheapest sufficient
intelligence allowed by the work's privacy, quality, latency, and budget
constraints. Every model purchase returns a receipt identifying what ran, under
which policy, at what cost and latency, including any retry or escalation. The
Bot's identity and responsibility do not change when the route does.

## Governed execution beneath the thread

No-tool triage and planning can use receipted Gateway cognition under a standing,
Kernel-governed Bot budget. Work that touches tools, artifacts, or external
effects is commissioned as an **order** and performed inside a **bounded run**.

An execution cell receives only the capabilities resolved for that order. Those
capabilities can include files, processes, a browser, or an ordinary application.
When an application requires authentication, a broker grants the necessary
session and credentials for a defined purpose and time. Credentials never become
part of Bot identity, prompts, or memory.

The primary thread shows decisions, state changes, approvals, evidence, and
outcomes. Model calls, tool activity, retries, and raw traces remain available as
execution detail rather than dominating the conversation.

## Autonomy stops at consequence

ContextStack separates permission to work from permission to create lasting
effects:

- **Run-autonomy** permits bounded work without a human watching each step.
- **Consequence authorization** governs merge, deploy, publish, send, and spend
  separately, per lane and action class.

Revertible or compensable action classes may earn greater autonomy from recorded
evidence. Actions without a reliable reversal remain explicitly approved or use
an individually revocable, bounded, idempotent, and reconciled pre-authorization.
See [the autonomy ladder](/docs/autonomy-ladder) for the policy and current status.

## Where to go next

- [Bounded runs](/docs/bounded-runs) — capability-scoped execution cells
- [The gate wall](/docs/gate-wall) — acceptance beyond model self-report
- [The autonomy ladder](/docs/autonomy-ladder) — authority per consequence class
- [The trace ledger](/docs/trace-ledger) — organizational and execution records
- [Roadmap](/docs/roadmap) — current horizons and the thirteen-box finish line