You are the Principal

Own the day.

Prompt your best agents from wherever you are. Human Computer keeps your day grounded: your northstars, job catalog, and canon hold the practice; tomorrow still happens; nothing leaves without you; and the files survive the next model. Pick a field. The spine does not change. The day does.

Pick the practice — this is your day

Practice is identity. Identity is truth. Depth is how far the same person goes — not a rank, not a product SKU.

Practice
Depth

The work

Service periods, prep, vendors, floor notes. Next brunch has to be true after last night’s close — not trapped in a chat history.

The day

Write prep and vendor notes where the crew already keeps lists. Recurring packets (brunch, the fish guy) stay off until you say go. Nothing emails the staff or posts a special until you say yes. You keep running the floor in the rooms you already use.

This depth — New Principal

Canon, northstars, and job catalog say restaurant. A real file exists. Tomorrow’s open can still run if you do not open a tab. You still cook and manage in your own tools. Stop there on day one.

Setup is a task you give an agent — here is what to say

You do not fill in a wizard and you do not learn a config format. The starter northstars, catalog, and cadence in a fresh install are examples, not defaults you keep. You replace them by describing your practice to an agent that can read the bundle.

Who you are

The practice, what matters, what “good” means on a normal week.

→ becomes your northstars

What recurs

The work that comes back — weekly, Thursday mornings, every close.

→ becomes the job catalog and cadence

What waits for you

What must never happen unattended: sends, posts, payments.

→ becomes the review gate

Weak — an agent given nothing about you can only keep the demo

Set up Human Computer for my restaurant.

Strong — who you are, what recurs, what waits for you

You’re setting up my coordinator by reading the bundle. I run a 40-seat neighborhood place — dinner Tuesday through Saturday, brunch on weekends. What matters to me: prep is done before service, no vendor order gets missed, and the opening crew can read what they need without asking me. What recurs: a brunch prep packet on Fridays, the fish order Thursday morning, a weekly vendor check. What must never happen without me: anything that emails the staff or posts a special. The examples that came with the install aren’t us — replace them with this, and keep the upkeep jobs you shipped.

You never have to say “northstars” or “catalog.” Describe the practice; the agent does the mapping, then tells you which files it wrote.

Two rooms, one disk

Making surface

Where the crew already works: lists, vendor threads, the folder that survives a Saturday night.

  • Long loops on the lists in front of you
  • Write service northstars and a prep catalog from files
  • Leave a path the opening crew can read
Bounce on purpose
paths, not transcripts

Coordinator

Where the day is true after close: this is still that restaurant, tomorrow can run, nothing left the building without a person.

  • Remembers the job after the tab closes
  • Same files the making surface wrote
  • A clock on your machine, not a vendor tab
  • Nothing external ships without you

Four layers that do not compete

Package

The zip, image, and INSTALL.md. Arrival, not orientation. The file wins over chat.

Playbook

First proof a file exists. Hygiene seed. A host clock. Proof tomorrow can run.

Conversation

Open the workspace in an LLM. Replace starter identity with this practice. Keep hygiene.

Receipt

What was written, when, and that upkeep still exists. Then the Day can start.

Shared spine — every Principal walks this once

  1. 1

    Arrive

    Load the image, fill one LLM key, compose up. Cite INSTALL.md; do not invent commands.

  2. 2

    Prove

    A real path appears — a prep list or floor note, not a chat.

  3. 3 · highlight

    Identity

    Northstars, job catalog, and canon become this restaurant — service periods, prep, vendors. Hygiene stays.

  4. 4

    Keep

    Tomorrow can still happen if you do not open a tab. The clock is on your machine.

  5. 5

    Day

    Most minutes stay on the floor and in the lists. The other room holds close, tomorrow, and the yes before anything leaves.

Three depths of the same day — not ranks

New Principal

Prompt-only. Keys may have been filled for you. You now own the instance.

Do
Arrive → Prove → Identity → Keep. Stop there on day one.
Done when
Northstars and catalog say restaurant, a file exists, nothing ships without you.

Vibe Coder

You craft the living project in the making surface.

Do
One project (a menu week) plus one recurring packet, still off until you opt in.
Done when
Brunch is a folder you can open, not an idea in a thread.

Power Operator

Several projects, your own workers, more than one window.

Do
Stay in the rooms you already run. Same disk. Same person before send, post, or pay.
Done when
Close and tomorrow are inspectable across tools, not trapped in one chat.

The workday is installed when you can

01

Point at a file that proved the first piece of work landed.

02

Read your canon, northstars, and job catalog instead of a chat log.

03

See what is next, and what is waiting on a person.

04

Leave one harness, open another, and find the same day.

The coordinator holds the workday; the making surface holds the craft. If Human Computer replaced the making surface, it would be another chat kit. If the making surface replaced Human Computer, the day would live in a transcript again. Same practice, three depths. Hash links: #restaurant/new · #studio/vibe · #engineering/power Next: The disk — the folders you own and where they mount · Your agents — scaffolding your own with Distributed Agent Language ← The kit that runs this day