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Job shapes

What kind of job is it?

Sorting tenant emails, support tickets and failed production units is one job done three times. What the items are about changes nothing; what the work is decides the approach. So find your job here by its shape, not its subject, then let the worksheet settle the level. Most real requests are two or three of these joined together. Split them, and settle each part on its own.

14 shapes

Lowest usual level first

“Usually level N” is where the worksheet most often settles for jobs of that shape. It is an expectation to test, never a verdict.

Look something up, or work it out from numbers you already have

Usually level 0 · Conventional software

The input is structured and the right answer is fixed by a rule, a table or arithmetic. Two people given the same input would always produce the same output.

How to recognize it

  • The data is already in columns, fields or records.
  • You could write the logic down as if/then, a formula or a query.
  • A wrong answer is unacceptable and the right one is checkable.

Lower when

It cannot go lower. This is the floor, and a great deal of real work lives here.

Higher when

Only the part that reads free text or judges something a rule cannot capture moves up. The decision itself stays in code.

The same shape in other fields

  • Pass or fail a measurement against its limits, and compute yield and Cpk
  • Work out the margin to a specification at every corner of a sweep
  • Build an uncertainty budget and guardband a limit by it
  • Flag invoices over an approval threshold
  • Find scheduling conflicts in a calendar
  • Reorder stock when a count falls below a minimum
  • Convert units or currencies
  • Roll a week of work up into the counts, dates and totals a status report quotes
  • Check a bill of materials for end-of-life parts against a supplier list

Turn one piece of text into another

Usually level 1 · Direct prompting

Everything needed is in the text you hand over: summarize it, rewrite it, translate it, explain it, or draft from notes. One request, one response.

How to recognize it

  • The source text fits in one request.
  • No outside facts are needed.
  • A person reads the result before it matters.

Lower when

The transformation is mechanical (reformatting, find and replace, a template with blanks). That is level 0.

Higher when

It needs facts that are not in the text (level 2), or the output must pass a check before anyone sees it (level 3, write and check).

The same shape in other fields

  • Summarize a meeting transcript
  • Explain a compiler error or a stack trace
  • Write release notes from a list of commits
  • Rewrite a test procedure for a less experienced operator
  • Write a characterization report around numbers that are already computed
  • Translate a supplier's datasheet excerpt
  • Turn bullet points into a status report

Answer questions from a body of documents

Usually level 2 · Added context

The answer exists in your documents and the work is finding the right passage and answering from it, with a citation a person can check.

How to recognize it

  • The documents are yours and the model was not trained on them.
  • One search usually finds what is needed.
  • People need to see where the answer came from.

Lower when

Keyword search already finds the passage and a person reads it (level 0). Or the whole set fits in one request, which is still level 2 but needs no retrieval.

Higher when

A good answer needs several searches, each depending on the last (level 5, agentic RAG), or the documents disagree and the revision that applies has to be worked out.

The same shape in other fields

  • A policy handbook or a set of standard operating procedures
  • Datasheets, errata and engineering change notices for the parts on a board
  • Instrument programming manuals
  • A calibration procedure and the records it requires
  • Contracts and their amendments
  • A codebase's design documents
  • Product manuals for a support team

Pull structured data out of something unstructured

Usually level 3 · Workflows

A document, a photo, a recording or a free-text note goes in; a record with fixed fields comes out.

How to recognize it

  • You know the fields you want in advance.
  • The input varies in layout or wording.
  • The records feed a database, a spreadsheet or another program.

Lower when

The layout never changes, so a parser or a regular expression does it (level 0). Or a person checks every record anyway and one call with a schema is enough (level 1).

Higher when

Filling a field needs a lookup the model has to choose to make (level 4).

The same shape in other fields

  • Invoices and receipts into an accounting system
  • Key parameters from a datasheet into a parts database
  • An instrument accuracy table into rows per range and per calibration interval
  • A calibration certificate into as-found and as-left readings for a drift record
  • Operator failure notes into cause, location and severity
  • Resumes into a candidate record
  • Lab reports into a results table
  • Log lines into typed events

Sort incoming items and send each where it belongs

Usually level 3 · Workflows

Items arrive one at a time. Each gets a label from a short fixed list, and the label decides what happens next. The steps are the same every time; only the label needs judgment.

How to recognize it

  • A stream of items, not a single question.
  • A small, stable set of categories.
  • What happens after the label is already decided by you.

Lower when

The wording is predictable enough for keywords or a dropdown (level 0). Run the rule anyway as a second check where one category is dangerous to miss.

Higher when

Deciding where something goes needs a live fact the item does not contain, such as who is on call or whose account it is (level 4).

The same shape in other fields

  • Tenant, customer or patient messages by urgency
  • Support tickets by product area
  • Failed units by likely cause: fixture, lot, handling or design
  • Bug reports by component and severity
  • Monitoring alerts by who should be paged
  • Incoming leads by fit

Produce something that has to meet a standard, and check it before anyone sees it

Usually level 3 · Workflows

A draft is only useful if it passes a test you can state: it compiles, it uses only documented commands, it follows the template, it stays inside the brand rules. One step writes, another checks, and the loop repeats until it passes or gives up.

How to recognize it

  • You can say what makes a draft acceptable.
  • Some of that can be checked by code.
  • A bad draft reaching a person wastes their time.

Lower when

A person reviews every draft anyway and first drafts are usually fine (level 1).

Higher when

Fixing a failed check needs the model to go and find things out (level 5).

The same shape in other fields

  • Marketing copy against brand and legal rules
  • An instrument control script checked against the documented command set and run on a simulator
  • A measurement report checked figure by figure against the numbers code computed
  • Code against its tests
  • A SQL query against the schema
  • A report against a required template
  • A test procedure against the requirement it verifies

Check a piece of work against written rules

Usually level 3 · Workflows

The work already exists. The job is finding where it breaks rules that are written down, and reporting each finding with the rule it breaks.

How to recognize it

  • The criteria are written, numbered or listable.
  • Findings need to point at both the work and the rule.
  • A person decides what to do about each finding.

Lower when

A rule is mechanical (a clearance, a naming convention, a required field). Those checks belong in code at level 0, and the model takes only the ones that need reading.

Higher when

False findings are costly enough that a second, independent reviewer should check each one against the rule text (level 6, review and debate).

The same shape in other fields

  • A schematic, bill of materials or layout against design-review rules
  • A pull request against a style and security guide
  • A contract against a negotiation playbook
  • A test plan against its requirements for coverage
  • A measurement report against what its method requires it to state: value, uncertainty, coverage factor, conditions
  • A document against a compliance checklist
  • A safety case against a standard's clauses

Turn a goal or a set of requirements into a structured plan

Usually level 3 · Workflows

Requirements go in; a plan comes out in a fixed structure, with every item traceable back to what asked for it. A person approves it before anyone acts on it.

How to recognize it

  • The output has a known structure.
  • Traceability matters.
  • Nothing happens until a person signs off.

Lower when

The mapping is one to one and a template fills itself in (level 0).

Higher when

Writing the plan needs investigation the model has to direct itself (level 5).

The same shape in other fields

  • Requirements into a test plan with a traceability table
  • Every datasheet parameter into the corners a design verification plan measures it at
  • A project brief into tasks and owners
  • An incident report into a runbook
  • A learning goal into a syllabus
  • A customer request into a statement of work

Keep an eye on sources and say what changed

Usually level 3 · Workflows

A fixed list of places is checked on a schedule. Code finds what changed; a model is asked one question about each change, usually whether it matters and why.

How to recognize it

  • The sources are known in advance.
  • Most checks find nothing.
  • The schedule is a timer, not a judgment.

Lower when

Any change at all is worth a notification, so a diff and an email do it (level 0).

Higher when

Deciding what to watch, or following a change to its consequences, is itself the job (level 5 or 7).

The same shape in other fields

  • Regulatory and standards pages
  • Product change and end-of-life notices for the parts in a bill of materials
  • Calibration due dates across a bench of instruments
  • Releases of the libraries you depend on
  • Competitor pricing pages
  • A shared document that has to stay true: a project tracker, a roster, a risk register
  • New papers in a field
  • A supplier's errata for a chip you have designed in

Answer people in conversation, looking things up and taking small actions

Usually level 4 · Tool use

A person asks, and a good reply needs a lookup or a small action chosen for that request: check a status, find a record, book something, open a ticket.

How to recognize it

  • A conversation, not a batch.
  • A handful of well-defined lookups and actions.
  • Some requests have to be handed to a person.

Lower when

Every question is answered from the same documents with no lookup (level 2), or a form would serve people better than a conversation (level 0).

Higher when

Resolving a request takes many dependent steps the model has to plan (level 5).

The same shape in other fields

  • Customer support
  • An internal IT or HR help desk
  • Booking shared lab equipment and checking its calibration status
  • Order and delivery status
  • A parts-availability assistant for a purchasing team
Worked examples
Support desk

Ask questions of data you do not fully understand yet

Usually level 5 · Agent loops

You have a table and a question, and the next thing to compute depends on what the last computation showed. The model writes analysis code, code runs it in a sandbox, and the numbers come from the code and never from the model.

How to recognize it

  • The standing reports did not answer the question.
  • Each answer suggests the next question.
  • Every number must be reproducible.

Lower when

The questions are the same every week. Then it is a dashboard, which is level 0, and building it should come first: grouping by the obvious dimensions answers most questions before a model is involved. One question needing one computation is level 4.

Higher when

Rarely. One agent with one tool is enough for one dataset.

The same shape in other fields

  • A production yield drop: bad lot, drifting fixture or real design margin
  • A fall in sales in one region
  • Survey results
  • Server logs after an incident
  • Results of an experiment with many factors
  • Characterization data across temperature and voltage
  • Why one block of readings in a session scatters wider than the rest

Find out about something across many sources and write it up

Usually level 5 · Agent loops

The question is open, the sources are not known in advance, and the result is a written answer in which every claim points at where it came from.

How to recognize it

  • Nobody can list the sources up front.
  • Several rounds of searching and reading.
  • Citations are part of the deliverable.

Lower when

The sources are a known set of documents (level 2).

Higher when

The topic is broad enough to split among parallel searchers, or the claims are important enough for an independent check (level 6).

The same shape in other fields

  • A literature review
  • Comparing candidate parts or suppliers from their public documentation
  • Due diligence on a company
  • What a standard requires and how others have met it
  • A market overview

Carry out a multi-step task in software, where the steps depend on what it finds

Usually level 5 · Agent loops

You describe the outcome. The model reads, acts, looks at the result and decides what to do next, inside limits your code enforces, and says when it is done.

How to recognize it

  • The steps cannot be written down in advance.
  • There is a way to tell whether it worked, such as a test.
  • Its actions can be limited and undone.

Lower when

You can write the steps down after all. Most tasks that feel open-ended have a fixed skeleton, and that is a level 3 workflow.

Higher when

The task is too large for one context window, or independent review of the result is worth its cost (level 6).

The same shape in other fields

  • Fix a bug or add a feature in a repository
  • Work a bring-up problem with read-only queries to instruments, the log and the datasheet
  • Reproduce somebody else's measurement from their notebook and say where the two differ
  • Reconcile two systems when finding the matching record is itself the work, rather than a field-by-field comparison
  • Migrate configuration from one format to another
  • Reproduce a reported defect

Work that should happen without anyone asking

Usually level 7 · Always-on agents

Something other than a person starts the work: a schedule, an event, an inbox. The agent runs on a machine of its own, remembers earlier sessions, and holds risky actions for approval.

How to recognize it

  • The work recurs or is triggered.
  • It spans many sessions.
  • Someone has to be able to see and stop what it is doing.

Lower when

Almost always ask this first: if a timer starts it and the steps are fixed, it is a scheduled workflow at level 3, which is far cheaper to run and to trust.

Higher when

It cannot go higher.

The same shape in other fields

  • A personal assistant that manages mail and calendar
  • An agent that keeps documentation in step with a codebase
  • Overnight regression triage that files its findings by morning
  • An overnight soak that records readings and has the ones that left the limits waiting by morning
  • An assistant that prepares a weekly operations review

A recipe is one worked instance of a shape. Take its reasoning (why this level, why not higher, what to measure, how it fails) and leave its subject behind.The same list is served to a reader’s own agent at /shapes.md; see For your agent.