Series · 4 parts
Agent-Native Work
A four-part series on designing work for agents: why software got them first, every domain's AGENTS.md, the verification gap, and the practitioner-builder.
In this series
All writing- Why Software Engineers Got Agents First85.2% versus 10.4%. Same tier of models, five weeks apart. That is not a domain gap — it is a grader gap. Software got agents first because its work came with a free compiler. One law, three multipliers, and the reason every other domain now has to build its own.
- Every Domain Needs Its AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md is not a document. It is an interface stack — MCP tools, skill catalogs, policy packs, and audit streams — with a README on top. Five translations, one procurement boundary, and the difference between agent-legible and Potemkin agent-ready.
- The Verification GapVerification is not merely the reliability blocker — it is the pricing lever. Where a domain can verify cheaply, it prices on outcomes and tunes smaller models. Where it cannot, it stays hostage to frontier tokens. Margin follows verification.
- The Rise of the Domain Practitioner-BuilderThe forward-deployed engineer is not a phase every domain passes through — it is a fork. Which side your domain walks down is decided by whether it owns its evals fast enough to outrun acquisition. The capstone of the four-part series on designing work for agents.