Hiring a Coworker

Walk through the five hiring steps, from the job description to the new Coworker's first phase.

For: People with the hire_coworkers ability, and admins · Last updated

Every Coworker starts from a human job description. The hiring wizard turns it into a Coworker with clear responsibilities, boundaries and a named human Supervisor.

You need the hire_coworkers ability or the admin ability. Without it, the page tells you that hiring requires the Hire Coworkers ability and to ask an admin for access.

To start, open Coworkers and select Hire a Coworker. The wizard has five steps, shown as a progress bar: Analyze the human JD, The six elements, Opportunity Scorecard, Identity & model and Offer the interview. Use ← Back to return to an earlier step and Continue → to move on. If a step is incomplete, a short message beside the buttons says what is missing.

Your progress is kept in your browser tab. If you refresh, the wizard shows "Resumed where you left off." Select Discard and start fresh to clear it.

Step 1: Analyze the human JD#

  1. Paste the full job description into the box. It can be your own, or the role the Coworker will scale.
  2. Select Continue →. The description is analyzed task by task, to separate work that is structurally human from work a Coworker can own.

Prefer to build the list yourself? Select Enter tasks manually instead.

You then see two columns:

  • Tasks the Coworker can own become the Coworker's Primary Responsibilities.
  • Tasks retained by the human become its Scope Boundaries, the things it does not do.

You decide the final split. Drag a task to the other column to move it, select the pencil to edit its wording, or select the cross to remove it. Use the field at the bottom of each column and Add to add tasks the analysis missed. Tasks the Coworker owns carry a label of Eliminate, Redesign or Create, which you can change from the drop-down; open "What do the ELIMINATE / REDESIGN / CREATE labels mean?" for a short explanation of each. Start over clears the list and returns to the pasted description.

To continue you need at least one task in each column. If the retained column is empty, a suggestion to keep "Review and approve the Coworker's output" is offered.

Step 2: The six elements#

This step collects the rest of the job description. It also drafts some fields from your job description, marked "suggested from the JD — edit freely"; change any of them.

  1. Knowledge Domain. Write a one-line summary of what the Coworker must know, then tick the Knowledge Bases it should draw on. Knowledge Bases marked human-only are not offered, because Coworkers cannot be given them. If you have the manage_knowledge_bases ability or are an admin, you can also create a new Knowledge Base on the spot by entering its name and its update path (who keeps it current, and how often), then selecting Create.
  2. Primary Responsibilities. Listed from the first column of step 1.
  3. Working Relationships. Who the Coworker works with.
  4. Performance Expectations. Measurable criteria at 30 days, 90 days and 365 days. The 30-day criterion is required.
  5. Scope Boundaries. Listed from the second column of step 1, as "Does NOT ..." lines.
  6. Supervisor. Choose the named human who is accountable for the Coworker. The list shows people who hold the hire_coworkers ability, and starts with you if you are one of them. A named Supervisor is required.

Knowledge Bases are optional. If you select Continue → with none attached, you are asked "Create this Coworker without a Knowledge Base?" Select Continue without one to go on, or cancel to pick some. You can attach Knowledge Bases to the Coworker at any time after hiring.

Step 3: Opportunity Scorecard#

Score seven dimensions from 1 to 3: Volume, Knowledge availability, Output measurability, Time burden, Supervisor availability, User readiness and Strategic alignment. Each score has a short description of what it means. You must score all seven.

The total out of 21 appears with a verdict:

  • 18 or more: a strong first-deployment candidate.
  • 12 to 17: viable, with reservations.
  • Below 12: the opportunity scores low. You can proceed anyway; the wizard suggests you record why in the interview notes.

Step 4: Identity & model#

  • Name. Required, and it must be unique in your company. Use a colleague's name rather than a product name. If another Coworker already has the name, hiring is refused with a message saying so.
  • Role title and Practice area.
  • Team. Optional. Choose one of your company's Teams, or leave it as — none —.
  • Model binding. Required. Choose the model the Coworker runs on; the company default is preselected when there is one. You can change it later without losing the Coworker.

If a model's context window is too small for reliable Coworker conversations, you see a message saying so and cannot continue with that model. If a model's context window cannot be confirmed, you see a warning that it may not support long conversations.

Step 5: Offer the interview#

The last step summarizes the offer: the Coworker's name, role and practice, its Supervisor, what it owns, what it never touches, its scorecard total and its 30-day expectation.

Select Create in Interview phase. The Coworker is created in the Interview phase, where only its Supervisor and admins can see it, and you are taken to a chat with it.

Next, see Advancing a Coworker and retiring it for how the Coworker moves from Interview to Full-Time.