MEMO 06 · MACHINE
NEEDS: the router file (Memo 01) · scheduled runs (Memo 04) · admin controls (Spec Sheet 06)
Ambervale’s* AI can now post, edit and send, and since Memo 04 it runs when nobody’s watching. Each of those actions got its ask-first one setting at a time, in Memos 03 and 04. This memo puts them all in one file, so the line is drawn once and every chat and every run reads it.
MACHINE
Your AI can read and draft almost everything on the desk, and one file decides what leaves it.
The setup
The file sits next to the router file and loads the same way. Each line is one action, in your words.
READS
What it may open: the folders, threads and calendars the work needs.
NEVER READS
Carried over from Memo 01’s standing rules.
DRAFTS AND SAVES
What it may make, and where it leaves it, such as one shared folder for drafts.
ASKS FIRST
Anything that leaves the desk or changes someone else’s work: send, post, edit a shared doc, accept an invite.
NEVER DOES
Pay, delete, sign, or write to a board member or funder.
WHEN NOBODY’S THERE
A scheduled run that reaches an ask-first line stops and leaves a note.
ADDED SINCE
Lines added after the build, dated, newest last.
The file says what you mean. Each product’s own approval settings make it hold, and on a work account your admin may have set some of them already. Spec Sheet 06 shows where those settings live.
My morning brief once came back as a file I had to open, because nothing said where its output should land. That was a setup gap, and it’s why DRAFTS AND SAVES now names the folder.
No connections on your work account? Pasted messages and attached files can’t write anywhere, so the file mostly comes down to NEVER READS.
HUMAN LOCK
The weekly run drafted the note that goes out with the Dec 10 board pack and stopped at the send. Anything going straight to a board member is mine, so I read it, change what needs changing and send it myself.
The close
With the lines drawn, Memo 04’s runs can take on more of the week, and the asks that reach me are the ones worth my time. That’s your AI running without you: it works up to the line you drew, and the line holds when nobody’s watching.
What’s one thing your AI could send today that you’d want to see first?
* Ambervale is a fictional nonprofit I use in these memos so I can show real workflows without showing anyone’s real inbox.
Ops Bureau · Memo 06 · 2026-11-05