Decision: Build COO / AI Ops Manager First

type: decision status: draft created: 2026-05-28 updated: 2026-05-28 entities: [Anthony, Easier Hermes] domains: [agents, operations] sources: - docs/11-coo-ai-ops-agent.md - docs/13-anthony-decisions-2026-05-28.md sensitivity: internal confidence: high review_by: 2026-06-11 contested: false

Decision

Build the COO / AI Ops Manager before Founder EA, ContentOS, outbound, social or other department agents.

Rationale

The COO is the role that can make the rest of the system safer and more useful. It should help Anthony develop Hermes itself by maintaining the agent backlog, memory filter, SOPs, gates, evals and connector readiness process.

Consequences

• ContentOS/outbound/social stay secondary.
• First dry-runs should test agent-building and memory hygiene, not external automation.
• Slack starts later with int-agentops.
• Fathom starts with manual receipts and digests.

Reversal Conditions

Reconsider if Anthony has an urgent department workflow that clearly beats COO-first on value and can be tested without live external side effects.