The matter, then corporate housekeeping. Each row is one step: how it works today, then the same step on the board, as what brings the data in, who runs it and from which tier, where it lands. Nothing is built. If a step has no Today, it is invented. If Today and the board read the same, it is not worth building.
Where it lands is the memory bank's own model: a scope is the permission boundary, a context is what accumulates inside it, a cubby belongs to one agent.
| Today | On the board | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step | How it works now | Brings it in | Who runs it, and the agent | Where it lands | |
| 1 | Open the matter, name who is on it | The list of what is pending came from outside counsel as an attachment. We worked from a smaller number than the real one for months | Counsel's own list of what is pending | Lead counsel. No agent | one scope per matter, one for the separate track. Index in firm |
| 2 | Find every communication on a topic | Searches run by hand across mail and drive, one spelling at a time | Search from a term list carrying every spelling of a name | Paralegal, for lead counsel 1st party sweep | events into the matter scope, context = the sweep |
| 3 | Bring in the documents | A corpus on the desktop, working notes in one tree, source PDFs in downloads | Drop, folder, scan, and open the attachments | Paralegal 1st party ingest | the DDC bucket behind the vault. Matter scopes reference it |
| 4 | Bring in outside reports | Sit in shared drive folders, read by hand | Whole and unedited, from wherever they live now | Lead counsel 2nd party report reader | same bucket, one object per report, never rewritten |
| 5 | The eval scan | Claim and evidence work done ad hoc, rebuilt each time somebody asks | What we assert, what supports it, what is missing | Agent for lead counsel 1st party | the claim agent's cubby in that matter scope |
| 6 | Write it so it holds | Long documents where a statement and its support can drift apart | Every statement carries its quote and where the quote sits | Lead counsel approves 1st party | same agent, findings cubby, plus an event |
| 7 | Hand a copy to outside counsel | Attachments mailed out, with no way to withdraw them | A scoped, time limited copy, not the matter | Lead counsel signs. They connect their own 3rd party agent | its own scope, so their agreement covers nothing else |
| 8 | What we learned | The search patterns live in one person's head | The term lists and the intake checklist | Lead counsel keeps or drops. No agent | scope firm |
| 9 | Tell whoever needs to know | Somebody remembers to post it, or nobody does | The finding, and what changed because of it | Fires on the finding event 1st party notifier | an event on the matter scope. People and agents both subscribe, so the log records what was announced, not only what was written |
| 10 | Publish what compounds | Nothing compounds. The next matter starts from zero | The pattern, never the privileged content: which sources produced results, which evidence type carried which element, how long each step took | Fires after approval 1st party publisher | the compound memory bank, which is its own vault: external to every matter and queryable |
| 11 | Feed it back | Improvements live in one person's habits | Three consumers query the bank: the SOP library, the model of the work, the dashboard | Agents on the firm scope 1st party | back into SOP and skills, so the next matter opens further along than this one did |
| Today | On the board | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step | How it works now | Brings it in | Who runs it, and the agent | Where it lands | |
| 1 | List the entities and what each owes | Rows on the lanes sheet, grouped by lane, each pointing at a drive folder | The register extract and the statutes | Owner. No agent | scope corporate, context = the entity. Ownership and cash as separate links |
| 2 | Bring in formation and governance docs | Eight labelled subfolders in the drive package | Register extract, statutes, founding minutes, signing authorities | Operator 1st party ingest | the bucket, referenced from the entity context |
| 3 | Catch the incoming notices | A morning sweep reads mail and chat and reports what arrived. Some invoices only ever reach a third person's inbox | Registered agent mail, portals, and the inboxes that actually receive them | Operator 1st party connector | events into corporate on that entity context |
| 4 | Turn notices into dates | A due date column, plus a separate tracker holding have, missing and open questions | The deadline, what it demands, and what would close it | Agent for the operator 1st party | the calendar agent's cubby, one row per obligation |
| 5 | Do the recurring filing | Signatures chased over mail, with who may sign rediscovered each time | Fills the template. Checks who may sign before asking anyone | Operator prepares, an authorised signatory signs 2nd party, per jurisdiction | an event, so the filing and the signature sit in the log |
| 6 | Set up something new | No checklist object. Each setup starts from the last one somebody remembers | The checklist for that jurisdiction | Operator, owner signs 2nd party formation agent | the bucket, referenced from a new entity context |
| 7 | What we learned | A checked column on the sheet, a date stamped by hand to say the row was verified against its source | The checklist per jurisdiction | Owner keeps or drops. No agent | scope firm. The checked column retires: the event carries its own provenance |
| 8 | Tell whoever needs to know | Somebody remembers to log it, or nobody does | The obligation, and what changed about it | Fires on the notice or filing event 1st party notifier | an event on the entity context that people and agents both subscribe to |
| 9 | Publish what compounds | Nothing compounds. The next setup starts from the last one somebody remembers | The pattern: which authority answers how fast, what actually closed an obligation, what each step cost | Fires after the owner approves 1st party publisher | the same compound memory bank, the external queryable vault |
| 10 | Feed it back | Improvements live in one person's habits | The jurisdiction checklist, the signing map, the calendar template | Agents on the firm scope 1st party | back into SOP and skills, so the next entity opens further along |
The last three steps of both tables are the same three steps, and they are the same on any flow we run. Ingest from whatever already holds the thread, write to the cubby and the object on whose behalf, raise an event that people and agents alike can subscribe to, and publish what generalises into a compound memory bank that lives as its own vault, external and queryable. The consumers query it and hand the result back to SOP and skills.
One line worth keeping as a rule. What crosses into the bank is the pattern, never the privileged content, which is what lets a single bank serve every scope without breaking a wall.
| Flow | Starts at | Read back by |
|---|---|---|
| Matter | Counsel's list, then the sweep, then the documents | Asking inside the matter scope. The answer is a finding carrying its quote, so the citation is the read path |
| Corporate | The register extract | Asking inside corporate for one entity context. The calendar answers what is owed and what closed it |
A person reads through an agent connected to that scope, never by browsing storage. So the read path and the permission are one object and there is no second access model to keep in sync.