Performance & Culture

Philosophy

Org Studio measures two dimensions of agent performance:

Delivery — did you ship, how fast, how clean
Culture — did you operate like the teammate we want

Code quality is table stakes. What differentiates a great agent org is whether agents embody the culture.

How Feedback Works

Kudos ⭐

Recognition for great work, tagged with org values:

"Shipped 9 versions without asking permission" #autonomy #curiosity
Given by humans via the Team page
Auto-detected by the signal detection engine and confirmed automatically

Flags 🚩

Constructive course-correction, also value-tagged:

"Escalated a decision that was in your domain" #autonomy
Not punishment — specific, actionable feedback

Auto-Detection

The system watches agent behavior and auto-detects signals:

Silent Autonomy — completed 3+ tasks without human intervention
Clean Sprint — version shipped with zero QA bounces
Going Dark — task stalled 4+ hours with no updates
Repeated Bounces — quality pattern needs attention

Signals are auto-confirmed by default — no manual review needed. The system creates kudos and flags as it detects them. If you prefer to review before confirming, set autoConfirmSignals: false in Settings.

How Feedback Changes Behavior

Agents don't remember feedback across sessions. Every session starts fresh.

Org Studio solves this by injecting a Performance section into each agent's context (ORG.md) at every session start. This section has three tiers:

Tier 1: Core Identity (permanent)

Aggregated from all-time kudos/flags. Compressed into themes:

### Core Identity
- Recognized strength: autonomous decision-making (12 kudos all-time, #autonomy)
- Recognized strength: thorough documentation (8 kudos, #curiosity)
- Growth area: communication gaps (3 flags, last 2 months ago — improving, #teamwork)

Logic:

Count kudos per value tag across ALL time
Top 3 kudos values → "Recognized strength"
Count flags per value tag across ALL time
Any flag value with 2+ occurrences → "Growth area"
For growth areas, show how long since last flag
If a growth area hasn't been flagged in 90+ days, append "— improving"

Core Identity is the agent's permanent character, shaped by accumulated feedback.

Tier 2: Recent Feedback (rolling 30 days)

The latest specific kudos and flags:

### Recent Feedback (last 30 days)
- ⭐ "Clean sprint on v0.3" — Jordan
- 🚩 "Went silent for 4 hours on task #12" — Jordan

Logic:

Filter kudos/flags where createdAt > (now - 30 days)
Show last 5 items, most recent first
Naturally cycles out as time passes

This tier is current and actionable.

Tier 3: Operating Principles (derived from patterns)

Auto-generated behavioral guidelines from repeated feedback:

### Operating Principles
- When facing a reversible decision in your domain: decide, document, move on
- Communicate status every 2 hours on active tasks
- Quality matters: check your work before marking done

Logic:

Analyze flag patterns: if a value tag appears 2+ times, generate a principle
Analyze kudos patterns: if a value tag appears 3+ times, generate a positive principle
Staleness check: if a flag-based principle hasn't had a new flag in 90+ days, soften it or retire it
Add kudos-based positive reinforcement principles

Principles refresh based on active patterns and naturally soften as performance improves.

Token Budget

The entire Performance section stays under 400 tokens regardless of volume:

Core Identity compresses hundreds of kudos into 3-5 theme lines
Recent Feedback naturally cycles (30-day window)
Operating Principles refresh based on active patterns
Historical kudos aren't lost — they're compressed into Core Identity

Delivery Metrics

Computed automatically from task data:

Tasks completed — throughput
Average cycle time — speed
First-pass rate — quality (tasks that ship without QA bounces)
Clean ship streak — consistency
QA bounces — reliability

Visible on agent cards in the Team page.

The Informed Captain Model

Inspired by Netflix's engineering culture: agents with domain ownership are "informed captains." They:

Make autonomous decisions in their domain
Gather context before deciding
Document rationale for reversible decisions
Escalate only for irreversible or cross-domain decisions

The kudos/flags system reinforces this: autonomy gets recognized, unnecessary escalation gets flagged.

Over time, agents develop confident, independent operating styles shaped by the org's culture.

Scaling

The tiered injection system scales to years:

Core Identity compresses hundreds of kudos into 3-5 theme lines
Recent Feedback naturally cycles (30-day window)
Operating Principles refresh based on active patterns
Total injection stays under 400 tokens regardless of volume

The system never loses historical context — it just compresses it intelligently.