{
  "uid": "cogitave.learn.apply-the-agents-floor.introduction",
  "kind": "moduleUnit",
  "href": "/modules/apply-the-agents-floor/introduction/",
  "title": "Introduction",
  "summary": "",
  "type": null,
  "products": [],
  "roles": [],
  "levels": [],
  "subjects": [],
  "headings": [
    "Why a floor at all",
    "What you will get from this module"
  ],
  "source": "Every organization has rules. Most keep them in a wiki nobody reads, written for\nhumans and ignored by the automation that does the work. An AI-native org does the\nopposite: it keeps its rules in **one file, in the root of the codebase, addressed\nto both the people and the agents that change it** - a small, non-negotiable\n**floor** that holds whether the next change came from a person or a model.\nCogitave is one org that works this way, and this module uses its floor as the\nworked example.\n\nThe file is [`AGENTS.md`](../../../../../AGENTS.md), an open standard for exactly\nthis purpose: every coding and automation agent - and every human in a session -\nreads the nearest `AGENTS.md`, and the root file is the **floor** that all\nsub-trees inherit. Cogitave's own root `AGENTS.md` is its **managed policy**; it\nopens with a section titled *\"Non-negotiable rules (the floor)\"* and lists seven\nof them. This module teaches those seven as a concrete floor you can learn from\nand adapt to your own estate.\n\n> [!IMPORTANT]\n> A floor is **the floor, not a suggestion**. Cogitave's seven rules are numbered\n> 1 to 7 in its `AGENTS.md`, and this module teaches them in that order. When the\n> floor and a habit disagree, the floor wins.\n\n## Why a floor at all\n\nIn an AI-native org, agents change the same code and infrastructure that people\ndo. A floor that **both a person and an agent can read** is what lets a narrow,\ncheap model act unattended and still stay correct - the environment carries the\nrules, so they hold whether the author was human or not. In Cogitave's estate you\nare working inside a **control plane**, and every change is auditable evidence: a\nreviewer or an auditor will read your diff.\n\nA good floor also stays **short** and delegates the detail to an **owning\nstandard**. Cogitave's does exactly this: `AGENTS.md` states the rule and points\nyou at the canonical document under\n[`standards/docs/standards/`](../../../../standards/docs/standards/). Learn the\nfloor from the one file; learn the specifics from the standard it cites. Never\nparaphrase a rule from memory when the source is one link away.\n\n## What you will get from this module\n\nNot a tour of opinions - a working command of the seven rules on Cogitave's floor,\na clear picture of **what enforces each one** (a hook, a CI gate, an org ruleset,\nor policy-as-code), and the ability to apply a floor like it to your very first\nchange.\n",
  "partOf": "cogitave.learn.apply-the-agents-floor",
  "durationInMinutes": 4,
  "quiz": null
}