Tidewater Creative

Chapter 04

How the agents work

Most of the engine is plain code with clear rules. The agents sit at the points that need reading and writing. Here is one client's report from the 2nd of the month, traced from the trigger to the owner's approval, then how the engine learned from one correction.

Sample deployment record. Tidewater Creative is a fictional client and every number here is illustrative.

Incoming month-end

Harbor Dental · September report

RPT-1042 · Oct 2, 2026, 7:10 am

$4,800 retainer

Meta Ads spend
$4,812
Google Ads spend
$1,140
Leads attributed
63
Workbook total (last month's template)
$4,080

Report assembler

Runs four steps in order, stops on a flag

  1. Export3.2s

    Done · Exact

    Pulled September spend and results for Harbor Dental from Meta Ads and Google Ads by API and wrote them into the locked report template.

    Rule 1: numbers come from the platform export, never from a pasted workbook

  2. Mismatch check0.4s

    Held for a person · Flagged

    Platform total $5,952 against a template total of $4,080 from last month's carried-over cell. Spend is also 18% above August. Both numbers held side by side for a person.

    Rule 3: a mismatch or a swing above 15% stops the run until cleared

  3. Change summary6.1s

    Done · High

    Drafted from the media buyer's change log: budget raised from $4,000 to $4,800 on Sep 18 for the fall promotion. Leads up 22% on the month.

    Rule 5: explain changes from the log, and say so when the log is empty

  4. Approval

    Waiting

    Held until the account lead clears the flag. Then one email to the owner with the PDF and two buttons.

    Rule 7: nothing reaches a client without the owner's approval on record

The feedback loop

Agent wrote

Spend change explains the lead drop

Boardwalk Rentals, September draft

→

Account lead wrote

End of rental season, as every year

Edited before send, kept as an example

The edit was saved against the client and the month. Next September the draft starts from the seasonal explanation and checks the log for anything new.

Drafts approved without edit, month 1

71%

→

Month 4

91%

Rule changes

  1. Jul 14, 2026

    Mismatch tolerances set per client

    Month one flagged a third of reports. Tolerances were set per client from what the account lead cleared without changes. Flags dropped to one or two a month.

    12 tolerances set

  2. Aug 3, 2026

    Reminder cadence matched to payment history

    Two clients who always pay around day 20 were getting the day-14 nudge. The cadence now reads each client's history before sending.

    2 cadences adjusted

  3. Sep 22, 2026

    Expired Google Ads access handled

    A client's access token expired mid-month. The onboarding agent now watches for the error and sends the renewal request the same day.

    1 rule added

~140

Actions per month-end

91%

Drafts approved without edit, month 4

11

Mismatches caught before send

0

Reports sent with the wrong month's numbers

Guardrails

  • The owner decides what reaches a client

    Reports and overage lines need the owner's approval. Reminders follow a cadence the owner set and can be paused per client in one reply.

  • Money and commitments stay human

    The agents never decide what to do about a late client, never offer a discount, and never promise a delivery date.

  • Minimum access

    Read access everywhere it is enough. Write access only for draft invoices, the report template, the client folder, and the shared mailbox.

  • Run in parallel, then switch over

    The first month-end ran both the old path and the new one. The old workbook was retired only after the numbers matched twice.

  • A kill switch the owner holds

    One reply pauses every agent. Nothing queued is sent until the agents are turned back on.