Dials, modes and limits

The workflow defines activities, conditions, outcomes and checks. Three dials decide how much rigor, how much of your attention and how many resources a run spends. Their values live in jado/policies/method.json and reach agents through jado/runtime/index.json.

Stage: how mature the design isCopy Anchor Link

A fix pass is one batch of edits, one fresh capture and one check. At the cap, the agent stops and lists the remaining issues instead of polishing. Captures happen after each visual group, not after every write, and an unchanged artifact is never reviewed twice. Routes encode the stage in their maps: dashed arrows, such as "self-check only", exist only in the stages they name, and the compiler rejects any path that skips a review in a stage where it is required.

When the stage is not stated, JADO infers it: ideas, options or moodboards mean explore; a selected direction means refine; production code or release means ship.

Involvement: when JADO asks youCopy Anchor Link

Only the main agent asks you, with the native question tool (AskUserQuestion in Claude Code, request_user_input in Codex when available). Each question offers 2–4 options with the recommended one first. Delegated agents cannot ask you: they continue on a reversible default, mark it provisional and return the question.

Budget: how much to spendCopy Anchor Link

The effective limit is the lower of the budget and the route cap shown on each route page. The model tier is passed as a per-call override when the delegation tool supports one (in Claude Code, fast maps to Sonnet and strong to Opus); otherwise the profile default applies.

Set defaults and change dialsCopy Anchor Link

Add a line to the project instructions:

JADO defaults: stage=explore involvement=autopilot budget=lean

A request overrides the defaults, and a message such as jado: pair or jado: deep changes a dial from the next step on. Every delivery ends with a run summary (route, dials, delegations, fix passes, questions, outcome). When project instructions name a JADO run log file, the summary is appended there, which lets you tune the dials on real runs.

Execution modesCopy Anchor Link

The mode follows the budget unless you name it. In macro, jado-agent-ux groups research, UX architecture and content; jado-agent-visual groups reference research, art direction and visual design; jado-agent-frontend groups design systems, implementation, motion and engineering. Council proposals keep distinct contexts even when they share a profile.

Resolve a runCopy Anchor Link

At the start of a run, jado-flow runs a small resolver that ships with every installed copy:

node <jadoRoot>/.agents/skills/jado-flow/scripts/resolve.mjs --route R05 --stage explore --project <product root>

It applies the request, the project's JADO defaults: line and the policy defaults in that order, rejects a stage the route does not support, and prints the run's limits: variants, fidelity, self-check, fix passes, review requirement, evidence level, delegations (the lower of the budget and the route cap), mode and model tier. The agent pastes those limits into the contract instead of computing them.

Plan a run in the source checkoutCopy Anchor Link

npm run jado:plan -- --workflow R05 --stage explore --budget lean
npm run jado:plan -- --workflow R04 --stage ship --budget normal
npm run jado:plan -- --workflow R07 --stage refine --mode macro --selection /tmp/plan.json

A plan without selections is candidate. --selection file.json accepts branches (invocation-path/node key, selected edge IDs as values), availableProfiles, availableTools, delegationBudget and stage. Edge IDs come from the candidate plan and the packet. A plan becomes resolved only with explicit branches and capabilities, within budget; it describes a consistent selection, not execution evidence.

Example: a UX artifact only in R07, main agent as author, zero delegations:

{"author":"primary","stage":"refine","branches":{"R07/brief":["brief-decide"],"R07/result":["result-ux_verify"],"R07/ux_gate":["ux_gate-ux_done"]},"availableProfiles":[],"availableTools":[],"delegationBudget":0}

Outcomes and resumptionCopy Anchor Link

Record stopAfter, artifact, change, constraints, decisions, author and verification in the contract; a micro-change keeps it in the message. R07 has distinct UX, canvas and code exits, each with its own gate.

A checkpoint preserves the method revision, artifact, valid decisions, missing checks, remaining budget and next action. Resume with the same author; revalidate only changed dependencies. The budget does not reset.

For artifacts, use jado-ux-artifacts; for an assigned extended baseline, use jado-ux-traceability. The root in new projects is docs/ux/.

Roles · Configuration