--- title: "ROSTER: named agents with one job each, not a staff rota" description: "ROSTER: named agents with one job each, not a staff rota" image: "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-1.jpg" --- Framework # ROSTER The Agent Dream Team ROSTER: named agents with one job each, not a staff rota The moves 6 ## The definition ROSTER is a six-skill protocol for a one-person company that runs named specialist agents: Roles, Objectives, Skills and tools, Triggers, Evaluation, Rotation. Roles give each agent a charter. Objectives make the charter measurable. Skills and tools bound what the agent may use. Triggers decide when it runs. Evaluation scores output instead of vibe. Rotation retires, merges, upgrades, or migrates a role on scorecard evidence. One chatbot that never hands off is not a team. ## When to use it Use it when one generic assistant is doing research, drafting, ops, and follow-up in the same thread, and quality swings because nothing has a charter. ## The moves 1. 01 ### Roles Give each agent a charter so one job has an owner instead of a shared thread. 2. 02 ### Objectives Make the charter measurable. A role without an objective is a job title. 3. 03 ### Skills and tools Bound what the agent may use, and cut the access it does not need. 4. 04 ### Triggers Decide once, at your clearest, which event starts which agent. 5. 05 ### Evaluation Score output with a scorecard. Judgment by vibe is hope, not management. 6. 06 ### Rotation Retire, merge, upgrade, or migrate a role on scorecard evidence, before last quarter's design quietly fails this quarter's work. Starting roster ## A starting roster for a company of one Sized for one person: three starting roles, one-page charters, a trigger map, scorecards, and a weekly ritual. Nobody has measured a solo founder's roster as a population outcome. Coach, not worker, is identity framing, not a guarantee of hours saved. 1. 01 ### Three charters Name three roles. Example jobs: research, drafting, ops. One page each. A title without an objective is not a charter. 2. 02 ### Trigger map Decide once, at your clearest, which event starts which agent. Do not rediscover the routing in every chat. 3. 03 ### Scorecard Evaluate output with a scorecard, not vibe. Trust is earned per role, never per model. 4. 04 ### Weekly ritual A thirty-minute pass: what ran, what failed the scorecard, what rotates. Rotation retires, merges, upgrades, or migrates a role on scorecard evidence. ## The book Available now ### The Agent Dream Team Build Your Autonomous Specialist Roster for a One-Person Company Open the bookThe articleThe series ## Related frameworks CHORUS ### The Multi-Agent Organization CHORUS is a six-skill coordination protocol for teams of 2 to 15 people who share work with specialised AI workers: Charter, Handoff, Orchestrate, Review, Update, Sync. Org charts name reporting lines. CHORUS names coordination lines. STACK ### The Agentic Codebase STACK is a five-layer architecture for repositories where humans and agents share work: Structure, Toolchain, Agent configuration, Connection, Knowledge and quality. The agent OS is versioned like the app. SENSE ### AI Agents for Startup Strategy SENSE is a five-move strategic intelligence layer: Scan, Evaluate, Navigate, Simulate, Execute. It turns agent work from a productivity shortcut into a sourced claim that changes a watchlist, an assumption register, or a Monday decision. ## Essays on this site - [What is a roster?](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/roster-meaning/) ## Terminology - [ROSTER](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/roster/) - [CHORUS](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/chorus/) - [STACK](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/stack/) - [SENSE](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/sense/) - [AI agent](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/ai-agent/) - [Human in the loop](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/human-in-the-loop/) - [Override doctrine](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/override-doctrine/) Not an HR org chart, not CHORUS, and not a prompt pack. ROSTER is the named system in The Agent Dream Team, available now in English and Dutch paperback, hardcover, and Kindle. CHORUS coordinates a human team of 2 to 15. ROSTER coaches a roster for a company of one. ## Citation ROSTER (The Agent Dream Team). 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