Not every action needs the same certainty about cost. Cost-confidence tiers match the reversibility of an action to the confidence you have in its economics.
The three tiers
- Tier A — landed cost is known and current. Full action set, including price moves.
- Tier B — cost estimated within a confident band. Soft, reversible actions only.
- Tier C — cost unknown or stale. Observe and propose, but no margin-sensitive moves.
Why the tier lives on the row
The tier is stamped on the decision row at the moment of action. So when an auditor reads it later, they see the confidence the agent actually had — not what's known now after costs were restated.
Match the reversibility of an action to your confidence in its cost. Soft and reversible can move on estimates; expensive and sticky waits for facts.
Policy that can't drift
Because tiers gate actions in the type system, your margin policy is enforced at decision time rather than living in a Notion doc nobody reads. What the agent is allowed to do is encoded where it can't quietly drift away from intent.