Executes predefined procedural templates with real-time adjustments and feedback.
Runs a defined procedure while adapting to conditions encountered — a middle position between rigid workflow and open-ended planning. The procedure constrains the space; the agent handles variation within it.
Well-understood processes with known variation. Incident response, standard investigations, recurring close procedures.
Novel situations the playbook does not anticipate, where adapting a wrong procedure is worse than admitting there isn't one.
Deviations from the playbook must be recorded and justified, not silently absorbed. The playbook is the control; departures from it are the exceptions worth seeing.
Adapting past the point where the playbook still applies, so the procedure that was followed bears little relation to the one that was approved.
A month-end close checklist executed with adaptation for a late source file, where the substitution is logged rather than treated as normal.