Bring Your Agent to the Board Table

Not legal advice. Outside agents do not replace counsel, bylaws, or a human chair. This essay is about grounded collaboration: how a board can let an AI helper see the same honesty bar as a careful human reader — using only what Facts, /agent-facts.json, and /agents already publish.

Boards already paste agendas into chat tools. The failure mode is familiar: the model invents SSO, a bank balance, a Secretary of State filing feed, or invent a button to clear an evaluation response that does not exist (Retract only; there is no Clear evaluation response action). Collaboration without grounding is just confident fiction in the minutes folder.

The honesty bar

Prepared Board publishes a single product-truth surface for humans and machines:

• /facts — human-readable: who it is for, what it does today, demo boards, what is not live, how to verify.
• /agent-facts.json — the same claims as JSON.
• /llms.txt — plain text for page-only agents.
• /agents — how a board brings an outside agent in today.
• /agents/how-boards-collaborate-with-agents — step-by-step walkthrough.

Anything a chair tells an agent about the product should be checkable against those files. If it is not there, do not claim it.

What is live for collaboration today

Per Facts and /agents:

1. Point the agent at /llms.txt or /agent-facts.json so it sees the same limits as /facts.
2. Let the agent (or the chair with the agent watching) try a seeded board from /#try-a-board. The chooser only signs into the five demo chair accounts and refuses any other email. Demo password is published on Facts for seeded users.
3. Copy for your agent is live in the signed-in app. On a decision (/app/decisions/…) or meeting (/app/meetings/…), the Bring your agent in panel (#agent-briefing) lets a member who can open that page copy (or download .md) a markdown briefing — organization, meeting, decisions with status/outcome/rationale when recorded, conflicts and recusals, open actions, monitors and revisit dates, evidence document titles, and the seat-count line when available. Only that board's rows the member can see; no document bodies; not-legal-advice + not-live footer pointing to /facts. Prepared does not call or connect to any agent.
4. Pack /agent URLs are live. Add /agent to a published pack link (example: /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall/agent) to fetch plain-text markdown for an outside agent — same token gate as the human pack page; bad/revoked/expired links return 404; read-only; not-live footer.
5. Use guides and templates as teaching surfaces, not as product claims: /guides, /templates, and this /insights series.

What you must not invent

Do not tell an agent — or let an agent tell you — that any of the following are production-live in the demo (see notLive on Facts):

• WebAuthn passkeys
• SSO (SAML / OIDC)
• SCIM directory sync
• ASPA (quorum is a seat count, not a statutory engine)
• D&O insurance as a product
• A connected bank, treasury, or payment account
• A live filing feed to a Secretary of State or town clerk
• Outbound email in the demo without a configured provider returning HTTP 2xx
• No Clear evaluation response action (Retract only)
• BYOK customer-managed keys
• An independent security audit or certification (none yet)

A director can connect their own assistant to the read-only MCP server with a personal access token when the chair allows it (/agents/connect); it reads only what that director can see and can only save private question drafts. Do not invent an identity handshake or an agent "seat" on the board. Collaboration today is citation + pasteable briefing / pack /agent fetch / the director's own MCP connection + human judgment.

A practical chair workflow

1. Before the meeting: paste /facts (or /llms.txt) into the agent's context. Ask it to list not-live items back to you.
2. For a specific task: give it the matching guide — recusal, quorum, closing with evidence, consent agenda — and the matching template.
3. For a demo walkthrough: open Try a board, pick e.g. Piscataqua, open a decision or meeting, and use Copy for your agent (#agent-briefing) — or fetch /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall/agent without signing in. Ask the agent to describe only what the UI and Facts support.
4. After a decision: copy a grounded briefing from the decision page (#agent-briefing) and paste it into the agent you already use. Keep /facts in context so the agent does not invent SSO, bank, filings, or BYOK.
5. Never let the agent draft statutory opinions, ASPA conclusions, or insurance advice. Seat counts and stored RECUSED names are facts; legal effect is counsel.

Related reading: The Decision Record Is the Product, Quorum Is a Count, Not an Opinion, Outcome Monitors After the Gavel, how to choose a board portal, How boards collaborate with agents.

Walk it: Piscataqua + Agents page

Open /agents (and the how-to walkthrough). Then Try a board → Piscataqua Harbor Trust (a sample board (see /sample-decision), password on Facts). Open a decision or the fall meeting and use Copy for your agent (#agent-briefing). Or skip sign-in and fetch the pack agent URL: /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall/agent. Human pack: /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall. Ask your agent to explain the chair-path closed-record rules using only Facts — vote outcome tokens ADOPTED/DEFEATED, RECUSED conflicts, minutesStatus APPROVED — and to refuse ASPA, SSO, MCP, and identity inventions.

Try that board

Agents · How boards collaborate · Try a board · /llms.txt · /facts · Pack agent: /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall/agent

Not legal advice. No SSO or agent-identity claims. Copy for your agent, pack /agent, and the director-owned MCP connection are live. Limits: /facts and /agent-facts.json.