Decide, refer, or stop

Operating contract

Authority, evidence, and stopping conditions.

Job to control

High-volume queues need a consistent next action, but the evidence is often incomplete, contradictory, or outside the operator’s authority.

Division of work

The pack gathers named evidence and chooses from permitted next steps. Missing evidence or an out-of-scope case becomes a stop or referral, not an improvised answer.

Control point

Fix the outcome vocabulary and referral criteria before review begins.

Evidence retained

Inputs consulted, missing or conflicting fields, rule applied, permitted outcome, and named next owner.

Human ownership

Own unresolved cases, policy exceptions, overrides, and any final action reserved to an accountable operator.

Trade-off

Narrow authority creates more referrals; that is the cost of keeping uncertain cases out of automated decisions.

Applied in Cadre

Packs using this operating design.

Each pack narrows the pattern to a specific financial-services decision and names the seam that remains under human review.