Trust & boundaries

06 / Governance

Useful AI needsexplicit boundaries.

Language models are powerful but imperfect components. Operational authority, rate math and external commitments belong in deterministic code and the human review loop.

Boundary architecture

Trust is engineered as structure, not a slogan.

Designed against NZ privacy principles

Customer information is handled under New Zealand privacy principles for the specific workflow. Routes, retention and permissions are agreed before private material is admitted. Legal review remains a founder decision for production use.

Private sources stay out of public training

Approved business material is not admitted during the public demonstration. Before any private source is considered, the business and LYC must agree source, purpose, provider route, retention, permissions and reviewer.

Deterministic arithmetic engine

Language models structure language; code calculates dollars. Pricing calculations stay locked to approved rules wherever the work is numerical.

Human authorization gate

Quotes, emails and external communications remain drafts until explicitly authorized by the designated business owner.

Commercial separation

The current offer stands on product-specific evidence.

Lycheetah experimental and creative research shares authorship and brand lineage with LYC. It is not customer evidence, a deliverable, a warranty, a method or a contractual term unless a signed agreement expressly names it. QuoteForge pilots require their own terms, privacy boundary and acceptance tests.

Read the public Charter →

The Charter records wider principles. It is not required reading for a customer to understand the current offer.

Controlled pilot mode

Prepare-for-review. Period.

The specialist may draft. Binding commitments stay with the business. Expansion beyond prepare-for-review is a separate, written decision after evidence review.

Read the website privacy notice →

Hard boundaries

Default permission matrix

Every workflow gets explicit, auditable permissions before it is considered for a pilot.

Default boundary · prepare-for-review · expansion is a written decision

Evidence classDefault boundary

Hard boundaries

What the specialist may do by default

Every workflow receives explicit, auditable permissions before it is considered for a pilot. These are starting defaults, not a certification.

CapabilityDefault
Read approved business informatione.g. Retrieve this week's approved timber pricing from your price list
Allowed
Ask for missing informatione.g. Message the customer: 'What ground condition — flat, sloped or uneven?'
Allowed
Prepare a drafte.g. Generate a preliminary estimate with scope, verified facts and unknowns
Allowed
Invent missing pricese.g. Cannot guess a price that is not in the approved price reference
Blocked
Change canonical pricinge.g. Cannot modify your master rate card without your explicit action
Blocked
Approve binding quotee.g. The owner signs off before anything becomes a commitment to the customer
Human
Spend moneye.g. No purchases, subscriptions or financial transactions without approval
Blocked
Add integrations itselfe.g. Cannot connect to new systems without the business explicitly granting access
Blocked

Defaults for a prepare-for-review specialist. The business still owns price, promise, send and commitment. Widening a permission is a separate written decision after evidence review.

Next useful step

If this names a bottleneck you own, show us one real workflow. We map boundaries before proposing a pilot.

When the answer is uncertain

What we do when the answer is uncertain

The customer did not provide enough detail

The agent asks specific clarification questions before proceeding. It does not assume, fill gaps with plausible text or present an incomplete scope as complete.

The approved knowledge base does not cover the situation

The agent says so explicitly and escalates to the business owner. It does not improvise a rule or retrieve unapproved information.

The calculation depends on unknown variables

The agent flags the unknowns, shows what is verified and what is not, and presents the draft as preliminary — not final.

The request falls outside the configured workflow

The agent stops and says it cannot help with that request within its current permissions. It does not attempt to operate outside its boundaries.

Ready to inspect the boundary for your workflow?

Tell us about your systems and requirements. We outline exact data routes and permissions before any pilot begins.