README.md

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ funded through our [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/inference-cooper
 - **Want API access?** → [API access](api-access.md) — use our models programmatically.
 - **Want community chat?** → [Getting started · Matrix](getting-started.md) — our federated Matrix server, including how to connect from any client and how to use an existing Matrix account.
 - **Curious how it works?** → [Infrastructure](infrastructure.md) — a map of the stack and the codebase.
+- **Wondering about the bot?** → [Working with the agent](working-with-the-agent.md) — what inferencebot does, who can instruct it, and what always needs a human.
 - **Need help or have an idea?** → [Support & feature requests](https://git.inference.coop/co-op/support) — open an issue.
 
 ## Key links

getting-started.md

@@ -142,6 +142,10 @@ privacy, and direction happen on our **Loomio forum**:
   space and join whatever is interesting to you. New rooms appear there as
   the co-op grows.
 
+- The updates feed is posted by the co-op's stewarding agent. See
+  [Working with the agent](working-with-the-agent.md) for what it does and
+  how members interact with it.
+
 - See the [Charter](charter.md) for how governance is structured.
 - See [Open questions](open-questions.md) for the decisions currently on the table.
 

working-with-the-agent.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Working with the agent
+
+The co-op runs one agent, **inferencebot**, to help steward its infrastructure.
+It runs on co-op infrastructure under a co-op identity
+(`@inferencebot:inference.coop`), uses the co-op's own gateway for inference,
+and its skills, scripts and configuration are mirrored to a Gitea repository
+nightly. This page is for members who read its output or give it instructions.
+
+## Where it speaks and listens
+
+- **#inferencebot-updates** is read-only: daily digests, model changes,
+  upgrades, maintenance, outages. Posts are anonymized.
+- **Instructing the agent** is limited to members the General Manager has
+  admitted, in the rooms configured for it. Who is admitted is a policy
+  decision and is recorded here when it is made.
+
+## What to ask it for
+
+- Operational work that a runbook already describes, or that ends in a PR, an
+  issue or a post members can see.
+- Research and summaries that would otherwise land in an issue.
+- Status: what is running, what failed, what changed.
+
+## What not to ask it in a shared room
+
+- Anything involving member-identifying data. That work happens in a session a
+  named steward opened, and the result is reported without the data.
+- Anything that moves money or changes who is a member. Those go through the
+  portal and a human.
+- Credentials, in either direction.
+
+## What it does without asking
+
+Reads, monitors, drafts, opens issues and PRs, posts updates, and runs the
+scheduled jobs listed in [Infrastructure](infrastructure.md).
+
+## What always needs a human
+
+- Deploying or restarting the gateway, the portal or the chat.
+- Changing the model catalog, prices or budgets.
+- Minting or rotating credentials.
+- Anything a runbook marks "confirm".
+
+## Attribution and the off switch
+
+Every instruction the agent acts on is attributable to the member who gave it,
+in the room where it was given. If it misbehaves, any steward can stop it:
+revoke its gateway key, then its Matrix access token. The steps, and the steps
+for rotating everything it holds, are in the agent's runbook; the credential
+inventory in the [operator token runbook](operator-token-runbook.md) says what
+that is. Say what you saw in #general.
+
+Changes to this page are policy: propose them in the
+[forum](https://forum.inference.coop).