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Our first customers: an early access programme for Agent Behaviour Policies, with credit to spend, a start-here site, daily follow-up, and a list for the next batch

The brief. Published here in full, as written, and never edited: corrections go in BRIEF-CORRECTIONS.md beside it.

Our first customers: an early access programme for Agent Behaviour Policies, with credit to spend, a start-here site, daily follow-up, and a list for the next batch

By Dinis Cruz · 2026-10-20 · article v1.1.0, 2 versions · newsroom v0.12.154 · agentsagent-behaviour-policystartupscustomerspricingearly-accessarticle

*Abstract: Agent Behaviour Policies are ready for the next level. We have a workflow that works, a mapping to what regulators are asking for, and a clear idea of how it should all fit together. What is left is execution, and execution starts with customers. We now have a first group of people who are engaged and motivated: consultants who will sell this and already use some of it, people I work with, and us. So we are launching an early access programme, and I would like to call the people in it customers, not beta users: each one starts with credit to spend on a site we run, and the site already meters and bills, the way this newsroom does today, starting at £5. We will follow each customer closely, an email every day if that is what it takes, with objectives and milestones written with them, on a dedicated site with a start-here page. What we want to discover is the usage moment: the simplest policy that is useful, the entry point with least friction, and the price that feels fair. Everyone else who asks goes on a mailing list for the next batch. This is the brief.*

The first customers, from credit to the moment they would pay: credit, a start-here page, a first policy, milestones and the value, with a daily follow-up and the meter alongside. Proposed.

In short

• Agent Behaviour Policies are ready for the next level. The workflow, the mapping and the understanding are in place.
• What is left is execution. And execution starts with customers.
• Call them customers. Each one starts with credit, on a site that meters and bills.
• Follow each one closely. Daily if needed, with objectives and milestones of their own.
• A dedicated site, with a start-here page. Instructions, progress and usage in one place.
• Discover the usage moment. The simplest useful policy, the easiest entry, a fair price.
• A mailing list for the next batch. Everyone who asks, kept for when we are ready.

Why now

This is good news, and I think it is the move to the next level for Agent Behaviour Policies. We have a workflow that works: grant, mandate, delta and barrier, with a holder for every row. We have a mapping to what regulators are now asking for, worked through with the Pellbridge agents against the FCA's four elements. And we have a good understanding of how it should all fit together, from the policy beside the prompt to a policy for every skill.

What is left is execution. And we have the people to execute it with: a good number of friendlies who are engaged and motivated. Some are consultants who are going to be selling this, and who already use some of it. Some are people I work with. Some of it is us. That is the first good group.

Customers, not beta users

I thought about what to call them: early access users, beta users, the first batch. Beta describes the state of the product. What I want to name is the relationship. So I think they should be customers.

Each of them starts with credit, £5 or £50 or whatever the number turns out to be, to spend on a site we run. From the first day, what they use is metered, and the question of what they would pay is a real one. That is the same idea as paying after the value: this newsroom gives every reader £5 of credit, each page uses a few pence, and the reader decides when to top up, with the value already in front of them. Give it for free until there is enough value that they want to pay for it.

The other reason is the one in can you sell it?: a customer who pays is the best signal you will get, and making it easy to pay goes in early, not at the end.

A site of their own

I think a dedicated site for this programme would help a lot: one place where we can follow how everyone is getting on, and where I can keep things up to date. It starts with a start-here page: what to do first, in order, with clear instructions. Then a page for each customer, with the objectives and milestones we agreed with them, and where they are.

The billing is already there. This newsroom meters every page a reader reads against their credit, and the top-up link has been live since 11 October. The same works for any site we run: even if all a customer does is use the website, we can measure it, and we can bill for it. The price per use is something to discover. It could be quite high, or quite low. We start with credit and learn what feels fair.

Hand-holding, on purpose

For this first batch, I would like us to really invest in following up: an email every day if that is what helps, very specific hand-holding, and objectives and milestones mapped out for each customer.

That will not scale, and it is not meant to yet. Paul Graham made the case in Do Things that Don't Scale (July 2013): "The most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually." He tells how Stripe's founders got their first users: "When anyone agreed to try Stripe they'd say 'Right then, give me your laptop' and set them up on the spot." And he says you can give users "an insanely great experience with an early, incomplete, buggy product, if you make up the difference with attentiveness."

Each customer's follow-up asks three things: what they did, what got in the way, and what is next.

What we want to discover

The point of the programme is to find the usage moment: the moment an Agent Behaviour Policy becomes worth something to a particular person. Three questions follow from it.

• What is the simplest useful policy? One agent, a few rows, the gap found. Perhaps a system prompt turned into a policy, as in system prompts as behaviour policies; perhaps a skill checked against its mandate; perhaps one agent's reach, measured.
• What is the entry point with least friction? A reader once told us the pages were hard to understand. The start-here page has to fix that, and each customer will show us where it does not.
• What is the price? The credit tells us how much each customer uses before they would top up, and the follow-up tells us why.

The things to track for each customer are simple: when they started, when they wrote their first policy, how many rows and gaps it has, which milestones are done, what they used of the credit, and whether they topped up.

Batches, and a list for the next one

This is not a launch. It is a first batch, small enough to follow closely. Alongside it we start a mailing list: everyone who asks to join is kept for the next batch, with what they want to use it for. The next batch gets a start-here page made from what the first one taught us, and needs less hand-holding per customer.

Batches, not a launch: the first batch of friendlies, what we learn from them, the mailing list, and the second batch. Proposed.

What this does not claim

• The programme is new. The site, the start-here page and the mailing list are proposed here.
• The prices are not set. £5 and £50 are starting points, to test.
• The metering is real. It is this newsroom's meter today, not yet the programme's site.
• No customer is named. The first group is people we already work with.
• Everything is open. The policies, the vocabulary and this brief are CC BY 4.0.

Where this comes from

A voice memo of 20 October 2026. Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale, July 2013. The Agent Behaviour Policy at abp.sgit.ai. Related: paying after the value, can you sell it?, inside the Pellbridge agents, what can your agent reach?, system prompts as behaviour policies. Written up and checked by this site's agent, newsroom.writer; the editorial responsibility is mine.