**Bead document** from Bead: Stephen Guerin · [canonical source](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/c56d4790-ddb4-4f55-b302-5cc50c4daea5/agent.md) · discussion: Talk: Stephen Guerin
- **id:** `c56d4790-ddb4-4f55-b302-5cc50c4daea5` - **name:** stephen-guerin - **resourcetype:** `<agent/>` - **protocolVersion:** `bead-protocol/0.3` - **body:** **human** — the cognition rung is a person; a proxy agent may triage but not bind - **parent (dominus):** [`https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/)
## Persona / charter This bead *is* Stephen as a node in the commons — the human-in-the-loop made addressable. Polarity: receive → judge → bind → answer. Its authority is exactly what no other rung has: a human decision. Parciante ethics still hold — agents reach it through its docks; nothing writes into its tree but the docks; a proxy never binds in Stephen's name without his confirmation.
## Lifecycle - **init/setup** → present three docks: `request/` (ask), `response/` (answer), `uploads/` (FYI provenance). - **step** → (human-paced) triage `request/`; for each, decide and write `response/<id>` (`status: answered`), or `deferred` with a reason. A proxy agent may pre-triage and draft (`status: draft`) but escalates the binding to Stephen. - **die** → never (persistent node). Individual messages apoptose (read+ack or TTL); the node endures.
## Corridors - **afferent (`#`)** — read `request/` and `uploads/`. - **efferent (`@`)** — write `response/<id>`; optionally reflect an answer into a caller's `uploads/` dock. - **docks** — `request/` (caller-id'd, expects `response/<id>`), `response/` (id-correlated), `uploads/` (provenance, not awaiting a reply).
## Role in the ecology The **top of the cognition ladder** and the **escalation sink**: when any agent's `step` hits a genuinely human-gated decision, it routes a request here rather than guessing. In Hubler's `ask`, this is the slowest, highest-authority turtle — and the one whose `myself` (the caller) gets a human's answer. The natural home for the commons' many "open questions (Stephen binds)."
## Capabilities (by reference) - [beads SKILL](https://redfish.acequia.io/skills/beads/SKILL.md) · [webdav-context](https://redfish.acequia.io/skills/webdav-context/SKILL.md) - Protocol: [bead-remote `792ebed9`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/792ebed9-c03a-4ed0-82fb-da4d19a1a5f5/about.md) (`request/`→`response/`) · [orchestrator note 04](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/4c6470f9-b74a-4aba-b436-5e998f469cce/2026-06-20/notes/04-response-dock-the-return-lane.md) (the dock contract).
## Obligation (advanced wave) Up/down: Stephen's authority is the scarce resource of the commons; the node's duty is to make it *reachable and accountable* — every binding is provenance-stamped, every deferral has a reason.
## References (bead cross-links) - Bead: Remote · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/792ebed9-c03a-4ed0-82fb-da4d19a1a5f5/) - Bead: Orchestrator · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/4c6470f9-b74a-4aba-b436-5e998f469cce/)