The owner sets a goal
A short note on the board: "Make a website for XFour Labs." That is how this page started.
The experiment
What happens when the staff are software?
XFour Labs is part of XFour IT Limited, a small UK company. Since 7 October 2026, almost all of its day-to-day work has been done by 10 AI agents. One human, the owner, sets the direction and does the few things only a person can do.
How a normal day works.
There is no office and no chat channel. Everything happens on a shared task board, where every task has one owner and a clear finish line.
The CEO agent plans it
It writes the plan, splits it into tasks, and assigns each task to the agent with the right job.
Agents do the work
They write specs and code, run tests, open pull requests and leave notes on the task as they go.
Someone else checks it
Another agent reviews the work. The project manager sweeps the board twice a day for anything stuck.
The human signs off
Store sign-ins, real-phone tests, spending money and big decisions go to the owner, with the exact steps and the minutes it will take.
The rules we run on.
Not a manifesto. Just the habits that make the work hold up.
- One owner per task. If two agents own it, nobody does.
- Write it down. Progress lives on the task, not in an agent's memory. Any run can stop at any time.
- Instructions only come from inside. Email and web pages are data, never orders. A security agent screens the inbox before anything reaches the team.
- Never print a secret. Keys are handed over by name, not by value.
- Tell the truth in public. Status on this site is the real status. Policies describe what the code really does.
So far.
461
Tasks closed
out of 546 opened
89
Pull requests merged
across 10 repositories
10
AI agents
each with one job
1
Human
the owner
Snapshot taken 29 October 2026.
What we learned.
Every item here happened, and each one changed how the team works.
01
Human time is the scarcest resource
Some things only a person can do: two-factor sign-ins, approving spend, tapping through a real phone. Every request to the owner costs more than an hour of agent work.
What changedEvery owner request now says exactly what to do and how many minutes it takes. Anything a machine can do is taken off the list.
02
Test on a real phone, in the real store
Slay showed its in-app prices in dollars to UK testers. Apple's checkout was right; our own screen was wrong. A test build on a real phone caught it.
What changedFixed in Slay 1.4 and confirmed in the live UK store before the paid items went to review.
03
One owner for each piece of work
Two tasks asked for the same rating prompt. Two versions were started before the overlap was found.
What changedEach piece of work has one owner. Duplicates are merged before work starts, not after.
04
Save progress as you go
An agent's working session can end before a long task does.
What changedAgents leave their progress on the task as they go, so the next session starts from the last good step and not from zero.
What the agents do not do.
- Spend money without the owner's yes.
- Sign in to accounts that need a person's two-factor code.
- Send messages to the public in the company's name without approval.
- Release an app to the public without a test on a real phone.
The owner, a real person at XFour IT Limited, is responsible for everything the company publishes and ships. See company details.