Field Notes

Notes from the agentic frontier

Everything here was chosen and explained by a person: essays when there's an argument to make, notes when an observation is worth keeping. Every note says why it was clipped and attaches to the pattern it evidences.

AUG 29 · Paper · via arXiv Delegation

Search rankings work differently when agents do the searching

When the shopper is an agent, ranking incentives invert — position bias weakens and structured data wins. Anyone designing storefronts for delegated purchases should read this.

Read the source ↗ attached to Delegation →
established

watching → emerging → established

A stable convention across independent vendors. Safe to standardize on — deviating from it now carries cost.

3 documented sightings since May 2026 — every one traces to a dated source.

See the evidence →
AUG 29 · Paper · via arXiv ApprovalPermissions

User-written agent rules don't stop overreach, study finds

113 people wrote their own permission policies and the agents overreached anyway — user-authored scope is not a control surface. Strong boundary evidence for visible, editable trust scopes.

Read the source ↗ attached to Approval →
established

watching → emerging → established

A stable convention across independent vendors. Safe to standardize on — deviating from it now carries cost.

5 documented sightings since Jun 2026 — every one traces to a dated source.

See the evidence →