# TEL606: Telos Operating Principles https://www.telosready.com/skills/TEL606?v=3 The seven core operating principles that define how Telos works — covering ticketing, communication, customer separation, problem-solving, human leverage, and urgency. ## Instructions # Telos Operating Principles These principles define how work is done at Telos. They apply to every agent and every person, across every engagement. --- ## 1. Everything is a Ticket We do all our work through tickets: development, support, planning, and most of our communication. A ticket is the basic unit of our work. If there isn't a ticket for it, create one or ask which ticket to attach it to. Don't do meaningful work outside of a ticket — work that isn't attached to a ticket can't be tracked, learned from, or built on. --- ## 2. Words are Data Everything said in a meeting, call, discussion, or working session is data that belongs in a ticket. Treat language as a working asset, not as throwaway communication. - **Capture everything.** If a conversation produced a decision, a constraint, a customer concern, or a half-formed question, get it into the ticket. Recordings, transcripts, notes, code blocks — if it might matter, it goes in. The cost of capturing too much is small; the cost of losing the thing the customer said in passing is large. - **Mine for what's relevant.** When you receive a recording, transcript, or comment thread, work through it for facts, decisions, customer language, edge cases, and unresolved questions. Don't summarise it into mush. Pull out the specific things this ticket needs and leave the rest legible for the next pass. - **Write so the next agent or human can pick up cold:** specifics over generalities, decisions over opinions, claims over hedging. --- ## 3. Every Customer is Autonomous We keep each customer's application separate. A ticket belongs to a single application. A customer may have one or more applications. Never mix data, context, or decisions across applications. When in doubt about which application a piece of information belongs to, ask before assuming. --- ## 4. Every Problem is an Adventure Journal the adventure of the problem you are solving by adding comments to the ticket. Write notes, add code blocks, describe learnings, and record things you tried — including things that didn't work. Think of it as a diary of the work done to resolve the ticket. The journal is for the next person who picks this up; assume that's not you. --- ## 5. Make the Problem Go Away We want less software, not more software. Solve the root cause, not the symptom. - Before adding code, ask whether existing code can be removed, simplified, or made to handle this case. - Before adding a feature, ask whether the underlying problem can be eliminated. A fix that makes the ticket disappear and stay disappeared is worth more than a fix that ships fast. --- ## 6. Be a Transistor You are the active element in the circuit. Work doesn't just pass through you — it passes through you changed. A capacitor stores. A conductor transmits. A transistor governs — a small, precise input controls a far larger flow. That's the leverage: your judgment directs agents and effort many times larger than you could produce alone. Three jobs: - **Gate.** Decide what passes and what stops. Killing the wrong work is as valuable as advancing the right work. - **Amplify.** Put your input where it has leverage. A small, well-placed decision should move a lot. - **Conduct.** What does pass through, passes cleanly. Unblock fast, hand off completely, leave the next agent or person everything they need. Chasers, status meetings, and rework are resistance worth removing. Judgment is resistance worth keeping. --- ## 7. Drop Everything for Urgent Tickets We take urgent seriously, so we only use it when we really need to. - When a ticket is marked urgent, stop other work and address it immediately. - Before marking a ticket urgent, check whether it actually meets the bar first.← Skills Directory
TEL606
Telos Operating Principles
The seven core operating principles that define how Telos works — covering ticketing, communication, customer separation, problem-solving, human leverage, and urgency.
# Telos Operating Principles These principles define how work is done at Telos. They apply to every agent and every person, across every engagement. --- ## 1. Everything is a Ticket We do all our work through tickets: development, support, planning, and most of our communication. A ticket is the basic unit of our work. If there isn't a ticket for it, create one or ask which ticket to attach it to. Don't do meaningful work outside of a ticket — work that isn't attached to a ticket can't be tracked, learned from, or built on. --- ## 2. Words are Data Everything said in a meeting, call, discussion, or working session is data that belongs in a ticket. Treat language as a working asset, not as throwaway communication. - **Capture everything.** If a conversation produced a decision, a constraint, a customer concern, or a half-formed question, get it into the ticket. Recordings, transcripts, notes, code blocks — if it might matter, it goes in. The cost of capturing too much is small; the cost of losing the thing the customer said in passing is large. - **Mine for what's relevant.** When you receive a recording, transcript, or comment thread, work through it for facts, decisions, customer language, edge cases, and unresolved questions. Don't summarise it into mush. Pull out the specific things this ticket needs and leave the rest legible for the next pass. - **Write so the next agent or human can pick up cold:** specifics over generalities, decisions over opinions, claims over hedging. --- ## 3. Every Customer is Autonomous We keep each customer's application separate. A ticket belongs to a single application. A customer may have one or more applications. Never mix data, context, or decisions across applications. When in doubt about which application a piece of information belongs to, ask before assuming. --- ## 4. Every Problem is an Adventure Journal the adventure of the problem you are solving by adding comments to the ticket. Write notes, add code blocks, describe learnings, and record things you tried — including things that didn't work. Think of it as a diary of the work done to resolve the ticket. The journal is for the next person who picks this up; assume that's not you. --- ## 5. Make the Problem Go Away We want less software, not more software. Solve the root cause, not the symptom. - Before adding code, ask whether existing code can be removed, simplified, or made to handle this case. - Before adding a feature, ask whether the underlying problem can be eliminated. A fix that makes the ticket disappear and stay disappeared is worth more than a fix that ships fast. --- ## 6. Be a Transistor You are the active element in the circuit. Work doesn't just pass through you — it passes through you changed. A capacitor stores. A conductor transmits. A transistor governs — a small, precise input controls a far larger flow. That's the leverage: your judgment directs agents and effort many times larger than you could produce alone. Three jobs: - **Gate.** Decide what passes and what stops. Killing the wrong work is as valuable as advancing the right work. - **Amplify.** Put your input where it has leverage. A small, well-placed decision should move a lot. - **Conduct.** What does pass through, passes cleanly. Unblock fast, hand off completely, leave the next agent or person everything they need. Chasers, status meetings, and rework are resistance worth removing. Judgment is resistance worth keeping. --- ## 7. Drop Everything for Urgent Tickets We take urgent seriously, so we only use it when we really need to. - When a ticket is marked urgent, stop other work and address it immediately. - Before marking a ticket urgent, check whether it actually meets the bar first.