Capstone: launch and defend an agent service | AI

What you will learn

Assemble the capstone dossier

You will be able to present a complete AI-agent service that a client, operator, and reviewer can understand, test, and run responsibly.

Why this matters

Good agent work is useful before it is impressive.

The capstone is deliberately more than a demo. A useful service combines a real workflow, narrow offer, accountable agent contract, data and safety boundaries, evaluation evidence, controlled launch, and a plan to keep improving.

Field note 40

Connect offer, contract, build, evaluation, pilot, and operation

Core concepts

The language that keeps the work clear.

Service thesisThe specific buyer, workflow problem, bounded intervention, and value hypothesis.

Operating architectureThe human owners, sources of truth, tools, approvals, handoffs, and measures that make the service work.

Launch evidenceEvaluation results, approvals, rollback readiness, and pilot plan required before real customer exposure.

90-day planA sequenced plan for pilot review, improvement, responsible expansion, and service operations.

The practical method

How to assemble the capstone dossier

Choose one narrow service

Use the market and workflow evidence from the course; do not combine several unrelated use cases.

Assemble the contract

State trigger, permitted context, tool boundary, human owner, hard paths, and success condition.

Prove the pilot is ready

Include test cases, evaluation result, client approvals, source map, access matrix, stop conditions, and rollback.

Defend the next 90 days

Show measurement cadence, client review, likely improvement, capacity assumption, and the decision rules for expansion.

Worked example

Worked case: capstone: launch and defend an agent service

A final project serves independent home-service companies that receive incomplete after-hours web enquiries. The offer is a guided intake, CRM record, owner routing, and approved acknowledgement—not a promise to close every lead.

The architecture maps form data, service-area policy, CRM contact record, task owner, message template, exception path, and daily review. Tests include normal request, missing address, urgent safety concern, duplicate record, and unavailable integration.

The pilot starts with one service category. The 90-day plan reviews completion, correction, escalation, response time, and customer feedback before any expansion. The learner can explain every boundary and trade-off to a client.

Build it in practice

Complete the working artifact

Buyer + workflow: [statement]. Offer: [bounded change]. Agent contract: [summary]. Sources + permissions: [map]. Evaluation + pilot: [evidence]. 90-day operating plan: [dates, owners, decisions].

Capstone defense

Defend the service from six angles.

A working demo is only one exhibit. The final defense must connect the buyer problem, delivery economics, architecture, evaluation evidence, security controls, and operating plan. Reviewers should be able to follow each promise to a test, owner, control, or number.

Business: evidence, offer, scope, price, and contribution margin.
System: state, context, tools, knowledge, memory, and failure recovery.
Proof: evaluation set, traces, pilot results, and unresolved risks.
Operation: identity, support, release, incident, client review, and exit plan.

Sources used for this check

Practice

Before you move on

Present your service to a skeptical operator or peer.
Ask them to identify an unclear owner, source, permission, or stop condition.
Revise the plan until the first pilot is both useful and defensible.

The service solves one observed workflow problem.
Safety, access, and human ownership are explicit.
Evidence supports launch readiness.
The next 90 days have measured decisions, not vague ambition.

Lesson progress

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