# Which decisions should an expert agent make without me?

Prompt · Agent decisions · PG16

Agents keep asking you to classify fields, match records or pick between sources.

## Prompt

```text
Find recurring database decisions that agents currently escalate to me, including field classification, record matching, write conflicts, source precedence and schema choices. Determine which can be resolved through established standards, existing precedent and authoritative evidence. Make the decision rules reusable, identify their limits, and reserve escalation for genuine product or risk decisions.
```

**What it returns:** The kinds of question that repeat, the standards and precedents that settle them, each rule with its exceptions, and where escalation really belongs.

**Skip it when:** Agents rarely escalate database questions.

**Avoid:** Inventing accounting, source-precedence or product policy where no authority exists.

**Tools:** Needs: the repository, past agent transcripts or notes, and read-only database access.

**Works on:** Any PostgreSQL host: Supabase, Neon, RDS, Cloud SQL or self-hosted.

**Changes:** Changes nothing

**Sessions:** Look first, then fix in a new session

## Related

- [Let the expert decide](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/let-the-expert-decide)
- [Spec without the interview](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/spec-without-the-interview)
- [Out-of-date agent instructions](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/out-of-date-agent-instructions): Finds instructions that send agents to files and patterns that no longer exist.
- [Can we independently prove these numbers?](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/can-we-independently-prove-these-numbers): Important figures may be wrong even though their lineage is documented.
- [Find where write logic should live](https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/find-where-write-logic-should-live): Business rules are split across SQL, triggers, edge functions, server routes and workers.

Source: https://atlasscope.dev/prompts/which-decisions-should-an-expert-agent-make-without-me