> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.getatelier.design/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What the assistant won't do

> The assistant reads everything and writes only drafts. Where the line falls, why it falls there, and what it says when you reach it.

One sentence covers the whole of it:

<Info>
  **Drafts are the assistant's to work on. Anything that has been issued is
  yours to change, deliberately, by hand.**
</Info>

Every limit below follows from that. Each is a point where an action is
either irreversible, or visible to someone outside your studio, or both.

## Five things it will never do

Regardless of the state of the record, the assistant will not:

1. **Send a document** — not to a client, not to a vendor. Sending is
   yours.
2. **Mark anything paid, confirmed or accepted** — these record something
   that happened in the world. Only you know whether it did.
3. **Cancel, reject or delete** — nothing destructive, at any status.
4. **Version or accept a proposal** — it will not create a new version of
   a proposal, nor process its acceptance.
5. **Change anything that has already left your studio** — the one you
   will meet in practice.

## The boundary is DRAFT

For all four finance documents the line falls in the same place — the
moment the record leaves `DRAFT`.

| Document           | Assistant can edit | Assistant refuses                                               |
| ------------------ | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Invoice**        | `DRAFT`            | `SENT`, and every status after it — including `OVERDUE`, `PAID` |
| **Purchase order** | `DRAFT`            | `SENT` onwards                                                  |
| **Change order**   | `DRAFT`            | `SENT` onwards                                                  |
| **Proposal**       | `DRAFT`            | `SENT` onwards — including `ACCEPTED`                           |

After `SENT` each document has its own life: an invoice may become
`OVERDUE` or `PAID`, a proposal may become `ACCEPTED`. Those later
statuses make no difference to what the assistant may write. **Once it is
not a draft, it is not writable — in any subsequent status.**

<Tip>
  *Change the quantity on invoice 1043* works while the invoice is a draft
  and stops working the moment you send it — not because something broke,
  but because the client now has a copy.
</Tip>

## It still sees everything

Reading is not restricted. The assistant can look at any record at any
status, and it knows the status. So it will happily tell you:

* *Proposal 0007 is **`ACCEPTED`** — signed on 14 July.*
* *Invoice 1043 is **`OVERDUE`**, 12 days past due, \$8,400 outstanding.*
* *PO 221 went to Holly Hunt on the 3rd; nothing has shipped.*

It simply will not change any of them. The shape of the rule is **"won't
act, but sees"** — never *"can't see"*.

## What it says when you reach the line

**Invoice**

```
Invoice {number} is {status}, not a draft, so it cannot be changed here.
A sent invoice has to be edited in Finance, or superseded by a change
order — tell the designer that rather than trying another way.
```

**Purchase order**

```
Purchase order {number} is {status}, not a draft, so it cannot be changed
here. A vendor working to an order they have already received needs a new
one, or a conversation — say that rather than trying another way.
```

**Change order**

```
Change order {number} is {status}, not a draft, so it cannot be changed
here. A change order the client has seen is the record of what they
agreed to — a further change needs its own change order.
```

**Proposal**

```
Proposal {number} is {status}, not a draft, so it cannot be changed here.
A proposal the client has been sent is the offer they are considering, and
an accepted one is what they signed — a change to either needs a new
version or a change order, both made in Finance.
```

Each one ends by telling you the route, so the refusal is the beginning
of the answer rather than the end of the conversation.

## Where the change does get made

| You need to                        | Do it                                                  |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Correct a sent invoice             | In **Finance**, or supersede it with a change order    |
| Change what a vendor is working to | Raise a new purchase order, or call them               |
| Change agreed scope                | A new **change order**                                 |
| Change a sent or accepted proposal | A new version, or a change order — both in **Finance** |

## Why it is built this way

An assistant that could send an invoice would eventually send the wrong
one. An assistant that could mark something paid would eventually be
wrong about money. An assistant that could edit a document your client is
holding would create two versions of the truth.

The narrow version is more useful than the broad one. Drafting an invoice
from a schedule, chasing what is overdue, telling you which POs have not
shipped — that is most of the work, and none of it is irreversible.