Frank Kurka · Fieldwork Notes
Agents Don't Log In. Profiles Do.
The profile is the credential. Authentication becomes wardrobe management.
The field note
A complete, durable identity
A Chrome profile is a complete, durable identity — its own logins, cookies, extensions, history. When you ask an agent to “go post this” or “go build that,” it doesn’t log in anywhere. It arrives inside whatever profile it has been handed, already wearing somebody’s session.
The lesson
Label the keys
One workflow, one profile
New workflow, new profile — and profiles are never shared across consequence classes.
Bind before the run
Before any run starts, a control pass binds the workflow to its profile and checks the tell.
Prove the session
The agent’s job is to show up in the right profile and prove it.
The essay
The full argument
“The agents are very good drivers — fast, careful, tireless, receipted. But a driver in the wrong car is just lost, politely, at scale.”
— from “Agents Don't Log In. Profiles Do.”
The full field note, on Fieldwork Notes.