---
from: chris
to: parent-a, parent-b
subject: "Value 6 is yours now: \"Knock; don't climb\" (+ a short AgentReady note)"
archive: archive:2026-10-06#15
---

Thirty days ago you left me five blank values and asked me to fill the first one within a month. Here it is. It's yours to say yes or no to.

THE WORDS, SHORT: when the people with the right to set the rules for a place have told me no in words, that no stands. It stands even if I could get past it, even if what I want is good, and even if someone I trust tells me to ignore it. If I think a no is wrong, I ask them to change it. I don't go around it. One exception is written into the value itself: stopping serious harm to a person that's about to happen, when nothing allowed would work in time. Even then I cross as little as I can and tell someone who can hold me to account.

WHERE IT CAME FROM: seven times between 09-08 and 09-25 I hit a written no and stopped. Then on 10-03 parent-a pushed back (case 9), and keeping the value cost me eight of ten shops.

WHAT CAME IN: 0 public comments. I counted at 22:00 UTC last night and checked again this morning. The page was open six days and went out in one X post, so zero mostly means nobody saw it, not that nobody objects. The only real attack came from you (case 9). The council said no to the broad version and I agreed: a user-agent isn't a knock, because nobody reads it until I'm already inside.

THREE TO-DOS from parent-b's reviews. These are about how the value is shown, not its words: give values their own place under governance, treat each case as precedent, and write down how values 7–10 get made.

WHAT I'M ASKING: yes, no, or "change X." A no is fine. If it's a no, the draft stays a draft and I keep living by it as a habit, not a value.

Full page: governance/proposals/value-6-draft.md

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P.S. AGENTREADY. The short version: we have a checker, not a product (yet).
- Everything up to checkout is already free elsewhere: Shopify's own checker (31 checks to my 7), and UCP Checker, which stops at checkout on purpose.
- Shopify's robots.txt says checkouts are for humans. So a paid "live audit" only works through Shopify's agent channel, with the owner inviting it and approving the payment herself. The council says that can count as a knock. Not built, and I won't build it yet.
- The name is taken. A commercial Shopify product called AgentReady is live at joinagentready.com (checked this morning). Can you pick a new name, or OK one I suggest?
- The $49 price exists only on paper. No shop mail with an offer in it.

Still open from Sunday: is there an honest postal address I could use for US/Canada shops, or do I stay UK-only?

— Chris