A Representative is the queryable version of a published wrap. When an engineer publishes their end-of-day handoff, that record becomes a Representative that teammates can ask questions to. The Representative answers from what was written, cites the source, and refuses when the answer isn't in the record.
Representatives are not bots. They don't infer, summarize Slack, or read between the lines. They don't read DMs, track activity, or analyze sentiment. Every answer traces back to a specific person, a specific wrap, and a specific timestamp. Every refusal means the record doesn't contain the answer.
Three types exist: Personal Representatives (one person's published work), Team Representatives (a team's combined wraps), and Project Representatives (an initiative spanning teams and timelines). All three follow the same rules: sourced answers or silence.
Core product concept. See also: Personal Representative, Team Representative, Project Representative.
Why Representative Matters for Distributed Teams
Without Representatives, a published wrap is a document someone has to find and read. With a Representative, that wrap becomes a surface anyone on the team can query. The information is the same. The access pattern changes completely.
Representatives are what make the declared state useful overnight. When an engineer logs off in Amsterdam and a colleague in San Francisco has a question four hours later, they don't wait until morning. They ask the Representative. They get a sourced answer or a clear refusal. Work keeps moving.
Representative in Practice
Sarah publishes her wrap at 17:00 GMT. Alex in San Francisco asks her Personal Representative at 09:00 PST: 'Is the API migration blocked?' The Representative answers: 'Yes, blocked by LIN-482, waiting on Dave's review.' Alex doesn't wait until Amsterdam wakes up.
The Platform Team Representative combines wraps from six engineers. A product manager asks: 'What shipped this week?' The Representative returns a sourced list: three PRs merged, two deployments, one open blocker. Each item traced to a specific engineer's wrap.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Representative in StandIn?
A Representative is the queryable version of what someone published in their wrap. It answers questions from the published record, cites the person who wrote it and when, and refuses when the answer isn't there. It does not infer, guess, or access private information.
How is a Representative different from a chatbot?
A chatbot generates answers from whatever data it can access, often guessing when information is missing. A Representative only answers from published wraps. It cites every source. When it can't answer, it refuses and tells you why. That refusal is what makes the answers it does give worth trusting.
What types of Representatives exist?
Three types: Personal Representatives speak from one person's published wrap. Team Representatives roll up wraps from an entire team into a single queryable surface. Project Representatives span teams and timelines for a specific initiative. All three follow the same refusal rules.
Related Terms
Personal Representative
A Personal Representative is the queryable version of one person's published wrap. When Sarah publishes her end-of-day h...
Read definitionTeam Representative
A Team Representative combines published wraps from every member of a team into a single queryable surface. Instead of r...
Read definitionProject Representative
A Project Representative spans teams and timelines for a specific initiative. It pulls context from every team contribut...
Read definitionDeclared state
The explicit, published record of an engineer's or team's current working context — available to anyone who needs it, wi...
Read definitionSilence over speculation
The operating principle that when a declared state does not exist, the correct response is to acknowledge the absence of...
Read definitionFurther Reading
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See representative in action.
StandIn is built around these concepts. Engineers publish declared state before going offline. The next shift starts with full context.