Reads the breakdown. Surfaces what the team should weigh together.
Bid Breakdown decomposes the corpus into typed canonical state. What happens next isn't scope execution — it's scope shaping. Where do specs leave room for interpretation. Where does the schedule force a sub-trade sequencing decision. Where do submittal requirements interact with the GC's preferred install method. These are the questions a desk weighs together — not a single specialist answers alone.
Bid Intake (Layer 2) is the agent that sits between the breakdown and the BD's final shape. It reads Tier-2 reconciliation output, surfaces decision points the team should review, and holds the substrate of who-knows-what across the desk. Information surfacing, not judgment dispensing.
Proposed status. In active engagement with the same operator running the Bid Breakdown pilot. The shape forms in real bid weeks; the bio carries what's named today and is honest about what hasn't crystallized yet.
- The position — sits post-Breakdown · pre-final-shape · between scope decomposition and BD synthesis.
- The wedge — desk-level decision points are weighed together, not answered by a single specialist. The agent surfaces; the team decides.
- The reads — Tier-2 reconciliation output across submittal · risk · schedule. Inherits the canonical-state discipline the Breakdown already enforces.
- The honesty rule — information surfacing, not judgment dispensing. Layer 2 names what the desk should look at; it never recommends what the desk should decide.
- The exact intake shape — what gestures kick Layer 2 off (Breakdown complete? BD review request? Sub-question follow-up?) calibrates in the active engagement.
- The decision-point taxonomy — which classes of decisions Layer 2 elevates by default; which it stays quiet on; which it asks the desk to flag for it.
- The desk substrate format — how Layer 2 holds who-knows-what across estimator / PM / BD / chief estimator without becoming a record system. The Watch's system-of-attention pattern is the precedent, not the schema.
- The hand-off to BD's final shape — what Layer 2 emits at close (annotated package? structured decision register? both?) lands when the active engagement names its real artifact.
Three positions. One shaping agent.
The crew shape is named at the position level; the substrate behind each position calibrates with the active engagement. Honest about which positions are agent-ready and which need real bid-week signal.
The Tier-2 Read
— Reads the cross-layer reconciliation. Names where the layers disagree.
Reads Bid Breakdown's Tier-2 output across submittal · risk surface · schedule. Surfaces where specialist reads disagree with each other and where the GC's preferred install method conflicts with spec or schedule. Names the conflict; never resolves it for the team.
The Question Stack
— Reads what's load-bearing. Surfaces what the desk should weigh together.
Filters the conflict stream into decision points worth desk attention. Many disagreements are routine; some are load-bearing. The Surfacer separates them, frames each load-bearing one as a question the team should answer together, and never makes the call itself.
The Who-Knows-What
— Holds the team memory. Reads who weighed in on what last time.
Holds the desk's working memory across a bid week and across bids. Who flagged this category of decision last time. Whose call shaped the install method on a comparable project. Inherits the Watch pattern — system of attention beside the team, not a record system replacing it.
The four reads on the shaping layer.
Proposed during the same engagement that proved out Bid Scan and Bid Breakdown. The shape carries from inside the work; the substrate calibrates in the next live bid weeks.
The agent that sits post-Breakdown and pre-final-shape on the bid arc. Reads Tier-2 reconciliation output, surfaces decision points worth desk attention, and holds the team's working memory across the bid week. Information surfacing — never judgment dispensing.
Three positions: the Reconciliation Reader names where Tier-2 layers disagree, the Decision Surfacer filters for load-bearing questions and frames them for the team, the Desk Substrate holds working memory across bids. Inherits canonical-state discipline from the Breakdown — never reads the base corpus directly.
For the BD desk that already runs Bid Breakdown and needs the arc to extend through scope shaping. Estimator + PM + BD + chief estimator weighing decisions together on a tight bid clock — Layer 2 is the surface that makes the weighing visible without becoming the system of record.
The breakdown decomposes; the final shape integrates; what's missing is the layer between. Desks weigh load-bearing decisions together in conference rooms today — Layer 2 surfaces what to weigh, frames it cleanly, and remembers the call. Without it, the breakdown lands and the team improvises the shape in their heads.
“Reads the reconciliation. Filters the load-bearing.
Surfaces what the desk should weigh together.
Holds the memory. Stays out of the call.”
— BID INTAKE (LAYER 2) · proposed · in active engagement · 2026-05