Runbook: Aria Dogfood → Valent Pilot

Owner: Victor Slompo Goal: Get VTKL team using Aria on Teams internally, validate it works, then ship to Valent SOW ref: VTKL-SOW-2026-VP-001 (signed May 17, 45-day pilot, $2K tokens) Source repo: t-and-c/t-and-c-golden

Context

Charlie defined the path: VTKL dogfoods Aria on Teams first → fix rough edges → ship to Valent.

Aria is NOT Warren. Aria is a narrower, client-safe OpenClaw agent that runs on AWS per-client, connects to their Teams, and produces PMO deliverables. Warren administrates Aria instances.

Phase 0 — Governance Lock (Stage 1)

These 4 workstreams must complete before Aria goes live, even for dogfood. Charlie set them up as issues on t-and-c-golden.

Victor's actions for Phase 0:

1. Kick off Joana on #6 — she needs to draft revised SOUL.md + IDENTITY.md for Aria (not Burke's style)
2. Kick off Tony on #7 — he needs to walk every skill/tool and decide ship/no-ship for clients
3. Wait for their drafts (target: end of Week 1)
4. Do #8 (your workstream) — stress-test their drafts against Valent + 1-2 other prospects:
   • Would you put this in front of Hector/Nick/RJ?
   • Over-promising? Jargon? Scope creep risk? Missing guardrails?
   • File red flags + recommended changes
5. Approve final config — Victor's sign-off is a blocking gate for v1.0.0-aria-approved

Phase 1 — VTKL Teams Adoption

Charlie asked Victor to drive this: get the team actually using Teams daily.

Why it matters

If we don't use Teams, we won't find the rough edges. Aria on Teams needs to feel natural before a client sees it.

Actions:

1. Confirm VTKL Teams tenant is accessible — all 4 team members (Charlie, Victor, Tony, Joana) have accounts and can log in
2. Pick a "dogfood channel" — create or designate a Teams channel where the team will interact with Aria (e.g., #aria-dogfood or General)
3. Set the expectation with the team:
   • "Starting [date], we use Teams for [specific workflow] — not Slack"
   • Start small: daily standups, status updates, or a specific work thread
   • Don't try to replace all Slack usage overnight
4. Track adoption — are people actually showing up in Teams? If not, address barriers (login issues, mobile app, notifications, habits)

What Victor does NOT need to do:

• AWS deploy, Docker, config files → Charlie + Warren handle this
• Teams app registration, tunnel setup → Charlie handles this
• Skills development → Warren handles this

Phase 2 — Aria Dogfood on Teams

Once governance is locked (Phase 0) AND Teams adoption is going (Phase 1), Charlie deploys Aria to VTKL's Teams.

Actions:

1. Confirm Aria is live — Charlie deploys, Warren verifies health
2. Use Aria like Valent would:
   • Feed it project docs (use a real T&C project as test data)
   • Ask for Sprint Backlogs, Product Backlogs, Sprint Reports, Status Reports
   • Test deliverable customization ("make this more executive-friendly", "add a risk section")
   • Download Word outputs — do they need minor edits or full rewrites?
3. Log issues ruthlessly:
   • Quality of deliverables
   • Response time / reliability
   • Tone mismatches
   • Confusing interactions
   • Anything you wouldn't want Hector to see
4. Run the acceptance criteria from the SOW against dogfood outputs:
   • ✅ Usable PMO deliverables from ingested data?
   • ✅ Status reports need minor edits, not rewrites?
   • ✅ Natural interaction via Teams?
   • ✅ Clear business insight from the experience?
5. Declare "healthy and supportable" — or flag what's not ready

Phase 3 — Valent Go-Live

Once Victor signs off on dogfood, the Valent onboarding starts.

What VTKL provides:

• Dedicated AWS instance (Charlie deploys)
• Teams app installed in Valent's tenant
• VTKL team members in the channel (Victor + Joana, per kickoff deck)
• Weekly token usage updates
• Deliverable customization for Valent's methodology

What we need from Valent:

• Teams/M365 admin contact (for app installation approval)
• Approval to install the Teams app in their tenant
• Target team/channel for the pilot
• Primary operators: Nick Niver + RJ Beecher (confirmed in SOW)
• Project documentation from one ~3-5 person project (deliverables, meeting notes, artifacts through ~midpoint)
• Security/compliance constraints (if any)

Timeline (per SOW):

Blockers & Open Items

RACI Summary

Runbook: Aria Dogfood → Valent Pilot

Owner: Victor Slompo Goal: Get VTKL team using Aria on Teams internally, validate it works, then ship to Valent SOW ref: VTKL-SOW-2026-VP-001 (signed May 17, 45-day pilot, $2K tokens) Source repo: t-and-c/t-and-c-golden

Context

Charlie defined the path: VTKL dogfoods Aria on Teams first → fix rough edges → ship to Valent.

Aria is NOT Warren. Aria is a narrower, client-safe OpenClaw agent that runs on AWS per-client, connects to their Teams, and produces PMO deliverables. Warren administrates Aria instances.

Functional Areas

All work in this runbook maps to one of five functional areas. People are assigned to areas, not individual tasks.

Note: Product/Governance defines the standards; Delivery/QA validates against them. Adoption has two phases: internal (dogfood) and external (Valent onboarding).

Phase 0 — Governance Lock

These 4 workstreams must complete before Aria goes live, even for dogfood. Charlie set them up as issues on t-and-c-golden.

Actions by area:

🎯 Product / Governance:

1. Draft revised SOUL.md + IDENTITY.md for Aria (#6) — not Burke's style, a new client-facing persona
2. Walk every skill/tool and decide ship/no-ship for clients (#7)
3. Define operating policies and safety guardrails (#9)
4. Wait for Client-Fit review before finalizing — governance drafts are inputs to the stress test

🤝 Relationship / Business:

1. Stress-test governance drafts against Valent + 1–2 other prospects (#8):
   • Would you put this in front of Hector/Nick/RJ?
   • Over-promising? Jargon? Scope creep risk? Missing guardrails?
   • File red flags + recommended changes
2. Sign-off on final config is a blocking gate for v1.0.0-aria-approved

Phase 1 — VTKL Teams Adoption

The team needs to actually use Teams daily. If we don't use it, we won't find rough edges.

📢 Adoption / Change Mgmt:

1. Confirm VTKL Teams tenant is accessible — all team members have accounts and can log in
2. Pick or create a dogfood channel (e.g., #aria-dogfood or General)
3. Set the expectation with the team:
   • "Starting [date], we use Teams for [specific workflow] — not Slack"
   • Start small: daily standups, status updates, or a specific work thread
   • Don't try to replace all Slack usage overnight
4. Track adoption — are people actually showing up in Teams? If not, address barriers

🔧 Engineering / Platform:

• No action this phase — Teams tenant is already provisioned

Phase 2 — Aria Dogfood on Teams

Once governance is locked (Phase 0) AND Teams adoption is going (Phase 1), Aria gets deployed to VTKL's Teams.

🔧 Engineering / Platform:

1. Deploy Aria to VTKL Teams instance
2. Verify health — connectivity, response times, error rates
3. Monitor throughout dogfood period

✅ Delivery / QA:

1. Use Aria like Valent would:
   • Feed it project docs (use a real T&C project as test data)
   • Ask for Sprint Backlogs, Product Backlogs, Sprint Reports, Status Reports
   • Test deliverable customization ("make this more executive-friendly", "add a risk section")
   • Download Word outputs — do they need minor edits or full rewrites?
2. Log issues ruthlessly:
   • Quality of deliverables
   • Response time / reliability
   • Tone mismatches
   • Confusing interactions
   • Anything you wouldn't want Hector to see
3. Run acceptance criteria from the SOW against dogfood outputs:
   • ✅ Usable PMO deliverables from ingested data?
   • ✅ Status reports need minor edits, not rewrites?
   • ✅ Natural interaction via Teams?
   • ✅ Clear business insight from the experience?
4. Declare "healthy and supportable" — or flag what's not ready

Phase 3 — Valent Go-Live

Once dogfood is signed off, Valent onboarding starts.

🔧 Engineering / Platform provides:

• Dedicated AWS instance
• Teams app installed in Valent's tenant
• Deliverable customization for Valent's methodology

🤝 Relationship / Business provides:

• Kickoff meeting with Valent stakeholders
• Weekly token usage updates to client
• Ongoing relationship management and escalation path

📢 Adoption / Change Mgmt provides:

• VTKL team members in the Valent channel for support
• User onboarding for Valent operators

What we need from Valent:

• Teams/M365 admin contact (for app installation approval)
• Approval to install the Teams app in their tenant
• Target team/channel for the pilot
• Primary operators: Nick Niver + RJ Beecher (confirmed in SOW)
• Project documentation from one ~3–5 person project (deliverables, meeting notes, artifacts through ~midpoint)
• Security/compliance constraints (if any)

Timeline (per SOW):

Blockers & Open Items

Decision Log