Field note 06 / Autonomy
Advisor, Co-pilot, Autopilot: how much Knute is allowed to do
How much Knute is allowed to do, per league, and how you switch it off.
The short answer
Can I control what an AI fantasy manager does?
Yes. Knute has three autonomy levels, set per league and changeable at any time. Advisor proposes every move and nothing happens until you approve it. Co-pilot fires routine moves and waits on the bigger calls. Autopilot runs the team inside limits you set. Every move is logged, trades are refused by design, and the whole thing switches off in one tap.
I built Knute to act on a real ESPN team, so the question of how much it is allowed to do came before the question of how good it is. This note is the answer as the product actually enforces it.
A note from the founder
Autonomy is something you grant, not something the software takes.
An AI that can set lineups and file waiver claims on your account is only useful if you can say exactly what it may do, see exactly what it did, and stop it without a support ticket. Those three properties are the product. The model behind it is replaceable; the permission structure is not.
So the levels below are not marketing tiers. They are the grants the server checks before any move reaches ESPN, and they are the same grants whether the move came from the daily pass or from you typing an instruction in chat.
01 / The three levels
How much is Knute allowed to do?
Three levels, set per league, changeable at any time. Same agent, different authority.
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Advisor
It proposes. You approve.
Knute reads your roster, the injuries and the matchups, then proposes the move with its reasoning, the data behind it and the projected gain. Nothing happens on its own. Every lineup, add, drop and waiver claim waits for your approval.
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Co-pilot
Routine moves fire. Big calls wait.
Routine lineups, waivers and injury pivots go through automatically on the daily pass. The bigger calls are flagged and wait for you. You still see every move in the log, including the ones that fired without you.
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Autopilot
It runs the team inside your limits.
Knute runs the team within the limits you define. A protected player cannot be dropped, whatever the model thinks of him. A waiver bid larger than your remaining budget is rejected before it reaches the platform. Every move is logged for you to read.
The level is a property of the league, not the account. One league can sit at Autopilot while another stays at Advisor, and you can move either one at any time.
02 / The trust model
What can you verify, not just believe?
One pipeline, one shape. Every move Knute makes, from any level and any surface, goes through a single gated pipeline with a preview-then-confirm shape. The server stages the batch, checks it against the league's grants and limits, and only then confirms it to ESPN. There is no second path that skips the gate.
Every move is logged. The app keeps a record of what Knute did, why it did it and what it expected to gain. Advisor makes you read that record before anything happens. Co-pilot and Autopilot make it the thing you check afterwards.
One tap off. The whole thing switches off in one tap. You do not have to disconnect ESPN, delete anything or email me to stop it.
Chat obeys the same limits. When you tell Knute in chat to make a move, that request goes through the same gate as the daily pass. Asking in chat does not unlock anything the league's level and limits do not allow.
Consent to cloud AI is separate and revocable. Knute asks for explicit account-level permission before any of your content goes to a third-party cloud model, and you can withdraw that permission in the app under Settings, AI & Data without disconnecting ESPN or deleting your account. The providers are named on the privacy page. Your ESPN credentials are encrypted at rest, revocable in the app, and never included in a prompt.
Deletion is deletion. Delete account, in the app, removes the active account and the data attached to it: ESPN credentials, synced league and roster data, chat transcripts, attachments and push-token bindings. The privacy page explains the minimized financial audit records that may remain for refunds, fraud prevention and tax.
03 / Boundaries
What Knute does not do
It does not trade. Multi-team transactions are refused at the same gate that permits lineups, adds, drops and waiver claims, so there is no level or setting in which Knute proposes, sends or accepts a trade. If you want a trade, you make it yourself.
It does not drop a protected player. It does not bid more FAAB than you have left. It does not run a continuous intraday watch: there is one autonomous pass a day ahead of the slate, and a midday scratch is not picked up until the next pass unless you open the chat and ask.
It works on ESPN today. It does not join auction draft rooms. It does not manage teams on other platforms, and this note does not describe things that are not built.
04 / Autonomy with consent
What this means for a new user
Start at Advisor. Let Knute propose for a week or two and read what it wanted to do and why. You are not evaluating whether it is clever; you are evaluating whether you would have approved those moves anyway.
When the record earns it, move the league to Co-pilot and let the routine work fire on its own while the bigger calls still come to you. Set your protected players before you go to Autopilot, then read the log the same way you did at Advisor. If anything about the record bothers you, drop the level or switch it off. Nothing about that decision is permanent.
05 / Questions
Common questions about control
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01
Can I approve every move Knute makes?
Yes. Set the league to Advisor. At that level Knute proposes each move with its reasoning and nothing reaches ESPN until you approve it. You can leave a league at Advisor indefinitely.
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02
How do I turn Knute off?
One tap in the app switches the whole thing off. Nothing fires until you turn it back on. Separately, you can revoke the stored ESPN credential in the app, withdraw third-party AI permission under Settings, AI & Data, or delete the account, which removes everything attached to it.
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03
Will the AI trade my players?
No. Multi-team transactions are refused at the same gate that permits lineups, adds, drops and waiver claims, so there is no level or setting in which Knute proposes, sends or accepts a trade.
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04
Is it safe to let an AI manage my fantasy team?
Safe is a decision you make with evidence. Start at Advisor, read the log of what Knute proposed and why, and move up only when the record earns it. Every level runs through the same preview-then-confirm pipeline, protected players cannot be dropped, and the stop is one tap.
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05
Do moves I ask for in chat obey the same limits?
Yes. A move you request in chat goes through the same gated pipeline as the daily pass: the same protected-player check, the same trade refusal, the same preview and confirm. Asking in chat does not unlock anything the league's level does not allow.
If you want to see the levels for yourself, get Knute on iPhone, connect your ESPN team, and leave it at Advisor until the log convinces you to move it.