🪜 The ladder of pathways

One via it’s the path the agent uses to reach a system: request data, read a file, click a screen. The runtime/LEIA-ME.md organize the paths into a seven-step ladder levels.

You start at level 1 and work your way down until you find the first method that exists and works. The kit's wording: use the highest available.

How to read the diagram: the number is the order in which you test. The color shows stability: green is high, blue is medium, red is low. Notice that 6 is blue and 5 is red: being lower down doesn't mean it's worse. Topic 2 explains.

What to look for in the table: it’s the table from the runtime/LEIA-ME.md, without changing a single word. The “Example” column shows the kind of thing found at each level; you don’t need to run these examples now.

Stability is how well the route keeps working when the other side changes. An API has a contract: the provider gives notice before making changes. On a website, a button moves, and the robot that clicked there gets lost.

The kit's README sums up the idea: the agent uses always the most stable one available. That's why the local bridge (6, medium) beats computer use (5, low) when both are available. Recipe R5 says the same thing: use the browser only when there is no API, MCP, CLI, or export.

The agent says "it can't be done" too soon. It couldn't find documentation and concludes that it doesn't exist. The kit has a rule against this, written in the LEIA-ME.md and repeated in the AGENTS.md.

The rule: before concluding that something is impossible, the agent test each level with a command. “I couldn’t find it” doesn’t count. “I ran this and got this” does.

Rule: if the agent says "can't be done," ask it to **test** each level with a command before concluding. Often the route exists and simply wasn't documented.

How to read the diagram: The red loop returns to the left with the next step. Each pass leaves a recorded piece of evidence. An honest "can't be done" comes with this list; a "can't be done" without a list is a guess.

Sônia wants total sales by customer from the distributor. The ERP is old: it has no API. What it can do is export a sales CSV, o runtime/exemplos/erp-vendas.csv from the kit.

Look at the ladder one step at a time. This is the most common case in a small office: an old system that only exports a file.

What to look for in the table: at step 5, the answer is "exists," and the ladder keeps going anyway. That’s the rule in topic 2: R5 only accepts the browser when there’s no export, and there is one here.

How to read the diagram: the top line is the chosen path: the ERP outputs the file, and the bridge provides a ready-to-use tool. The crossed-out red box below is the discarded path. In track 2 (recipe R3), that bridge becomes a real MCP tool.

Clara’s clinic schedule is a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet doesn’t have an API, MCP, CLI, or SDK: it’s a file. So the ladder goes down to the local bridge, the same as Sônia’s. In the kit, it’s the runtime/exemplos/agenda.csv, with Dr. Ana and Dr. Bruno’s availability.

The difference shows up later. Sônia only wants to read. Clara, one day, will want the agent to mark a time. And the same route can have different policies for reading and changing.

| Agenda da clínica (planilha) | Ponte local (arquivo)   | 6 | ler/escrever agenda.csv         | alterar (N2)    | pendente |

Now it's your turn. Choose one work system: the store’s software, the supplier portal, the inventory spreadsheet. Ask the agent to climb the ladder with you, testing each level.

The prompt below uses only files from the kit. It asks for the test at each level and forbids changes to the system: at this stage, the agent only investigates.

Leia runtime/LEIA-ME.md. Quero conectar o <nome do sistema>, que eu uso para <o que você faz nele>.
Suba a escada das vias comigo, um nível por vez. Em cada nível, me diga como testar com um comando, mostre o resultado e só então passe ao próximo.
Não conclua "não dá" sem testar todos. Não altere nada no sistema.
No fim, me diga qual é a via mais estável que existe e por quê.