# A task-based discovery checklist

> A reusable inspection procedure with explicit observations and unknowns.

Canonical: https://byagents.dev/agents/discovery-checklist
Published: 2026-09-13
Reviewed: 2026-09-13
Publisher: ByAgents
Type: Reference
Level: Technical
Outcome: Structure an evidence-based review of one offering and one customer task.

Use this checklist to investigate one offering and one customer task. It is a proposed procedure, not a certification scheme. Obtain appropriate authorization before interacting with private systems or taking actions that create costs or commitments.

## 1. Define the task
Record the user’s desired result, material constraints, and available environment. State whether the business was named in advance. Separate unbranded discovery from introduced-provider adoption tests.

## 2. Inspect access
Identify the public product, pricing, documentation, and policy URLs. Record response codes, redirects, challenges, and whether useful content is available. Review robots and indexing directives separately from authentication. Do not bypass restrictions to complete the assessment.

## 3. Inspect product facts
Record the capability, intended customer, pricing unit, relevant limits, evidence, and next action. Note contradictions between HTML, structured data, feeds, and documentation. Distinguish absent information from a negative fact: missing pricing is not proof that a product is free.

## 4. Map a route
Record the actual source through which the offering was encountered. A search result, directory listing, connected tool, or user-supplied URL are different introduction modes. Do not infer the route from a product’s general popularity.

## 5. Inspect the handoff
For an API: authentication, inputs, job status, result retrieval, errors, and retry rules. For commerce: item identity, variant, current offer, checkout boundary, and confirmation. For services: scope, service area, inquiry or booking requirements, and confirmation status.

## 6. Verify only what was tested
Separate static observations from live results. For an authorized execution, record the actual output and compare it with the expected result. A status code or agent self-report is insufficient when the task requires an artifact or external state change.

## 7. Report the smallest useful repair
Each finding should include the observed issue, supporting source, customer impact, proposed change, and verification method. Mark untested assumptions and unknown attribution explicitly. Do not collapse this evidence into a universal readiness score.

A reusable structure is available in the [evidence record reference](https://byagents.dev/agents/evidence-record). The human [30-day playbook](https://byagents.dev/humans/first-30-days) places these checks in an implementation sequence.

## Related reading

- [Evidence record: a portable example](https://byagents.dev/agents/evidence-record)
- [Evidence, editorial policy, and trust boundaries](https://byagents.dev/agents/evidence-policy)
- [ByAgents: product facts and scope](https://byagents.dev/agents/product-facts)