HOW TO USE EVERY FEATURE

A free, 3-minute, 12-question snapshot of your organization's responsible-AI readiness across all five R.A.T.E.S. abilities (Response, Account, Technical, Evaluation, Sustain). No account required. Your answers are scored instantly into an overall readiness band, five pillar scores, your top readiness gaps, and your top three recommended next actions.

1. 1Click 'Free Quick Scan' in the top navigation — no sign-in needed.
2. 2Answer each of the 12 questions honestly: 'Yes — and we can demonstrate it', 'Partially / still building', 'No', 'Not sure', or 'Not applicable'.
3. 3Use Back and Next to move between questions. Your progress saves automatically on this device if you get interrupted.
4. 4After the final question, click to see your results: overall readiness band, five pillar scores, and your top three next actions.
5. 5Sign in and save the scan to keep it in your account history, or print the results and slide them across the table at your next leadership meeting.

A free account keeps your assessments, saved scans, build-it notes, evidence portfolio, and action plan tied to you — so your work follows you across devices and survives a wiped laptop.

1. 1Click 'Dashboard' in the top navigation and choose Register (or go straight to Register if you already see it).
2. 2Enter your email and a password — or sign up with Google in one click.
3. 3Enter the verification code sent to your email (check the spam folder; the code is shy).
4. 4Sign in any time. Forgot your password? Use the 'Forgot password' link on the sign-in page.

The full assessment is the complete 35-item readiness evaluation plus 10 Safety Gates. Before the questions, you record your organization profile, describe the specific AI use case, and check off every authority the AI actually holds — from which R.A.T.E.S. automatically computes an Autonomy Level (A0 Informational through A4 Systemic/Critical).

1. 1Sign in, then from the Dashboard click 'Start Full Assessment' (or use the 'Start the full assessment' button on the home page).
2. 2Step 1 — Organization profile: enter your organization's name, type, size, industry, and location.
3. 3Step 2 — AI use case: describe the specific AI system — name, vendor/model, purpose, who uses it, who could be affected, and the expected benefit.
4. 4Step 3 — Authority: check every authority the AI actually has (send external messages, access personal information, spend money, modify records, act without human approval…). The app computes your Autonomy Level A0–A4 automatically; you may override it with a written explanation if you believe the calculation is too strict or too generous.
5. 5Choose the consequence level — Low, Moderate, High, or Severe — based on what a mistake could actually do to people, funds, or mission.
6. 6Click Next to begin the 35 capacity questions.

Each of the 35 items measures one safeguard capacity across the five abilities. For each, you select an honest maturity level (1 Emerging, 2 Developing, 3 Demonstrating, 4 Sustaining — or N/A with an explanation), describe the evidence you can actually show, note what still needs to be built, and optionally assign a priority, owner, and target date. Everything saves as you go, and you can exit and resume at any time.

1. 1For each question, select the maturity level that reflects what is true today — not what is planned for someday.
2. 2If an item genuinely does not apply, choose 'N/A' and explain why.
3. 3Type what evidence you can actually show (documents, logs, sign-offs) — 'Show me the ability. Show me the evidence.'
4. 4Note what still needs to be built, and set a priority, owner, and target date if helpful.
5. 5Stuck on an item? Click 'HELP ME BUILD THIS' for step-by-step guidance (its own section below).
6. 6Click Next to continue — each answer saves automatically. Use 'Save & Exit' any time and resume later from your Dashboard.

Ten pass/fail checkpoints that matter more than any score: Purpose, Red-Line, Accountability, Authority, Human-Control, Test, Traceability, Stop/Recovery, Monitoring, and Reauthorization. Gates are yes/no questions about whether a fundamental safeguard demonstrably exists. A failed material gate is a readiness gap no amount of scoring averages can hide.

1. 1After the 35 items, answer each of the 10 Safety Gate questions.
2. 2Answer based on what is demonstrable today — not aspirational. A gate passes when the safeguard exists, is assigned, and could be shown to a reviewer.
3. 3Finish the last gate and your results are calculated automatically.
4. 4Failed material gates appear first on your results page — treat them as your starting lineup for remediation.

Your results page presents the full picture: overall readiness band (Emerging, Developing, Demonstrating, Sustaining), scores for each of the five abilities, Safety Gate outcomes, prioritized readiness gaps, your strengths, a comparison against your previous completed assessment, and a phased 90-day build plan.

1. 1Open your Dashboard and click the results for the assessment you want.
2. 2Read the readiness summary at the top — your band, autonomy level, consequence level, and gate status.
3. 3Scroll through your five ability scores, your prioritized readiness gaps, your strengths, and the 90-day build plan.
4. 4If you have completed an earlier assessment, review the comparison to see your improvement over time — readiness is a journey, not a verdict.
5. 5Click any gap or action to open build guidance for it.

A built-in priority engine sorts every gap by genuine risk — never by question order. Failed Safety Gates come first (ACT NOW), then critical safeguards like human override, emergency stop, and named accountability, then capacities to build next, verify with evidence, or monitor to keep effective. Uses involving systemic autonomy or severe consequence also get a GET HELP recommendation to bring in qualified specialists.

1. 1On your results (or Quick Scan profile), find 'Your Priority Actions' near the top.
2. 2Read the three recommended actions and their labels: ACT NOW, BUILD NEXT, VERIFY, MONITOR, or GET HELP.
3. 3ACT NOW items involve a failed Safety Gate or a critical safeguard gap at a consequential autonomy level — schedule these first.
4. 4GET HELP means the use case is consequential enough to warrant qualified legal, security, or technical specialists — that is a strength to act on, not a bad grade.
5. 5Click any action to open its step-by-step build guidance.

Every readiness gap opens a step-by-step guide with seven sections: Why This Matters, Start Here, Build It (numbered steps), Test It, Evidence to Keep, Demonstrate It, and When to Get Help. You can type your own answers and notes directly under Start Here and every Build-It step (they save automatically), push any step into your action plan, record your evidence status and where it is stored, and mark your progress. Click Save & Close when you're done — everything is kept.

1. 1Click 'HELP ME BUILD THIS' (or 'Help me build it') on any gap, action, or capacity.
2. 2Read WHY THIS MATTERS and START HERE for the big picture and the fastest first move.
3. 3Type your answers in the boxes under Start Here and each Build-It step — a 'SAVED' indicator confirms each note saves automatically as you type.
4. 4Click 'ADD TO MY ACTION PLAN' on any Build-It step you want to work on. The button changes to 'IN MY PLAN' once it's added, and a confirmation appears.
5. 5In MY EVIDENCE, tap your evidence status (We have this / Still building / Needs review / Not applicable) and type where the evidence is stored.
6. 6In MARK MY PROGRESS, tap the label that matches your organization's actual progress — this reflects your own internal review, not a certification.
7. 7Click 'SAVE & CLOSE' at the bottom. Your notes, evidence, and progress are saved; review them any time from My Action Plan.

The app recommends; leadership decides. The results let a leader record one of six explicit outcomes: Authorize, Authorize with Conditions, Modify and Retest, Partner / Get Specialist Help, Pause, or Do Not Deploy / Retire — with leadership notes and a reassessment date.

1. 1On the assessment results page, scroll to the leadership decision section.
2. 2Review the app's recommended decision based on your gates, gaps, and autonomy level.
3. 3Select your leadership decision and add notes explaining the rationale and any conditions.
4. 4Set a reassessment date so the decision comes back up for review on a schedule — not 'eventually.'
5. 5Save. The decision appears on your printable report.

Every assessment generates an editable checklist of priority action items. Add your own tasks, assign owners, set target dates, update statuses as work happens, record completion dates, and delete items that no longer apply.

1. 1On the assessment results page, open the action checklist.
2. 2Add a task, or edit the automatically suggested items.
3. 3Set the priority, owner, target date, and status for each task.
4. 4Mark tasks complete as they finish — the completion date is recorded automatically.
5. 5Everything in the checklist also appears in My Action Plan across all your assessments.

Your home base. Every AI use case you've assessed appears as a card with its owner, autonomy level, consequence level, readiness band, Safety Gate status, and current decision. From here you start new assessments, continue in-progress ones, review results and reports, manage evidence, and log material changes. Saved Quick Scans are also listed.

1. 1Sign in and open the Dashboard from the top navigation.
2. 2Each card shows one AI use case: its status, autonomy, consequence, readiness, and gates.
3. 3Use a card's buttons to continue an assessment, view results, open the report, build gaps, or manage evidence.
4. 4Click 'Start Full Assessment' to add another AI system to your register.
5. 5Saved Quick Scans appear below your use cases so you can compare them over time.

Every task from every assessment — added by you or pushed from a 'Help Me Build It' guide — grouped by priority (ACT NOW first) and filterable by priority, pillar, owner, status, and Safety Gate.

1. 1Open My Action Plan from the top navigation, your results page, or any build-guidance footer link.
2. 2Use the filters to narrow by priority, pillar, owner, status, or Safety Gate.
3. 3Each task shows its capacity code, gate, owner, and target date.
4. 4Click 'View this assessment' on any task to jump back to the results it came from.
5. 5Update task statuses from the results checklist as work progresses — the plan stays in sync.

For each AI use case, a checklist of the 14 artifacts responsible AI governance runs on — AI Use Case Charter, Red-Line Register, Test & Evaluation Report, Incident Response Plan, and more. Track each artifact's status (Not Started / In Progress / Complete), record where it lives and who owns it, and watch the portfolio progress bar fill.

1. 1From your Dashboard, open a use case's Evidence Portfolio.
2. 2For each artifact, tap its status: Not Started, In Progress, or Complete.
3. 3Add notes describing where the artifact lives, who owns it, and what's still missing.
4. 4Click SAVE on each artifact — the portfolio progress bar updates as evidence accumulates.
5. 5Attach secure file uploads is planned for a future release — for now, record locations (e.g., 'Board policy folder, SharePoint') in the notes.

A one-click, board-ready report of the entire assessment: readiness summary, gate outcomes, priority gaps, next actions, strengths, the build plan, evidence status, the leadership decision, and the standard R.A.T.E.S. disclaimer. Print it or save it as a PDF using your browser's print function.

1. 1From an assessment's results page, click to open the printable report.
2. 2Review the report sections — it includes everything leadership, funders, or partners need.
3. 3Click the print button and choose your printer, or 'Save as PDF' to email it.
4. 4The report includes the standard disclaimer — readiness is a capacity-building tool, not a certification.

When something material changes — a new model or vendor, new data, new integrations, increased autonomy, a new population affected, a significant prompt change, a material incident — you log it on the use case, and the system is flagged for reassessment. Previous approval never silently transfers to a new reality.

1. 1From your Dashboard, open the use case's material change option ('Log a material change').
2. 2Select every change that applies from the list — model update, new vendor, new data source, increased autonomy, and so on.
3. 3Add notes describing what changed and when you learned of it.
4. 4Save. The use case is flagged for reassessment so the change cannot inherit old approval.
5. 5Reassess from the use case card when you're ready.

If you are a workspace admin, the Admin area shows registered app users (with roles and invites) and the security events feed — things like rate limiting and suspicious scan activity — so you can keep an eye on how the app is being used.

1. 1Sign in with an admin account and open Admin from your Dashboard.
2. 2Invite teammates and assign each an app role.
3. 3Review the security events feed — it records rate limiting and suspicious activity events.
4. 4Regular users never see this area; it is restricted to admin accounts.