Agriculture AI agent · H-2A compliance
Farm Labour & H-2A Compliance AI Agent
Track the job-order dates, hold the AEWR in force for your state and skill level, watch the housing, transport and guarantee obligations, and hold the file for the employer who signs it.
- Typical delivery
- 4–6 weeks
- Deployment
- Your stack
- Employer signs
- Pre-attestation
- After launch
- Agent Care
What this agent does
Tracks the obligation, not the attestation
In
- 01
A job order is filed, and the agent pulls the dates that govern it from the rule version in force.
- 02
A wage rate applies, and the agent holds the AEWR for that state, occupational group and skill level.
Reason
- 03
Housing is inspected, and the determination deadline is tracked against the first date of need.
- 04
Transport and subsistence fall due, and the agent marks the contract point that triggers each one.
- 05
The three-quarters guarantee runs, and workdays offered are counted across the contract period.
Decide
- 06
A U.S. worker applies, and it is flagged as a 50 percent rule obligation rather than an inbox item.
- 07
Recruiter and agent records are assembled, and what is missing is named rather than quietly filled.
Out
- 08
Retain the obligation, the wage notice it was read against, the flagged gaps and the attestation.
- 09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
Product statement
The agent tracks and drafts; a named person at the employer signs the ETA-9142A and ETA-790/790A and takes responsibility for every page, including anything the agent prepared.
Example workflow
One job order, filing to attestation
- 1Job order receivedETA-790/790A draft, contract dates, worksites and housing details
- 2Obligations assembledFiling windows, wage rate, housing deadline, transport triggers and guarantee period, each with its source
- 3Coverage computedObligations met, obligations open, flagged gaps and confidence
- 4Controls appliedRule-version checks, state and skill-level wage checks, deadline checks and confidence threshold
No human action required
Stages 1 to 4 run unaided, and nothing is filed or attested at any of them — the agent is tracking, and the employer's lane opens at the confidence gate.
Goes to the farm labour manager to attest.
Adds a compliance read first.
Employer attestation
The file is held with its open obligations, its flagged gaps and the confidence.
Approve · Edit · Send to compliance review
Approved — released to file
- 6Payroll and HR systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
- 7Outcome evaluatedObligation coverage, flagged-gap outcomes, wage-and-hour findings and post-season corrections
Edits
Every edit made before attestation is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required
8 items
- Signing the ETA-9142A or the ETA-790/790A.
- Filing the job order or the certification application.
- Deciding whether a U.S. applicant is rejected.
- Completing or reverifying a Form I-9.
Automation boundary
Agent acts unaided
- ✓Track the filing windows and the housing determination deadline.
- ✓Hold the AEWR in force for the state, occupation and skill level.
- ✓Count workdays offered across the guarantee period.
- ✓Flag the obligations still open, and hold the file.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, never ahead of attestation.
- Setting the wage actually offered on the contract.
- Certifying that housing meets the standards.
- Terminating a worker or ending a contract early.
- Changes to the wage tables or the rule-version library.
Example output
One obligation on the file, annotated
Everything the agent tracks is attached to the record it was drawn from.
Obligation-tracking output · single job order
Illustrative example- Job order
- Georgia, field and livestock
- Tracked obligation
- Inbound transport and subsistence fall due at the contract midpoint, and the midpoint moved when the date of need was amended
- Effective date
- 17 August 2026
- Source of record
- Job order and 91 FR 48946
- Confidence
- 88%
- Attribution
- Farm labour manager and title
As received
Taken from the job order and the Federal Register notice — nothing on this side is written by the agent.
Records used
- Job order ETA-790A
- 91 FR 48946 wage table
- Payroll and field tally
Why this obligation
The date of need was amended, so the contract midpoint moved with it.
What the score decides
Below the configured threshold the file picks up a compliance read first.
Action
ApproveEditSend to compliance reviewValue
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value lands
Value 01 – 04
Every job order
From the job order and payroll
Track against the rule in force
Draw on the job order, the payroll records and the wage tables published for that state and date.
The attestation is the employer’s
Routine deadline and wage tracking arrives already done.
Point review at the open obligations
Open guarantee, transport and 50 percent rule obligations are flagged, so review starts where exposure concentrates.
Build an evidence trail
The obligation, the rule version it was read against and the manager who attested stay on the file.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Farm payroll & time
- Fingercheck
- Famous
- Field tally and time clocks
H-2A filing & case data
- FLAG
- iCERT case files
- SWA job-order postings
Wage & rule sources
- Federal Register
- flag.dol.gov
- OFLC wage library
Agent
Farm labour & H-2A compliance
- Reads the job order
- Tracks the obligation
- Holds for attestation
HR & workforce records
- I-9 and E-Verify files
- Housing inspection records
Observability & evaluation
- OpenTelemetry
- Langfuse
- Supported monitoring/evaluation sources
Integration availability depends on the client's existing systems and API access.
Agent controls
Six layers between the model and the attestation
Each control wraps the one inside it. What the six together still miss is named in the map below.
L6 · Outermost — last line of defence
Inward → L1 · closest to the model
- L1 – L2
- Test whether the file may proceed
- L3
- Puts the attestation in a person's hands
- L4 – L5
- Keep the obligation and the rule version behind it
- L6
- Falls back to obligation tracking when signals degrade
How Nestack evaluates it
Evaluate the tracking workflow — not only the finished file.
Coverage runs the whole depth of the workflow, and every layer is cut by slice.
Surface — the file the employer signs
- E1Final-output evaluationDid each wage figure carry its notice, state, occupational group, skill level and effective date?
- E2Step-level evaluationDid the agent use the rule version actually in force for that employer on that date?
- E3Tool evaluationDid it read and write the correct job order and the correct field?
- E4Confidence calibrationDo low-confidence obligations actually attract more compliance edits?
- E5Slice evaluationHow does performance change across specific obligation types?
- E6Business outcomeHow many files needed an edit before attestation or a correction after the season?
Floor — the outcome the employer answers for
Failure modes
Where each failure originates in the agent
Seven failure modes, placed at the stage each one originates.
Agent lifecycle
Direction of processing →
01 · Retrieval
1 mode
- HA-03
Superseded wage table
The rate is read from a notice the current one replaced.
Stage gathers
Job order, payroll records and published wage tables
02 · Reasoning
2 modes
- HA-04
Wrong effective date
A state under the Kansas order is paid on the 3 August 2026 date.
- HA-06
Corresponding employment missed
Domestic workers doing job-order work are left off the wage obligation.
Stage proposes
Obligations met, obligations open and confidence
03 · Tool / write
2 modes
- HA-02
Decrease applied mid-contract
A lower published rate is applied below the rate the job order guaranteed.
- HA-05
Guarantee counted on hours
Workdays offered are computed from scheduled hours, not the contract period.
Stage writes
Only where write access and approval policy allow it
04 · Output
1 mode
- HA-01
Wage figure unstamped
A rate reaches the file with no notice, state or skill level on it.
Stage returns
The file the employer attests to and signs
05 · Change / Version
1 mode
- HA-07
Silent rule drift
A rescission or a final rule quietly changes what is tracked.
Stage tracks
Model, prompt, wage tables and rule versions
- Sev-1 · attested outside the boundary
- Sev-2 · a wrong rate reaches payroll
- Sev-3 · source degrades, file routes to review
Affected slices
One state's coverage can hide another's
A single obligation-coverage figure can read clean while one state, or one skill level inside it, carries most of the exposure. Nestack reports the missed-obligation rate by slice, not only in total.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregate
Illustrative example| Slice | Failure rate | Lift | Lift vs. threshold | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| States under the Kansas order | 8.7% | 3.9× | Review | |
| SOC-specific and Skill Level II roles | 6.3% | 2.8× | Review | |
| Contracts with an amended date of need | 4.1% | 1.8× | Watch | |
| Single-state, single-rate contracts | 1.4% | 0.6× | Normal |
Bar: missed-obligation-rate lift vs. the single-rate baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick at 2.0×
2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
The rule moves; the suite grows
A cycle closes when the missed obligation is a case the next release has to catch. That suite is what the next season tracked is measured against.
Improvement cycle · five stages
Switchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
- 01
Detect
Missed-obligation rate rises in a state slice.
- 02
Diagnose
The crew member paid at last season's rate is traced back through the job order and the notice behind it until the cause narrows to one.
- 03
Improve
The fix carries a version number, and the job orders that forced it ride along.
- 04
Verify
Nothing goes out until every touched obligation case has passed a second time.
- 05
Learn
It is kept for good, and the wage rules are amended in the same commit.
Learn → Detect
The return edge. The rule is still litigated and re-proposed; the suite is what absorbs the change.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, tracking workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
Workstream
Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
- 01Labour-workflow discovery and obligation boundary definition.Week 1
- 02Payroll and case-data source assessment.Week 1, Week 2
- 03Wage-table, skill-level and rule-version mapping work.Week 1, Week 2
- 04Job-order ingestion and normalisation.Week 2
- 05Obligation logic and record binding.Week 2, Week 3
- 06Confidence scoring and gap routing.Week 3
- 07Employer attestation workflow.Week 3, Week 4
- 08Payroll and HR-system integration.Week 5
- 09Wage and obligation cases.Week 4, Week 5
- 10Guardrails and attestation controls.Week 4
- 11Job-order trail instrumentation.Week 5, Week 6
- 12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.Week 6
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallel
Final scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
| Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tier | PilotOne state, one crop | ProductionProduction payroll systems | AdvancedMultiple states / entities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduced at Pilot | |||
| Tracking to your rules and dates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employer attestation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Obligation-coverage baseline | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Introduced at Production | |||
| Reporting by state | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Attestation workflow in your systems | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Approved write-back | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll-system integration | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Introduced at Advanced | |||
| Multi-state rule complexity | — | — | ✓ |
| Multi-stage employer approvals | — | — | ✓ |
| High contract volume | — | — | ✓ |
| Multi-state wage controls | — | — | ✓ |
| Build price | From $5,000 | From $8,000 | Custom quote |
- Final build price
- Confirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, contract volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
- Separate from build
- Build pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bring
We build with it
01Your job orders and contract dates
→Job-order ingestion and obligation mapping
Week 102Representative past seasons, audits included
→Obligation-tracking baseline and record binding
Week 203Your wage tables and the rule versions you follow
→Wage-table and rule-version mapping
Week 104Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports
→Payroll and case-data assessment, then integration setup
Week 205Obligations you would not want audited
→Wage-and-hour cases and failure-mode testing
Week 406What no attestation may rest on
→Confidence scoring, gap routing, guardrails and attestation controls
Week 307Named farm labour managers to review files
→Attestation workflow, then pilot and production validation
Weeks 5–6
Nothing else is required
Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
The bands are drawn over the weeks the work genuinely fills, which is why week 5 doubles up.
Phase
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
- DiscoveryW1
- BuildW2 – W3
- EvaluateW4 – W5
- Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focus
W1Labour workflow discovery, rule mapping and the automation boundary
W2Payroll and case-data integration and the tracking baseline
W3Tracking workflow, confidence logic and attestation controls
W4Evaluation suite, wage-and-hour checks and failure-mode testing
W5Payroll-system integration, pilot contracts and targeted corrections
W6One contract period tracked under the farm labour manager, then Agent Care handover
- Reading the band
- A bar covers the weeks its work is named in, and nothing else. The week 5 overlap is real, not padding.
- At the end of W6
- Validation closes on live job orders, and Agent Care picks up monitoring.
- Duration
- Six-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Agriculture AI agent
Build a farm-labour agent on a rule that is still being litigated and re-proposed.
Show us your job orders and who signs them. If your farms fall under the Kansas order, then your rates took effect on 17 August 2026, not 3 August — on a methodology that is still an interim final rule.
- Typical delivery
- 4–6 weeks
- Deployment
- Your job orders
- Employer attests
- Pre-attestation
- After launch
- Agent Care available
Nestack Agents · Farm labour & H-2A compliance
AGT-AGR-13 · Agent Care available after launch