Forward Impact Engineering

Fetch a Derived Role or Agent Profile

You have a discipline, level, and optional track, and you need the derived role definition or agent profile as structured data from the pathway service. This page walks through the bounded task of going from those coordinates to a Turtle RDF response you can parse, render, or pass downstream -- without embedding derivation logic in your product.

For the full setup including all six RPCs and architecture context, see Query the Engineering Standard.

Prerequisites

  • Completed the Query the Engineering Standard guide -- you have @forwardimpact/librpc and @forwardimpact/libtype installed, the pathway service is running, and createClient("pathway") connects successfully.

Connect

import { createClient, createTracer } from "@forwardimpact/librpc";
import { createLogger } from "@forwardimpact/libtelemetry";
import { pathway } from "@forwardimpact/libtype";

const logger = createLogger("my-product");
const tracer = await createTracer("my-product");
const pathwayClient = await createClient("pathway", logger, tracer);

Fetch a role definition

Call DescribeJob with a discipline, level, and optional track: 

const request = pathway.DescribeJobRequest.fromObject({
  discipline: "software_engineering",
  level: "J070",
  track: "platform",
});

const result = await pathwayClient.DescribeJob(request);
console.log(result.content.substring(0, 400));

Expected output (Turtle RDF, abbreviated):

@prefix fit: <https://www.forwardimpact.team/schema/rdf/> .
@prefix schema: <https://schema.org/> .

<urn:fit:job:software_engineering:J070:platform> a fit:Job ;
  schema:title "Senior Engineer Software Engineer - Platform Engineering" ;
  fit:discipline "software_engineering" ;
  fit:level "J070" ;
  fit:track "platform" ;
  fit:skillCount 16 ;
  fit:behaviourCount 5 .

The response includes the full skill matrix (each skill with its type, proficiency, and description), the behaviour profile, derived responsibilities, and expectation dimensions (scope, autonomy, influence, complexity).

Without a track

Omit the track field for the generalist role:

const request = pathway.DescribeJobRequest.fromObject({
  discipline: "software_engineering",
  level: "J070",
});

const result = await pathwayClient.DescribeJob(request);

If the discipline requires a track and you omit it, the service returns a gRPC error. Check valid combinations first with ListJobs if you are unsure.

Fetch an agent profile

Agent profiles use DescribeAgentProfile instead. The track field is required: 

const request = pathway.DescribeAgentProfileRequest.fromObject({
  discipline: "software_engineering",
  track: "platform",
});

const result = await pathwayClient.DescribeAgentProfile(request);
console.log(result.content.substring(0, 400));

Expected output (Turtle RDF, abbreviated):

@prefix fit: <https://www.forwardimpact.team/schema/rdf/> .

<urn:fit:agent:software_engineering:platform> a fit:AgentProfile ;
  fit:discipline "software_engineering" ;
  fit:track "platform" ;
  fit:skillCount 14 ;
  fit:behaviourCount 5 .

The agent profile is smaller than the full role because human-only skills are removed and lower-proficiency duplicates are collapsed. Skills and behaviours are sorted by strength descending, which is useful when generating agent instructions where the most important capabilities should lead.

Handle errors

Invalid coordinates produce a gRPC error with a descriptive message: 

try {
  const request = pathway.DescribeJobRequest.fromObject({
    discipline: "nonexistent_discipline",
    level: "J070",
  });
  await pathwayClient.DescribeJob(request);
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err.message);
  // "Unknown discipline: nonexistent_discipline"
}

Common error cases:

Input Error
Unknown discipline ID Unknown discipline: <id>
Unknown level ID Unknown level: <id>
Unknown track ID Unknown track: <id>
Missing required track Invalid job combination: discipline=... level=...
Agent profile without track track is required for DescribeAgentProfile

To discover valid values before calling, use ListJobs (for roles) or ListAgentProfiles (for agent profiles).

Verify

You have reached the outcome of this guide when:

  • DescribeJob with a valid discipline, level, and track returns Turtle RDF containing the role title, skill matrix, and behaviour profile.
  • DescribeAgentProfile with a valid discipline and track returns a filtered agent profile with human-only skills removed.
  • Invalid coordinates produce a gRPC error with a message that names the invalid entity.