Irrigation-Management AI Agent (Scheduling & Allocation)

What this agent does

Plans the water, does not own it

Take soil-moisture readings, in-field weather, reference ET and the forecast for each field and zone.

Take crop, growth stage, soil type, system capacity, allocation headroom and any live restriction.

Reason

Work out crop water demand against what the root zone already holds, field by field and zone by zone.

Fit that demand to set times, zone order, system capacity, pump and energy limits and the tariff window.

Test the schedule against allocation headroom, permit terms, re-entry intervals and injection rules.

Decide

Separate what the pre-authorised envelope already covers from what needs a person, and say which is which.

Hold or stop a set when a limit, a restriction, a sensor or a source changes after the plan was drawn.

Out

Run the sets the farm signed for, then reconcile water applied against planned against the meter reading.

Draft the use record with the readings, the sources, what actually ran and what a person decided.

→ Product statement

The agent plans, runs inside a signed envelope and reconciles. The water decision and the allocation stay with a named person on the farm.

Example workflow

One week of sets, end to end

AgentHuman

1Field state readSoil moisture by depth, in-field weather, reference ET, the forecast, crop stage and soil type

2Limits readAllocation headroom, permit terms, live restrictions, re-entry intervals and tariff windows

3Schedule proposedSet times, zone order and volumes, fitted to system capacity, pump limits and energy cost

4Envelope testedWhat the signed zones, volume cap and stop time already cover, and what they do not

No human action required

Stages 1 to 4 run without a person in the loop — reading, planning and limit-testing finish before anyone is asked to look at anything. A limit already reached stops the plan on the spot.

5DecisionSplits on what the pre-authorised envelope covers

Inside the signed envelope

Runs on the approved schedule.

Outside it, or a limit moved

Waits for a person before water moves.

Irrigation manager

Reads the plan, the readings behind it, the headroom left and what the restriction says, then decides whether the water goes on.

Release · Change the plan · Hold the water

Released — handed back▼

6Sets run and recordedOnly inside the signed envelope; anything outside it waits for a person to release it

7Outcome evaluatedApplied against planned against the meter, headroom accuracy, sensor health and stop latency

Overrides

A set the manager holds or rewrites is recorded with the reason and counted in the evaluation.

What should not run autonomously

Human approval stays in control

Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items

Setting the season water plan and its allocation.

Signing the unattended envelope, its volume cap and stop.

Running water while a restriction or curtailment applies.

Irrigating a block inside a live re-entry interval.

Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided

✓Build the schedule from soil moisture, weather, crop stage and system capacity.

✓Test it against allocation headroom, permit terms, restrictions and intervals.

✓Run pre-authorised sets inside the signed zones, volume cap and stop time.

✓Reconcile applied against planned against the meter and draft the use record.

Run and write actions stay inside the envelope agreed in implementation: named zones, a volume cap, a stop time.

Injecting fertiliser or effluent into the system.

Drawing water past the remaining allocation.

Filing a meter reading or a water-use return.

Changing headroom sources, envelope rules or stop thresholds.

Example output

One night's set, annotated

Everything the agent proposes is attached to the readings and the limit it was tested against.

Schedule output · single planned setIllustrative example

Field and zones

Root-zone moisture

Planned set

Schedule result

Confidence

Water decision

Field 12, zones 3–5

Below the refill point

Tonight 22:00, off-peak

Held — headroom short

93%

The farm's, not the agent's

As receivedThe field state as the probes and the station report it, beside the set the plan had drawn for tonight.

Evidence used Probe at two depths Permit balance to date Meter total, reconciled

Why it stopped hereThe permit leaves less than this set would draw, and that is a legal limit.

ActionReleaseChange the planHold the water

What the score decidesConfidence decides how hard the manager checks the probe, not what the permit leaves.

Value

Where AI adds value

The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.

Where the value landsValue 01 – 04

Every field and zoneFrom the probes, the station and the forecast

03Limits & headroom

Apply the limits that govern it

Use the allocation balance, the permit terms, any live restriction, the re-entry intervals and the farm's own field record.

01Approved path

Plan the week before the pump starts

Demand, set times, capacity, tariff windows and headroom are worked out while the schedule can still be changed, not after the water is on the ground.

02Human review

Put the water decision to a person

A short allocation, a restriction that moved or a probe that has stopped agreeing with the field reaches the manager while the set can still be held.

04Build an evidence trail

Retain the readings, the ET and forecast used, the headroom at the time, what actually ran, the meter reading and what the manager decided — on both paths.

Integrations

Typical integrations

Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.

Farm records & fieldsOperations Center · FieldView
Trimble Ag · field and crop records

Sensors & weatherSoil-moisture probes · in-field stations
Reference ET · forecast feeds

Control & pumpsPivot controllers · valve control
Pump and VFD telemetry · flow meters

Agent

Irrigation planning & scheduling

Reads the field
Plans the sets
Reconciles the meter

Water & energy accountsAllocation balances · permit terms
District orders · tariff windows

Observability & evaluationOpenTelemetry · 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 pump

Each control wraps the one inside it. A set clears every layer before water moves, and the allocation sits outside all six.

L6 · Outermost — last line of defenceInward → L1 · closest to the model

L6Rollback / safe modeReturn scheduling to the irrigator if sensors, feeds or evaluations degrade.Roll back

L5TraceabilityRecord the readings, the limits, what ran, the meter and the decision.Record

L4Signed envelopeUnattended running is confined to the named zones, volume cap and stop time.Gate

L3Interval holdA set is held where a re-entry interval or an injection rule applies.Hold

L2Limit gateAllocation headroom, permit terms and any live restriction bound the plan.Bound

L1Demand checkCrop stage, root-zone moisture and forecast are read before a set is drawn.Check

Model coreSchedule proposed — set times, zone order, volumes, the readings behind them and confidence

L1 – L2Decide how much water the plan may draw

L3Decides whether a set may open at all

L4 – L5Bound unattended running and keep the record

L6Pulls automation back when signals degrade

How Nestack evaluates it

Evaluate the water that reached the field — not only the schedule.

Coverage runs the whole depth of the workflow, and every layer is cut by slice.

Surface — the schedule the irrigator opens

Depth of coverage ▼

E1Final-output evaluationDid the water applied match what the plan and the field called for?

E2Step-level evaluationDid it read the right probes, ET figures, crop stage and headroom?

E3Tool evaluationDid the valve, pump and meter it addressed actually respond?

E4Limit-response latencyHow fast did a changed restriction or a short allocation stop a set?

E5Slice evaluationHow does schedule error change across soils, zones and field types?

E6Business outcomeHow much water went on off-plan, and what did a person have to undo?

Floor — the water that reaches the field

Failure modes

Where each failure originates in the agent

Seven failure modes plotted against the five stages of the agent lifecycle.

Agent lifecycleDirection of processing →

01 · Sensing / retrieval2 modes

IR-01

Probe drifted or badly placed

It reads wet while the root zone is dry.

IR-02

Curtailment read too late

A restriction issued mid-season is not picked up.

Stage gathersSoil moisture, weather, meter totals and restriction status

02 · Scheduling2 modes

IR-03

Headroom overstated

The plan draws more than the permit leaves.

IR-04

Skipped on rain that missed

The forecast event does not arrive and the crop goes short.

Stage plansSet times, zone order and the capacity they fit inside

03 · Limit gate1 mode

IR-05

Injection into a live interval

Fertigation starts while a re-entry interval still applies.

Stage holdsHeadroom, restrictions and intervals before a set opens

04 · Run / control1 mode

IR-06

Set that ran only on paper

A valve or pump did not run but the record says it did.

Stage runsOnly inside the signed zones, volume cap and stop time

05 · Reconciliation1 mode

IR-07

Meter never reconciled

Reported use drifts away from the metered total.

Stage reconcilesApplied against planned against the meter total

Sev-1 · water runs where it may not Sev-2 · the field or the record is wrong Sev-3 · the plan degrades, more to review

See the complete Agriculture failure-mode catalogue →

Affected slices

Schedule error concentrates where one probe speaks for the most ground

A schedule-error rate that reads acceptably across the farm can sit almost entirely in the fields where one probe stands in for several soils. Nestack reports performance by slice, not only in total.

Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example

Slice	Failure rate	Lift	Status
Coarse sands, one probe	5.6%	3.3×	Review
Fertigation and effluent sets	4.4%	2.6×	Review
Tail-end zones, low pressure	3.2%	1.9×	Watch
Uniform silt-loam pivots	1.7%	1.0×	Normal

Bar: schedule-error rate lift vs. silt-loam pivot baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold 2 of 4 slices over threshold

Evidence-linked improvement

Water on the ground cannot be pulled back out

A set that ran wrong is closed out in the field first — hold the programme, tell whoever must be told, correct the record — then in the agent.

Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn

01Detect

Field by field, applied-versus-planned gaps, headroom errors and stop latency are watched.

02Diagnose

A probe, the ET figure, the headroom read, an envelope rule or the controller is named as the cause.

03Improve

An envelope change is a farm decision — signed, dated and version-linked before a set runs on it.

04Verify

The schedule is rebuilt for seasons already irrigated and compared against the meter.

05Learn

The set becomes a fixed test, and what the envelope missed is added to the pre-run checks.

Learn → DetectThe return edge. A wider unattended envelope is a farm decision — it is signed before the next season, not inferred from a season that went well.

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, scheduling logic, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.

Workstream Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6

01Workflow discovery and automation-boundary definition.

02Water rights, allocation and permit-term mapping.

03Field, soil, crop and system-capacity inventory.

04Sensor, weather and reference-ET source assessment.

05Crop water demand and schedule logic.

06Zone order, set times, pump and tariff constraints.

07Headroom, restriction and re-entry gating.

08Unattended envelope, volume cap and stop rules.

09Sensor-health and reconciliation evaluation.

10Controller, valve and pump integration.

11Meter reconciliation and use-record drafting.

12Observability, deployment and Agent Care handover.

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 field group ProductionProduction controller integration AdvancedMulti-source / district scale

Introduced at Pilot

Schedule building from moisture and weather✓✓✓

Crop water demand and growth-stage tracking✓✓✓

Allocation headroom and permit-term tracking✓✓✓

Water decision left with a named person✓✓✓

Baseline evaluation✓✓✓

Introduced at Production

Restriction and curtailment watch—✓✓

Pre-authorised unattended running, capped and stopped—✓✓

Meter reconciliation and use-record drafting—✓✓

Observability and evaluation—✓✓

Introduced at Advanced

Multi-source allocation and permit portfolios——✓

Districts, contractors and enterprise controls——✓

Build price From $5,000 From $8,000 Custom quote

Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on water sources and permit terms, sensor and controller integrations, field and zone count, reporting requirements, approval controls and deployment requirements.

Separate from buildBuild 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 bringWe build with it

01Your water rights, allocations and permit terms → Water rights, allocation and permit-term mappingWeek 1

02Field boundaries, soils, crops and system capacity → Field, soil, crop and system-capacity inventoryWeek 1

03Your probes and stations, and where each one actually sits → Sensor and weather source assessment, and sensor-health checksWeek 2

04The envelope you are willing to sign for unattended running → Unattended envelope, volume cap and stop rulesWeek 4

05Seasons that went wrong — short crops, breaches, wasted sets → Evaluation suite, regression cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4

06Meter access and the readings you reported last season → Meter reconciliation and use-record draftingWeek 5

07A named irrigation manager and an agronomist to review → Review workflow, then supervised sets and validationWeeks 5–6

Nothing else is required Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.

Delivery timeline

Four phases across six weeks

Phases are drawn over the weeks they actually occupy. Week 5 carries both the first supervised sets and the meter readings they are checked against.

Phase W1W2W3W4W5W6

Discovery W1

Build W2 – W3

Evaluate W4 – W5

Pilot & Launch W5 – W6

Week focus W1Water rights, allocations and the automation boundary W2Sensors, weather sources and the first field group W3Demand, set times, zone order and pump and tariff limits W4Limit gating, envelope rules and sensor-health testing W5Controller integration, meter reconciliation and supervised sets W6Sets run inside the signed envelope, then Agent Care starts

Reading the bandThe unattended envelope is written and tested in week 4, before a set runs on its own in week 5. Nothing moves water unsupervised until it has.

At the end of W6Schedules have run alongside your existing practice, been read by the manager who releases water, and reconciled against the meter, then Agent Care takes over monitoring.

DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.

Next step · Agriculture AI agent

Build an irrigation agent around your allocation, not around a forecast.

Show us a season of schedules, your allocation and permit terms, and the meter readings you reported against them. We'll set the caps with you — zones, volume, a stop time — and run a past season against them before anything is left unattended.

Discuss this agent →

Nestack Agents · Irrigation planning & schedulingAGT-AGR-06 · Agent Care available after launch