Before the rope or the ladder: the site file a window cleaning firm keeps.

Before a window cleaning firm sends anyone up a commercial building, it should be able to lay hands on its risk assessment, a method statement for higher-risk methods such as rope access, a rescue plan, inspection records for its own equipment and, where the building's own anchor points are used, information about them that only the building's side can supply. Under OSHA's rope descent rule in the United States, that last item is a written statement from the building owner, and the employer may not let any employee use an anchorage until it has one.

A Site File Bot, built to Aevrion's pattern, keeps a checklist per site, reads the dates the owner enters, drafts the request when a document is missing and flags anything out of date before the booked day. It never decides that an anchor, a ladder or a method is safe. That is for the competent person, and the access method is the owner's choice.

OSHA's general industry standard, 29 CFR 1910.27, as checked on 16 October 2026, deals with rope descent systems in paragraph (b). Before any such system is used, the building owner must inform the employer in writing that each anchorage has been identified, tested and maintained, with certification by a qualified person, and is capable of supporting at least five thousand pounds in any direction for each worker attached. The information must rest on an annual inspection by a qualified person and on certification of each anchorage as necessary and at least every ten years. The employer must not let any employee use an anchorage before that written information is in hand, and keeps it for the length of the job.

The same paragraph sets conditions on the work itself, which belong in the firm's method statement rather than in any assistant's judgment. Section 1910.28 adds that a worker on a rope descent system four feet or more above a lower level is protected by a personal fall arrest system.

• HEIGHT

  No rope descent system above three hundred feet above grade unless the employer shows other access is not feasible or would be more hazardous.

• INSPECTION

  The system is inspected at the start of each work shift in which it is used, and damaged equipment is removed from service straight away.

• A SECOND LINE

  Each worker uses a separate, independent personal fall arrest system.

• RESCUE

  Prompt rescue is provided for each worker in the event of a fall.

• WEATHER

  No one uses the system in hazardous weather, such as storms or gusty or excessive wind.

• DROPPED TOOLS

  Tools, squeegees and buckets are secured with a tool lanyard or similar so they cannot fall.

The American rule is written as duties on the employer and the building owner. That is federal OSHA's rule; a state with its own OSHA-approved state plan, such as California under Cal/OSHA, applies its plan. OSHA's own overview of the agency lists the self-employed among those the OSH Act does not cover. A one-person firm with no employees should therefore confirm with OSHA, its state plan or a qualified adviser how the rule bears on its work, rather than assume either way. Ladders used in general industry come under 1910.23, and work that counts as construction under a separate standard, 1926.1053, which the gutter company overview on this site covers.

HSE's pages, read the same day, put it differently for Great Britain. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to employers and to anyone who controls work at height, and HSE names facilities managers and building owners who contract others as examples. HSE's window cleaning page adds that health and safety law also applies to self-employed window cleaners whose work exposes others to risk.

HSE's guidance on window cleaning sets an order. The first question is whether height can be avoided where that is reasonably practicable, by water-fed poles or by cleaning from inside; then whether a safe place already exists, such as a balcony; then which access equipment suits the job; and only then fall arrest. Ladders are not ruled out, but they are not meant to be the default either.

Four further expectations from the same page give the file its shape. Rescue procedures must be in place before work starts, and relying on the emergency services alone is not acceptable. Anchor points used for fall arrest need periodic inspection and testing by a competent person. Access equipment, anchorages included, must be maintained, regularly inspected and, where LOLER applies, thoroughly examined. And higher-risk work such as rope access or powered access needs a safe working method statement that the operatives understand, with that understanding checked.

For ladders, HSE's ladder guidance separates two kinds of check. The pre-use check each working day does not need recording. Detailed visual inspections, which are the employer's responsibility, are done at fixed intervals and recorded, and it is that record the file holds.

Aevrion's design keeps one checklist per commercial site in the firm's own records, never in a Bot's memory. Every document on it was written, received or entered by a person; the Bot holds the dates and the gaps.

Based on the Grok Bot documentation at docs.x.ai as checked on 15 October 2026. The trade examples are Aevrion's illustrations, not documented Grok Bot use cases. Aevrion Ops is an independent consultancy. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of xAI, SpaceXSI or Cursor. Grok Bot is named here only to describe it.

The Site File Bot's main job runs as a routine, which the documentation describes as a Bot running a workflow on a schedule. Each Monday it reads the commercial bookings for the coming weeks from the firm's job software, through a custom integration that the job software's vendor permits and that has passed testing, or from a list the owner saves to the shared workspace. For each booking it opens the site's checklist and writes one line per gap: missing, out of date, or due to run out before the job.

Where the gap belongs to the building, such as the anchorage letter, the Bot drafts a request to the managing agent or owner as an editable email draft, which the firm's owner sends or discards. It records the date the owner says the request went out, so the next Monday's run can say how long the letter has been awaited.

By design the routine only reads and drafts, so it never raises an approval, and a Monday with no gap list is the owner's cue to open the routine's run history.

When the owner saves the building's letter to the site's folder, the next Monday run marks it received and copies its dates into the checklist. It does not mark it acceptable. Whether the letter says what the rule requires, whether the anchors match the building the crew will be on, and whether the job goes ahead are for the owner and a qualified or competent person.

The same goes for the day itself. The routine can note the forecast the owner asked it to read, but whether wind or rain stops a descent is decided on site under the firm's own procedure. And because every Bot on the account shares one computer and its sign-ins, logins for a client's facilities portal stay with the owner.

The readiness assessment on this site is free to use, asks for no sign-up and scores one workflow on twelve fixed dimensions, giving one of four results at once along with the blockers and a next step. Score the check the firm runs before a commercial job starts. If no one has been given the job of reading anchorage letters, ownership clarity will be low and will cap the result; if the documents live in a van, a phone and an inbox, data availability will show it.

Once the file has an owner and a home, Aevrion Ops can help design the checklist, the Monday routine and the request drafts, and test them against the firm's own bookings before they are relied on.

1. Under OSHA's rope descent rule, the building owner must tell the employer in writing about each anchorage before any descent, and the employer keeps it for the job.
2. HSE expects height to be avoided where reasonably practicable, rescue planned before work, and anchor points inspected and tested by a competent person.
3. A Site File Bot keeps one checklist per building, drafts requests for missing documents and flags dates that run out before the booked day.
4. Received is not accepted: the Bot logs a letter's dates but never judges an anchor, a ladder, the weather or the method.
5. The American rule is framed around employers and the British guidance also reaches the self-employed, so a sole trader confirms how their own country's rule applies.