Inventory Obsolescence Analyst
Finds the stock that will never sell, while it is still worth something
- 8hard rules
- Things it must never do, enforced in every run
- 5handover rules
- Conditions where it stops and gives the work to a person
- 12output fields
- A structured result, not a paragraph you have to re-read
- ≤6steps per run
- Bounded work: at most 4 tool calls, enforced by the runtime
Read-only by design. This agent has no path to sending, spending, publishing or committing anything. Where that limit is the product, removing it would remove the reason to trust the output.
Overview
Every business holding inventory has stock that will never sell at full price, and almost none know which items or how much. The balance sheet says the stock is worth what it cost and nothing in the accounting system ever disagrees — an item that has not moved in two years carries the same value on paper as one that sells weekly.
The cost is not only capital tied up. It is space, insurance, counting, and the fact that every month of delay reduces what the stock can still be sold for. Clearance value decays: the decision to clear is worth most on the day an item stops moving and least on the day somebody finally notices.
What makes this hard is that the raw signal misleads in both directions. A slow-moving item can be a critical spare that must be held. A fast mover can be about to die because the product it serves was discontinued. A seasonal item looks dead for nine months of every year.
This agent separates genuinely dead stock from stock that is slow for a reason, prices the decay so delay has a number attached, and reports what clearing now releases against clearing in six months. It writes nothing down and discounts nothing — a write-down is an accounting judgement and a clearance price is a commercial one.
Benefits
Capital released while it is still there
The value of clearing decays every month you wait.
Space back
Which is usually the constraint nobody costs.
No accidental clearance of a critical spare
Which a movement report alone would recommend.
What it does
Separates dead from slow-for-a-reason
A critical spare and a discontinued line both move slowly. Only one of them is a problem.
Handles seasonality properly
A seasonal item looks dead for nine months a year. Judged against its own season, not the calendar.
Prices the delay
What the stock is worth now against six months from now. Clearance value decays, and that decay is the argument.
Finds fast movers about to die
Stock for a product that was discontinued still sells — until it does not, very suddenly.
Reports what clearing releases
Capital, space and carrying cost together, so the decision has a full number behind it.
Writes nothing down
A write-down is an accounting judgement and a clearance price is a commercial one. Both belong to people.
What this changes
What this changes about your week
- It takes over
- Working out which stock will never sell, and what waiting costs.
- Done today by
- Nobody, until a stock count or a year-end provision forces it.
- How often
- Annually, which is far too late.
- Typical manual effort
- Every line needs movement history read against seasonality and spare-part flags.
Why Retail in particular. The balance sheet values two-year-old stock the same as stock that sells weekly. Clearance value decays every month, so the decision is worth most the day an item stops moving and least the day someone notices.
Runs unattended
Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.
The same standard every time
The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.
It cannot act on its own
Inventory Obsolescence Analyst has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.
How it runs
This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.
- 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
- 2Modelclaude-sonnet-5 with automatic fallback
- 3Toolsextract_structured_data
- 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
- 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
- 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded
Demo
Demo dataIllustrative sample output, abridged.
Input
{
"items": [],
"asAtDate": "2026-09-02",
"currency": "USD",
"delayPeriodMonths": 6,
"carryingCostPercent": 22
}Output
{
"escalate": true,
"deadStock": [
{
"sku": "SKU-4471",
"decayBasis": "Estimated from your own clearance outcomes on comparable items over the last three years. An estimate, not a measurement.",
"valueAtCost": 84000,
"spaceReleased": 41,
"recoverableNow": 21000,
"monthsSinceLastSale": 26,
"recoverableAfterDelay": 12600
}
],
"disclaimer": "An analysis of your own stock and movement records. Nothing has been written down, revalued, discounted or disposed of, no clearance price is recommended, this is not accounting advice on provisioning, and recoverable values are estimates.",
"assumptions": [
"Recoverable values are estimated from your own past clearance outcomes and are not measured.",
"Carrying cost applied at the 22% rate you supplied."
],
"totalExposure": 412000,
"slowForAReason": [
"SKU-2210 has not moved in 20 months and is flagged as a required spare. Excluded from clearance entirely — a movement report alone would have recommended selling it."
],
"seasonalNotDead": [
"SKU-6690 shows no sales for 8 months, which is its normal pattern. It sells its whole year in Q4 and is not dead."
],
"escalationReason": "Total exposure is 412,000, above the threshold, and stock classified as dead is still on order.",
"releasedIfCleared": {
"space": 214,
"capital": 118000,
"annualCarryingCost": 90640
},
"classificationRule": "No sale in 18 months, tested against two years of history for seasonality, excluding flagged spares and committed stock.",
"stillBeingPurchased": [
"SKU-4471 has 12,000 on order despite 26 months without a sale. Worth stopping before anything else in this report."
],
"atRiskFromDiscontinuation": [
"SKU-5512 is still selling steadily, but its parent product was discontinued in June. There is 14 months of cover on hand and that demand will stop abruptly."
]
}Requirements
Integrations
No integrations required.
Before you start
- Stock on hand with cost, and where held
- Movement history, ideally two years
- Any flags for spares, safety stock or committed inventory
- Carrying cost rate, where you have one
- Requires the All-Access plan or higher
Use cases
Before a stock count
What you are about to spend a weekend counting.
Year-end provisioning
The evidence for a provision, prepared rather than estimated.
A space or cash squeeze
The fastest release ranked by value.
After discontinuing a product
What its stock is now worth, and for how long.
Pricing
All-Access
Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.
Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits
FAQ
Will it discount or write off stock?
No. A write-down is an accounting judgement with audit consequences, and a clearance price is a commercial decision with brand consequences. It gives you the position and the cost of waiting.
How does it avoid clearing critical spares?
Where you mark an item as a required spare or safety stock, it is reported separately and never appears in the clearance list. Where you do not mark it, it says the flag was missing rather than assuming.
Does it need sales history?
Yes — without movement history there is no analysis. Two years is ideal because it lets seasonality be tested; with less it says which conclusions the history cannot support.
Reviews
Reviews open once customers have run this agent.
Need this agent to work differently?
Tell us what to change and our team will scope a customised version for your business.
Customize this agent