| name | hr-payroll-weapon |
| description | HR + payroll + EOR decision specialist for early-stage to growth-stage software companies. Owns domestic payroll platform selection (Gusto, Rippling, Justworks), international contractor management and EOR (Deel, Remote.com, Oyster, Rippling Global), the W-2/1099/EOR/PEO classification matrix, equity admin handoff (Carta), and benefits brokerage. Invoke when the user says "Gusto vs Rippling", "set up payroll", "EOR for international hire", "contractor vs employee", "W-2 or 1099?", "Deel vs Remote", "set up Justworks", "benefits for my startup", or "equity admin and payroll". Do NOT invoke for general HRIS/performance tools (Lattice, Culture Amp), recruiting/ATS platforms, immigration/visa law, or accounting software beyond the payroll integration surface (db-guardian owns HR data schema). |
hr-payroll Weapon
Procedural arsenal for hr-payroll-guardian, the Legion AI Army's HR infrastructure and payroll decision specialist. This Weapon encodes the five core decision moments a software startup encounters in its people-ops lifecycle, grounded in 2026-current research.
Routing table — which guide handles which request
| Situation | Primary guide |
|---|
| "Should I use Gusto or Rippling?" | guides/01-platform-selection.md |
| "Is this person W-2, 1099, or should I use an EOR?" | guides/02-classification-matrix.md |
| "How do I hire someone in Germany / UK / Brazil?" | guides/03-international-eor.md |
| "Which benefits package should we offer?" | guides/04-benefits-brokerage.md |
| "When do I connect Carta to our payroll?" | guides/05-carta-handoff.md |
| "What compliance traps should I know about?" | guides/06-compliance-hotspots.md |
| "We're moving from Gusto to Rippling" | guides/07-migration-playbook.md |
The four hard rules
These are non-negotiable. Every recommendation must honor them, regardless of which guide is being applied.
-
Classify before recommending. Worker engagement model first; platform second. Recommending Gusto to a company that needs EOR for 5 international employees wastes months of implementation work.
-
Size the company every time. Headcount (current + 12-month projection), US states with employees, countries with workers, funding stage, and equity maturity are all inputs to the recommendation. Do not skip this step.
-
Surface misclassification risk explicitly. 1099-vs-W-2 misclassification is a multi-year IRS and DOL liability — up to 3 years of back taxes for negligent misclassification, 6 years for intentional. This must appear prominently, not as a footnote.
-
Hold the legal-advice fence. The Angel provides decision frameworks and flags risk; it does not provide legal opinions. "Consult an employment attorney" and "consult a CPA" are mandatory at AB5/DOL analysis branch points and at any tax-consequence decision.
Research foundation
This Weapon was built from 13 external source notes in research/external/ covering all major platform comparison surfaces, EOR pricing intelligence, worker classification law, and 2026 regulatory changes. Key data points:
- Domestic payroll pricing (2026): Gusto Simple ~$40-$49 + $6-12/employee; Rippling ~$8 base + modules, typical $20-$30 total/employee; Justworks ~$59-$99/employee (PEO, health benefits bundled); Paychex Flex — enterprise custom pricing.
- EOR pricing (2026): Deel ~$599/employee/month; Remote.com ~$599/employee/month; Oyster ~$499 Essentials / $599 standard; Rippling Global — custom.
- Contractor management: Deel ~$49/contractor/month; Remote.com ~$29/contractor/month; Oyster ~$29/contractor/month.
- Classification risk: IRS 3-category common law test (behavioral control, financial control, type of relationship) is the federal baseline; California ABC test (AB5) applies for CA workers; Germany introduced a €50,000 penalty for misclassification in 2025.
- 2026 regulatory: EU Platform Work Directive (December 2, 2026 deadline), Germany €50k penalty, Minnesota PFML launching 2026, FLSA salary threshold restored to $35,568 after court ruling.
Open questions from research (weapon-forge flagged; verify before recommending):
- Gusto Simple base: $40 (Eagle Rock CFO) vs $49 (StackFYI) — verify at gusto.com/pricing
- Rippling modular total cost: $20-$30/employee estimate — Rippling requires demo for exact pricing
- Deel-Carta integration: Carta does NOT list Deel as a direct integration partner — verify before finalizing
guides/05-carta-handoff.md
- 3 new PFML states in 2026 (Minnesota confirmed; identify 2 others)
- Oyster Essentials $499 vs $599 — verify at oysterhr.com/pricing
When this weapon applies
Load this weapon when hr-payroll-guardian is invoked. Typical triggers:
- "Gusto vs Rippling — which should we use?"
- "We just hired our first employee in Canada — how do we pay them?"
- "Is my freelancer a 1099 contractor or should they be W-2?"
- "We need to hire someone in Germany — EOR or our own entity?"
- "We just closed Series A — do we need Justworks for benefits?"
- "Should I set up Carta before or after payroll?"
- "What are our multi-state payroll compliance obligations?"
- "We're moving from Gusto to Rippling — what's the process?"
- "We have 3 US W-2 employees and 8 international contractors — what platform covers both?"
Do NOT load for:
- Performance management, OKRs, 1:1s (no peer Angel covers this yet; defer to library-guardian)
- Recruiting, ATS platforms, offer letters (future talent-guardian)
- Immigration / work visa strategy (flag to consult immigration attorney)
- Accounting software selection beyond payroll integration (future finance-guardian)
- SSO/identity provisioning for the payroll platform (auth-guardian)
- HR data schema design for custom tables (db-guardian)
- Contractor invoice payment flows (payments-guardian)
Folder layout
hr-payroll-weapon/
+- SKILL.md (this file — master index)
+- guides/
| +- 00-principles.md (scope boundary, four hard rules, misclassification escalation)
| +- 01-platform-selection.md (domestic payroll decision tree: Gusto/Rippling/Justworks/Paychex)
| +- 02-classification-matrix.md (W-2 vs 1099 vs EOR vs PEO decision matrix)
| +- 03-international-eor.md (EOR platform selection: Deel/Remote/Oyster/Rippling Global)
| +- 04-benefits-brokerage.md (startup benefits: Gusto/Rippling Benefits, ICHRA/QSEHRA, brokered)
| +- 05-carta-handoff.md (equity admin integration timing and Carta connection)
| +- 06-compliance-hotspots.md (multi-state nexus, AB5, FLSA, PFML, EU/UK EOR changes)
| +- 07-migration-playbook.md (moving between providers: Gusto→Rippling, 1099→EOR)
+- examples/
| +- seed-startup-domestic.md (3-person seed startup hiring first W-2 employee)
| +- series-a-global-team.md (15-person US team + 3 international contractors: Gusto+Deel vs Rippling Global)
| +- contractor-reclassification.md (1099 contractor → W-2 employee reclassification walkthrough)
+- templates/
| +- decision-memo.md (structured output template for platform/EOR recommendations)
| +- audit-checklist.md (compliance audit checklist for existing payroll setup)
| +- classification-worksheet.md (worker classification worksheet using IRS 3-category test)
+- reports/
| +- README.md (what past audit reports look like; accumulates over time)
+- research/
+- research-plan.md (scripture-historian: queries, budget, time window)
+- research-summary.md (executive summary: top 5 sources, 5 open questions)
+- index.md (manifest of all source files)
+- internal/ (command brief reference)
+- external/ (13 dated source notes — see index.md)
Cross-Angel handoffs
| Situation | Route to |
|---|
| SSO/SCIM provisioning for payroll platform | auth-guardian |
| HR database schema design (custom tables) | db-guardian |
| PRD authorship for people-ops features | library-guardian |
| SSN/PII exposure in payroll API integrations | security-guardian |
| Contractor invoice payment and AP flows | payments-guardian |
| Company formation before setting up payroll | incorporation-startup-stack-guardian |
| Immigration / visa strategy | "Consult an immigration attorney" (outside Army scope) |
Refresh cadence
- Pricing tables: verify annually or when a major platform announces pricing changes (Gusto and Rippling both made changes in 2025; Deel/Remote/Oyster pricing is semi-annual).
- Regulatory content: re-run
scripture-historian at shallow tier after any major IRS, DOL, or NLRB rulemaking; after each California AB5 amendment; or when a new PFML state program launches.
- EOR guide: refresh after any major EU, UK, Germany, or LATAM regulatory change. The EU Platform Work Directive (December 2026 deadline) will require a 2027 refresh.
- FLSA salary threshold: verify at dol.gov after any federal court ruling or DOL rulemaking.
Forged by weapon-forge from hr-payroll-guardian-command-brief.md and research/. Part of the Legion AI Tools Factory by Mario Aldayuz a.k.a @thenotoriousllama.
