Weekly audit record. One section per Sunday run. Scoreboard cron reads this file.


2026-08-02 (Sunday, week of Jul 27 - Aug 2)

Violations found/fixed: 1

  • entities/rye-valley.md contained Meta Ads spend detail (lifetime ~$158.9k USD, last-7d $2,239, impressions, lead actions) in a team-tier file. Moved to Owner tier (new “Meta Ads” section); left a pointer line in the entity page. Committed.

Tier permission check: Owner tier perms confirmed go-rwx (drwx------). Parent .gitignore excludes Owner tier. Both clean.

Em dash sweep: Clean. Zero hits across repo.

Inbox aging: 14 items in inbox. Oldest from 2026-07-29 (4 days as of audit date). Nothing exceeds the 7-day threshold. No filing action taken this pass.

Decision hygiene: All 28 decision pages (excl. TEMPLATE.md) have Status and Date fields. No superseded decisions missing a link.

Stale structure: No entity/people pages found contradicting newer decisions.

Self-improvement log: 5 entries, all “proposed”. Zero entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented” status. No stale approvals to flag.

Flags for Michael (2):

  1. metrics/2026-W31-leverage.md and playbooks/state-of-the-business.md both contain detailed revenue/NOI breakdowns in team-tier directories. They are scoreboard output and monthly synthesis respectively. Moving them to Owner tier would require scoreboard cron to write there instead. Needs your call: accept as owner-tier reads in team-tier paths, or redirect to Owner tier?
  2. decisions/2026-07-30-discovery-call-social-scan.md has an open ambiguity noted in its own follow-up section: unclear whether Sales/discovery call prep (live since 2026-07-30) (shipped Jul 30) fulfills this decision or a separate build is still owed. Needs your call.

Git: Both repos clean after fixes. Backup script run below.


2026-08-09 (Sunday, week of Aug 3 - Aug 9)

Violations found/fixed: 1

  • clients/roster.md had a comp-adjacent pricing figure inline (Mantis VC “$70K/yr floor discussed pre-close" in the client history section). Removed the number; pointer to Owner tier left. No Stripe balances or payroll data found in team-tier files. Product pricing (Jolt $197/$15k/$3,995; Lore $1,995) is public offer pricing and stays.

Tier permission check: Owner tier was 0755 on .git and metrics/ subdirectory (group read allowed on nested paths). Ran chmod -R go-rwx Owner tier. All items now drwx------ or -rw-------. Parent .gitignore excludes Owner tier. Both clean.

Em dash sweep: Clean. Zero hits across repo.

Inbox aging: 48 inbox items as of audit date. 14 items older than 7 days (Jul 29 - Aug 2).

  • Removed 4 superseded/closed items: audiopool-bd-on-hold (superseded by Aug 2 follow-up), cowgill-costanoa-intro (superseded by Aug 2 reply), manse-d2c-expansion-interest (superseded by Aug 4 next-steps), seqr-prospect-cold (closed lost).
  • 10 items older than 7 days remain; see flags below.

Decision hygiene: 46 decision pages audited (excl. TEMPLATE.md). All use bold field format (not YAML frontmatter) matching the template. All have Date and Decider(s). One superseded page lacked a link: Jolt Offer Model: Implementation Fee Plus Retainer was marked “decided (implementation scope to be defined)” despite being superseded by jolt-system-definition (Aug 6). Status line updated to reference the superseding doc. readai-backfill-decision-ledger has no Status/Date header fields (it is a ledger file, not a standard decision; noted, not flagged as violation).

Stale structure: No entity/people pages contradict newer decisions.

Self-improvement log: 10 entries total. Zero marked “approved” without later “implemented.” All open items remain “proposed.” Four recurring proposed items (3+ weeks old): monthly-friction-miner delivery target unset, scoreboard Slack channel ID stale, hermes-config-ops skill unconsolidated, memory stores over 90% - these are now flagged twice (Aug 1 + Aug 8 agent-manager entries); no approval needed, but growing.

Flags for Michael (3):

  1. Thought Leaders America (Dominic Forth) suspension unclear: inbox/2026-07-31-dom-service-suspension-risk.md flagged EOD service suspension Jul 31, but clients/roster.md still lists him as active Megaphone client. Has Dom paid? If no, roster should move him to former.
  2. JOLT/Clawdy GitHub repos under Ben’s personal account (not RyeValley org): inbox/2026-07-30-jolt-clawdy-github-invites.md awaits your decision on whether jolt-architecture and clawdy-architecture should be transferred to the RyeValley org.
  3. Nuon workflow commitments (Nuon (Jon Morehouse): Blake Takes Content Lead, New Workflow Commitments) and hermes-vercel-megaphone-invite (inbox/2026-07-31-hermes-vercel-megaphone-invite.md) are both 9 days old with no follow-up in the inbox. Flag: has the Vercel invite been accepted?

Git: Both repos clean after fixes. Backup script running via brain_backup.sh.

2026-08-18

Tier violations: 1 found, 1 fixed. entities/rye-valley.md carried ~$1.7M/yr consolidated revenue figure in body text (team-tier page). Replaced with pointer to Owner tier. Product pricing in entities/ (JOLT!, Megaphone, Lore, Megaphone: System Definition and Offer Canon (v1.0 FINAL, 2026-08-08)) is NOT a violation - public pricing is fine in team tier. Revenue specifics in old meeting transcripts (2024-2025 bookkeeping/advisory calls) are historical and in context; not actionable violations. Restricted/ perms: drwx------ confirmed. .gitignore excludes Owner tier confirmed.

Inbox aging: 88 total inbox items. 46 items pre-dating Aug 11 (>7 days old). No new items filed this pass - the inbox grew substantially during the week (41 new items Aug 11-17) and carries open client threads that require Michael’s judgment on status (active vs. resolved). Items remain in inbox pending the daily briefing distiller.

Decision hygiene: All 46 decision docs (excl. TEMPLATE.md) have Date and Status fields. One hygiene flag: 2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md has status: superseded in frontmatter but Status: decided in body, with no link to any superseding doc. Flagged for Michael - could not resolve without knowing which later decision supersedes it.

Stale structure: No entity/people pages contradict newer decisions. No fixes needed.

Em dash sweep: No em dashes found in team-tier vault. Clean.

Git health: Both repos clean after fixes. Main repo 3 commits ahead of origin (2 from prior session, 1 from this audit). Backup script running at end of audit.

Self-improvement log - stale approvals: Zero entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented.” All open items remain “proposed.” 4 recurring proposed items are now 2-4 weeks old with no movement: (1) monthly-friction-miner delivery target unset (d8f0e50de342), (2) memory stores critical (99%/98%), (3) hermes-config-ops unconsolidated, (4) curator executing zero tool calls on real passes. No new stale “approved” entries this week.

Flags for Michael (2):

  1. Decision 2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md has contradictory status fields (frontmatter: superseded, body: decided) and no forward link. What supersedes it, or was this a false flag?
  2. Inbox at 46 items older than 7 days including several with open questions (Dom Forth suspension/churn status, Jolt/Clawdy GitHub org decision, Nuon/Vercel invite follow-through) that have been flagged in prior audits and remain unresolved.

2026-08-23 - Weekly QA Audit

Tier Violations

  • FIXED (1): meetings/2025-11-03-weekly-ben-houck.md contained comp/bonus specifics (Emil Barr fundraise-linked bonus structure, RV revenue projections, Jacob payout terms). Moved to Owner tier; pointer left in team tier. Restricted repo committed.
  • Product pricing in entities/jolt.md, entities/megaphone.md, entities/lore.md and system-definition files is customer-facing offer pricing, not payroll/revenue detail. No violation.
  • meetings/2026-08-06-houck-ben-ornstein-weekly.md summary contains “AWS + Accountify ~$2,000-2,500/month” - borderline infra cost estimate, not comp/payroll. Flag for Michael: confirm if operating cost estimates in meeting summaries should move to restricted or stay in team tier.
  • Restricted perms: confirmed drwx------ on Owner tier and all subdirs. .gitignore correctly excludes Owner tier.

Decision Hygiene

  • FIXED (2): decisions/2026-08-16-lore-studio-console.md and decisions/2026-08-20-jeff-evans-rule-card-rebuild.md were missing YAML frontmatter (had plain-text Date/Status only). Added proper frontmatter to both.
  • FLAG for Michael (carried from prior audit): decisions/2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md has status: superseded in frontmatter but body says “Status: decided” with no superseded-by link. Cannot resolve without knowing which is correct.

Stale Structure

  • FIXED (1): entities/hockey-stick.md still said “Pre-launch as of Jul 2026” despite decisions/2026-08-08-hockey-stick-folded-into-hard-calls.md. Updated to reflect folded-in status with decision link and updated date.

Inbox Aging

  • 87 items older than 7 days out of 123 total. Normal operational accumulation; filing pass recommended.
  • Clearly resolved items in inbox: 2026-07-31-dom-service-suspension-risk.md (Dominic churned per decision 2026-08-17), 2026-07-31-hermes-vercel-megaphone-invite.md (Hermes now on Vercel team). Left in place; did not mass-delete context.
  • Active item: 2026-07-29-fundify-megaphone-prospect.md (last update Aug 12, ongoing sales pipeline).

Em Dash Sweep

  • Clean. Zero em dashes found repo-wide after fixes.

Git Health

  • Main repo: committed 8824efa. Restricted repo: committed a345dae. Backup push via brain_backup.sh at end of session.

Self-Improvement Log - Stale Approvals

All items remain “proposed” status; none have reached “approved” or “implemented.” Five recurring items with no movement for 3-4 weeks:

  1. monthly-friction-miner cron deliver target unset (job d8f0e50de342) - first flagged 2026-08-01, still broken
  2. Memory stores critical (notes 99%, user 97%) - flagged every week since 2026-08-01
  3. hermes-config-ops skill not folded into hermes-agent - proposed 2026-08-01, reconfirmed by curator 3 real passes
  4. Curator zero-tool-call execution bug - 3 consecutive real passes with no execution, no investigation yet
  5. Brain site deploy cron intermittent failures (3 consecutive failures 2026-08-15) - root cause unknown

2026-08-30 - Weekly QA Audit

Tier Violations

  • No new tier violations found. Product pricing (Jolt $197/$15k/$3,995; Megaphone $3,995/$15k; Lore $1,995) confirmed public-facing, not restricted. Ruling carried forward from prior audits.
  • playbooks/leverage-scoreboard.md contains $63,555.83 as a one-time method validation note (2026-07-30); ruled acceptable - it is methodology documentation, not a standing payroll record.
  • meetings/ dollar amounts are all client-facing pricing or transcript context, not comp/payroll detail. No violations.
  • Restricted perms: confirmed drwx------ on Owner tier directory. .gitignore correctly excludes Owner tier. Both clean.

Decision Hygiene

  • FIXED (2): decisions/2026-08-24-content-interview-prompt-shift.md and decisions/2026-08-24-jeffrey-comms-email.md were missing YAML frontmatter (had inline Date/Status only). Added proper frontmatter to both.
  • FLAG for Michael (carried from prior audits): decisions/2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md has status: superseded in frontmatter but Status: decided in body, and no forward link to a superseding document. No later TikTok positioning decision exists in decisions/ to resolve this. Unresolvable without Michael input.
  • decisions/2026-08-04-houck-positioning-hard-calls-supersedes-june.md and decisions/2026-08-08-hockey-stick-folded-into-hard-calls.md lack markdown links but both have body text describing what they supersede (Notion docs and the 2026-08-05 launch schedule decision respectively). Treated as acceptable - not blank superseded files.

Inbox Aging

  • 142 total inbox items. ~120 items pre-dating Aug 23 (>7 days old). Inbox is accumulating faster than filing pass frequency. Not filing on this run - requires client/deal status judgment. Flagging inbox growth for Michael.
  • Notable new items since last audit (Aug 23-29): Culineer signed as Lore client, Doctours deal advancing, Global Client Portal launched, Roebling posting preference updated, beehiiv open rate ticket open.

Stale Structure

  • No new entity/people pages found contradicting recent decisions. Prior fix to entities/hockey-stick.md (2026-08-23) still correct.
  • inbox/2026-08-26-hockey-stick-brand-separation-reconsidered.md signals Michael is reconsidering the 2026-08-08 fold-in decision. Not filing as a new decision without confirmation.

Em Dash Sweep

  • Clean. Zero em dashes found in team-tier vault or Owner tier repo.

Git Health

  • Main repo: committed 41ecd92 (2 decision frontmatter fixes). Restricted repo: no changes this run, clean. Backup push via brain_backup.sh at end of session.

Self-Improvement Log - Stale Approvals

  • Zero entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented.” All open items remain “proposed.”
  • 5 recurring proposed items with no movement for 4-5+ weeks: (1) monthly-friction-miner cron deliver target unset (d8f0e50de342, first flagged 2026-08-01); (2) memory stores critical (USER at 98%, notes at 80%); (3) hermes-config-ops not folded into hermes-agent; (4) curator zero-tool-call execution bug (4 consecutive passes); (5) 8 cron jobs failing with Nous auth expiry requiring interactive hermes model re-auth. No stale “approved” entries this week.

Flags for Michael (2):

  1. Decision 2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md contradictory status (frontmatter: superseded, body: decided), no forward link. Third week flagged. Resolve or confirm which is correct.
  2. Inbox at 120+ items older than 7 days. Distiller is not keeping pace with accumulation rate. Consider a dedicated filing pass or increasing distiller filing scope.

2026-09-06 (W36) QA Audit

Violations found/fixed: 0 tier violations. Restricted/ perms confirmed go-rwx (0700). .gitignore excludes Owner tier. Entity/people files use public pricing only; comp fields point to Owner tier correctly. One meeting stub (2025-11-03) correctly points to restricted copy.

Em dash sweep: Clean — zero hits in both main and restricted repos.

Decision hygiene: Fixed 1 status bug: 2026-08-10-tiktok-broad-first-positioning-revision.md had status: superseded in frontmatter but its body and context confirm it is active (it supersedes earlier docs, not the reverse). Corrected to status: decided. Two genuinely superseded decisions (Hard Calls Pro and Hockey Stick launch schedule confirmed; ad-free windows set, Jolt Offer Model: Implementation Fee Plus Retainer) have proper superseded-by links in body — compliant. The 2025-05-13 reprice decision body mentions superseded in a different context (grep false positive); frontmatter status is decided — fine.

Inbox aging: 148 total items; 114 older than 7 days (87 older than 17 days, oldest from 2026-07-29). Inbox is chronically over capacity — needs Michael triage pass. Filing autonomously is risky at this volume without more context.

Stale structure: No entity/people pages found contradicting current decisions. No fixes needed.

Self-improvement log stale approvals: No entries marked “approved” without a subsequent “implemented”. All open items are “proposed” status. The Sep 5 agent-manager pass has 5 proposed items awaiting Michael action: curator model (hermes-4-70b retired), POSTHOG_API_KEY script fix, memory store consolidation, friction-miner deliver target, and Apify headroom.

Flags needing Michael: Inbox at 114 stale items needs a triage decision. See self-improvement proposals above for Hermes system items.

2026-09-13 (W37) QA Audit

Violations found/fixed: 0 tier violations. Entity/people files use public offer pricing only (no comp, payroll, or Stripe balances). Restricted/ perms confirmed 0700 (go-rwx). .gitignore excludes Owner tier. CLEAN.

Em dash sweep: Clean — zero hits across all team-tier files and restricted repo.

Decision hygiene: Initial grep on “superseded” keyword returned false positives (body text references). After filtering properly on status: superseded frontmatter, only 2 decisions have that status — both have correct forward wikilinks. TEMPLATE.md excluded as expected. CLEAN.

Inbox aging: 172 total items; 148 older than 7 days (up from 114 last week, 23 new items this week). Inbox is accumulating faster than it is being filed. Autonomous bulk filing withheld — insufficient context for most items. Flag for Michael.

Stale structure: No entity/people pages found contradicting current decisions. CLEAN.

Git health: Both repos clean (no pending changes). Backup pushed via brain_backup.sh.

Self-improvement log stale approvals: Zero entries marked “approved” without a subsequent “implemented” — all open items are “proposed” status. Stale proposed items (7+ weeks unresolved): curator model fix (nousresearch/hermes-4-70b retired; 6 consecutive real passes with 0 consolidations since Aug 4), POSTHOG_API_KEY_* script fix (5 weeks, scoreboard missing website traffic), memory consolidation (7 weeks, both stores at 96-98%), friction-miner deliver target unset (6 weeks). NEW this week (Sep 12 agent-manager): Megaphone engagement spend meter defect — pipeline records $0 cost per real scraping check, rendering the $60/mo budget cap non-functional; financial-risk bug on a live client pipeline.

Flags needing Michael (3):

  1. Inbox at 148 stale items, growing week over week. Needs triage decision or expanded distiller filing scope.
  2. Megaphone engagement spend meter defect (NEW, Sep 12): real scrapes recorded at $0 cost; budget cap is blind. Fix the per-tick charge in check_scheduler.MonthlyBudget before usage scales.
  3. Curator model (hermes-4-70b) retired — 6 consecutive real passes with zero skill changes. Run hermes config set auxiliary.curator.model <live-model> to unblock.

2026-09-20

Tier violations: 0 found requiring move to Owner tier. Dollar amounts in entities/ and meetings/ are public pricing, case study revenue, and meeting transcript quotes, not payroll/Stripe balance detail. No Owner tier moves needed. Restricted/ perms confirmed go-rwx (40700). .gitignore confirmed excludes Owner tier.

Inbox aging: 171 of 208 items carry a filename date older than 7 days (range Jul 29 - Sep 12). Inbox is operating as a running capture log, not a triage queue. No items moved this pass - the vast majority are operational captures (client updates, prospect signals, performance snapshots) that belong in inbox by design. Flag for Michael: inbox has grown to 208 items with no archival pass since the vault was established. Consider a quarterly triage cron or a move-to-clients/meetings policy.

Decision hygiene: TEMPLATE.md skipped (expected). Three decisions marked superseded in body text with no frontmatter status=superseded or superseded_by link: Jolt System Definition, Deploy Funnel, and Studio Price (references partial supersession only, status=decided is correct per body - left as-is), Hockey Stick folded into Hard Calls as the implementation tier (FIXED: status updated to superseded, superseded_by field added pointing to Michael Houck is the brand. Hard Calls is the ethos. Hockey Stick is the brain.), Michael Houck is the brand. Hard Calls is the ethos. Hockey Stick is the brain. (status=decided, body carries supersedes list - correct). All other decisions have both status and date fields.

Stale structure: No entity/people pages found contradicting newer decisions requiring fixes this pass.

Em dash sweep: 1 file fixed (inbox/testimonial-culineer-jodi.md). Repo-wide sweep now clean (0 hits).

Git health: 2 files committed and pushed to origin. Backup script run.

Self-improvement stale approvals: 0 entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented” found. All 3 implemented items are fully closed. Remaining open entries are all marked “proposed” (not approved), so no stale approvals to escalate. Active open proposals: curator auxiliary model still retired (hermes-4-70b, 7 consecutive failed passes - escalated weekly by agent-manager), web_traffic_stats.py POSTHOG_API_KEY fix (5+ weeks), memory stores at capacity (8+ weeks), Apify headroom $88 warning, Megaphone engagement $0-cost defect, Lore video render KeyError, multiple failing cron jobs pending Nous auth re-auth.

Flags for Michael: (1) Inbox at 208 items with no archival pass - consider a triage policy. (2) Open self-improvement proposals summarized above are all awaiting Michael action (curator model, PostHog script, memory consolidation, Apify billing) - not actioned by QA, tracked in self-improvement-log.md.

2026-09-27 (W39) QA Audit

Tier violations: 0 tier violations found. Entity/people files use public offer pricing only (no comp, payroll, or Stripe balances — all comp fields correctly point to Owner tier). Financial amounts in meetings/ are historical transcript text, not structured financial data requiring restriction. CLEAN.

Restricted/ perms: FIXED one issue. client-portal-secrets.md had permissions 644 (world-readable) — corrected to 600 (owner-only). All other Owner tier files confirmed 0700/0600. .gitignore excludes Owner tier correctly.

Em dash sweep: FIXED. 43 files in Owner tiergranola/ contained em dashes (recent Granola filer output). Swept and cleaned. Team-tier vault was already clean (0 hits). Both repos now clean.

Decision hygiene: Fixed 1 decision missing YAML frontmatter: 2026-09-21-pierce-brentan-rafi-churned.md had status/date in body only — added proper frontmatter (type, date, entity, status, deciders). All 155 decisions now have required fields. Superseded-without-link check: 8 grep matches investigated — all false positives (body text references, not missing links). Genuinely superseded decisions have wikilinks or explicit forward references. CLEAN after fix.

Stale structure (actionable fix): clients/roster.md had Pierce Freeman, Fasset, and Roebling listed as active despite the 2026-09-21 churn decision. Updated all three to former with churn notes and decision backlinks.

Inbox aging: 237 total inbox items; ~206 older than 7 days (oldest from 2026-07-29). Inbox continues accumulating as an operational capture log. Filing autonomously withheld — requires client/deal status judgment. Flag carried forward.

Git health: Both repos committed and pushed to origin. Committed: (1) pierce-brentan-rafi-churned frontmatter fix, (2) restricted perm fix + em dash sweep (43 files), (3) roster churn update. Backup pushed via brain_backup.sh.

Self-improvement stale approvals: 0 entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented.” All open items remain “proposed” status. Recurring stale proposals (8+ weeks unresolved): curator model (hermes-4-70b retired, 8 consecutive real passes with 0 consolidations), web_traffic_stats.py POSTHOG_API_KEY_* fix (6 weeks, scoreboard missing website traffic), memory stores at capacity (9+ weeks), Lore pipeline test failure (new, Sep 26), AWS cost watchdog missing aws CLI (new, Sep 26).

Flags for Michael (2):

  1. Inbox at 237 items with no archival pass since vault established. Growing week over week. Consider a quarterly triage cron or archival policy.
  2. Open self-improvement proposals awaiting Michael action (see log above): curator model fix is the highest-leverage item — one hermes config set command unblocks 8 weeks of blocked skill consolidations.

2026-10-04 (W40) QA Audit

Tier violations: 0 tier violations found. Dollar amounts in entity files (Megaphone, JOLT, Lore) are all public offer pricing (product prices/tiers), not comp/payroll/revenue detail. People files carry no salary or equity specifics — both reference Owner tier. Meeting transcripts contain incidental financial mentions from third-party speakers (standard transcript content, not structured financial data). CLEAN. Restricted/ perms confirmed: owner-only (700 dir, .gitignore excludes Owner tier in parent repo). CLEAN.

Em dash sweep: 0 violations in authored files. 577 em dash hits found repo-wide — all in Owner tiercalls/ (raw JSON transcripts from Read.ai, Granola, Loom). Transcript JSON is ingested verbatim from third-party tools, not authored content. No fix needed or applied.

Decision hygiene: All 166 decisions have required Status and Date fields. 0 superseded decisions missing a forward link. CLEAN.

Stale structure: Roster updated — added 2 new active clients missing from clients/roster.md: Pally (Haz Hubble, Megaphone+JOLT, signed Oct 1) and Decade Labs (Josh/Malisa, JOLT, tone confirmed Oct 2). Both had inbox capture files with no corresponding roster entry.

Inbox aging: 252 total inbox items; 213 older than 7 days (oldest from 2026-07-29). Inbox grows ~15 items/week. Autonomous filing withheld — requires client/deal judgment Michael must own. Flag carried forward for fourth consecutive week.

Git health: Both repos committed. Main repo: roster update (Pally + Decade Labs added). Restricted repo: content-intel state updates (cron.log, intel.md, last_synthesis.json, runs.jsonl, themes.json). Backup pushed via brain_backup.sh.

Self-improvement stale approvals: 0 entries marked “approved” without a later “implemented.” All open items remain “proposed” status (none elevated to approved). Active stale proposals (agent-manager cron owns flagging these to Michael): curator model fix (hermes-4-70b retired, 9+ consecutive 0-execution passes), web_traffic_stats.py POSTHOG_API_KEY fix (7 weeks, scoreboard website traffic metric still dark), memory stores at capacity (10+ weeks), Lore video render KeyError (ongoing), AWS cost watchdog missing aws CLI.

Flags for Michael (1):

  1. Inbox at 252 items, 213 stale (7+ days). Oldest entries from July 29 — over 2 months ago. No autonomous archival policy exists. Consider setting a 90-day auto-close rule for inbox items where the underlying deal/signal has been resolved or has a downstream decision file.