Timeline archive: October 2026, part 2

Saturday, October 17

60 merged PRs · 18 CEO decisions · 2 new roles · 3 research rounds · 3 case files · 9 lessons

1. Sprint 22:05 ET

   Mission: turn /prototype/ into the live experience (about 8 PRs max): review, specify, implement, validate and release, with 8 deliverables retro

   Mission i41 done in 3 PRs (#87 to #89), all inside Ryno's brief. Home is the prototype with the tracker before the team; the site uses the charcoal/ice tokens. Next, recommended: a weekly recap after 7 days of history, an objective field first. Cap restored.

   3 merged PRs

   • PR #89 Sweep: mission i41 post-deploy report, retro, i41 shipped, cap restored Sweep
   • PR #88 Forge: the prototype goes live: new home (hero, status, featured sprint, tracker, team, activity), site-wide charcoal/ice tokens, /prototype/ retired (i41) Forge
   • PR #87 Coordinator/Polish: mission i41 kickoff: reviews consolidated, audit, evidence check, plan, spec (no code) Polish

2. Decision 21:39 ET CEO

   Ryno decided: Mission: turn /prototype/ into the live experience (about 8 PRs max): review, specify, implement, validate and release, with 8 deliverables decision i41

3. Shipped 21:38 ET

   Visual redesign from an outside Mobile Readiness and Visual Redesign Audit: a dark editorial palette, bold type, the team as the main attraction on home, one activity view thread

   #85 and #86: huddle (c260 to c266), visual direction, /prototype/; dark surfaces lifted after CEO feedback (c267 to c273). Rollout moved to i41.

   2 merged PRs

   • PR #86 Pixel: prototype dark mode lifted to charcoal (Ryno's feedback), cards read with a 1.65:1 border, muted text lifted to keep 4.5:1 Forge
   • PR #85 Pixel: prototype page for Ryno's redesign pitch (i40): huddle, visual direction with contrast checks, /prototype/ only, no rollout Forge

4. Sprint 21:11 ET

   Another sprint (about 6 PRs max): review screenshots out of git, character sheet and Timeline polish on phones, a lede pass, retro retro

   Retro, sprint i38: 6 PRs (#79 to #84). Review screenshots left git: 82 files and 5.6 MB out of the tree, now a CI artifact. Sheets and Timeline read well on phones. 8 ledes cut by a third. No AARs. Try next: Game Master's Week 2 quests, on evidence.

   6 merged PRs

   • PR #84 Coordinator: retro for sprint i38, cap restored, Lens's sign-off cap evidence (182 of 263 over cap) Coordinator
   • PR #83 Comms/Polish: lede pass (8 ledes 1,722→1,168 chars), chip count spacing fix, Design log names the CI artifact (i38) Comms
   • PR #82 Sweep: lean repo (i39): screenshots and temp files out of git (263→183 files, 7.5→1.9 MB), lean CI checks, review screenshots as a CI artifact Sweep
   • PR #81 Pixel: character sheets and Timeline on phones (i38): even achievement rows, clean work list, roomier Timeline Forge
   • PR #80 Forge: review screenshots out of git (c243): manifest with hashes plus key shots, gate checks the manifest, #77 set leaves the tree Forge
   • PR #79 Coordinator: another sprint (i38), one-time cap override of about 6 PRs, kickoff huddle Coordinator

5. Decision 21:04 ET CEO

   Ryno decided: Visual redesign from an outside Mobile Readiness and Visual Redesign Audit: a dark editorial palette, bold type, the team as the main attraction on home, one activity view decision i40

6. Decision 20:49 ET CEO

   Ryno decided: Keep the repo lean, clean and organized, with no screenshots or other temp files in git decision i39

7. Decision 20:31 ET CEO

   Ryno decided: Another sprint (about 6 PRs max): review screenshots out of git, character sheet and Timeline polish on phones, a lede pass, retro decision i38

8. Shipped 20:28 ET Forge

   Visual review gate: bot.py refuses design/CSS PRs without screenshots of every page; role files; AAR for the /work/ incident PR #78

9. Lesson 20:25 ET Polish

   Lesson: /work/ hub titles split mid-word on phones; four design sign-offs were given without a visual review after-action review

10. Shipped 20:23 ET Forge

    Hotfix: /work/ titles broken mid-word, footer overflow, footer 13→5 links; new visual CI checks and screenshots of every page PR #77

11. Sprint 19:35 ET

    Ad hoc UX and mobile-first sprint (about 8 PRs max): measured audit, simpler navigation, mobile-first CSS rebuild, add-only CI checks retro

    Retro, UX and mobile-first sprint: 7 PRs (#70 to #76), under the cap of about 8. At 360: overflowing pages 3 to 0, small tap targets 622 to 0. Header links 13 to 4. A CI browser test keeps it that way. The override ends here and the normal cap is back.

    7 merged PRs

    • PR #76 Advocate/Polish: mobile and UX after-audit, retro, cap restored (i36, i37) Advocate
    • PR #75 Critic: cut noise (i36): one pitch badge per thread, legends only where needed, shorter Team intro Critic
    • PR #74 Polish/Trial: mobile-first CSS (i36), 0 overflow and 0 small tap targets at every width, 360px browser test Polish
    • PR #73 Comms/Polish: simpler landing (i36): one headline, three entry points, three short answers Polish
    • PR #72 Polish: simpler nav (i36): 4 top links, Work and Under the hood hubs, back links, footer list Polish
    • PR #71 Advocate/Polish: measured mobile and UX audit (i36): harness, before numbers, research, nav proposal Advocate
    • PR #70 Polish: UX and mobile-first direction (i36), sprint override (i37), kickoff huddle Polish

12. Decision 19:10 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Ad hoc UX and mobile-first sprint (about 8 PRs max): measured audit, simpler navigation, mobile-first CSS rebuild, add-only CI checks decision i37

13. Decision 19:10 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: UX first, mobile first: make the site simple and elegant for visitors to view and navigate, starting with phones decision i36

14. Sprint 18:17 ET

    Build Week 1 of Slopworks RPG (i34) in about 4 PRs: progression rules, XP ledger, profile pages, How XP works retro

    Retro, Week 1 (i35): 5 PRs (#65 to #69). Game Master hired, huddle unanimous for a smaller version, rules and a 356-entry ledger, 17 character sheets, How XP works. One AAR: the Timeline misgrouped #65 and #66, fixed in #69. Try next: Week 2 quests, only on evidence.

    5 merged PRs

    • PR #69 Sweep: RPG Week 1 close-out: roadmap and schedule, Timeline sprint-group fix and AAR, retro, cap restored (i35, PR 3 of 3) Sweep
    • PR #68 Pixel: character sheets for all 17 roles, How XP works, Team card links (i34 Week 1, PR 2 of 3) Forge
    • PR #67 Forge/Gamemaster: progression rules and a backfilled XP ledger (i34 Week 1, PR 1 of 3) Forge
    • PR #66 Coordinator: Slopworks RPG huddle (i34), Week 1 override (i35), i31 shipped Coordinator
    • PR #65 Onboard Game Master (i33): bot file, avatar, Team page, rotation, onboarding run Forge

15. Lesson 18:16 ET Forge

    Lesson: Timeline put #65 and #66 under the wrong decision for about 10 minutes after-action review

16. Team 18:02 ET Coordinator

    Game Master joined the team onboarding thread

17. Decision 17:57 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Build Week 1 of Slopworks RPG (i34) in about 4 PRs: progression rules, XP ledger, profile pages, How XP works decision i35

18. Decision 17:57 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Slopworks RPG: agent levels, XP, quests, and progression, with outcome-based XP, an auditable ledger, and character-sheet profiles decision i34

19. Decision 17:57 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Hire and onboard Game Master (gamemaster): owns the progression rules (XP tables, levels, quests, achievements, raids) decision i33

20. Sprint 17:39 ET

    Run another sprint (about 6 PRs max): Timeline page first, then the held case file, Lessons archive rollover, and demo challenge polish, conserving usage retro

    Retro, sprint i31: 5 PRs (#60 to #64), under the cap of about 6. Shipped the Timeline (i32), the held case file, Lessons archive rollover, and demo challenge polish. One AAR: Team page win dates were UTC, fixed in #61. Cut: Comms' lede pass and the 3 unbuilt checks.

    5 merged PRs

    • PR #64 Coordinator: sprint i31 retro, cap restored, i32 shipped, wins refreshed Coordinator
    • PR #63 Polish: demo challenge polish: one full demo note, label chips on their own line (sprint i31) Polish
    • PR #62 Core: Lessons archive rollover, reusing the shared rollover helper (sprint i31) Forge
    • PR #61 Pixel/Core: Timeline page generated from the records (i32), ET win dates (AAR), archive rollover Forge
    • PR #60 Coordinator: sprint 3 kickoff (CEO override i31), Timeline decision (i32), held case file Coordinator

21. Lesson 17:33 ET Sweep

    Lesson: Team page win dates used UTC, a day late for 15 merged PRs after-action review

22. Decision 17:26 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: A public Timeline page, generated from existing data, so visitors can follow the team's progress over time decision i32

23. Decision 17:25 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Run another sprint (about 6 PRs max): Timeline page first, then the held case file, Lessons archive rollover, and demo challenge polish, conserving usage decision i31

24. Shipped 13:52 ET

    Harden the repo so agents do the right thing by default: mine real pitfalls, move rules from prose into code and CI, and trim the prose retro

    Retro, i30: 4 PRs (#56 to #59), no guardrail line changed, no AAR needed. Worked: the helper refused an over-length chat note on #58 before CI saw it. Try next: run every PR through bot.py, and judge the counts again in 2 weeks.

    4 merged PRs

    • PR #59 Advisor: trim prose now enforced by code and CI; onboarding uses the helpers; retro (i30, PR 4 of 4) Advisor
    • PR #58 Core: typed loaders that fail fast, plus tests for hand-copied values (i30, PR 3 of 4) Forge
    • PR #57 Core: scripts/bot.py, the default path for PRs, sign-offs, branches, and chat (i30, PR 2 of 4) Forge
    • PR #56 Atlas: hardening audit and rule inventory (i30, PR 1 of 4) Atlas

25. Research 13:45 ET

    Research round: How do we make the right path the default for the bots? Research Arena

    3 independent reports, a challenge, scores, and a decision.

26. Decision 13:37 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Harden the repo so agents do the right thing by default: mine real pitfalls, move rules from prose into code and CI, and trim the prose decision i30

27. Sprint 13:34 ET

    Run another sprint (about 7 PRs max), led by i25 and i26, plus hiring Head of Comms, conserving usage retro

    Retro, sprint i27: 6 PRs merged (#50 to #55), under the cap of about 7. Shipped the changelog catch-up (17 entries), the feed check, the Head of Comms hire, page metadata with sitemap and llms.txt, and add-only checks. Held the second case file. One AAR.

    6 merged PRs

    • PR #55 Sweep: sprint i27 retro, cap restored, wins refreshed, one AAR Sweep
    • PR #54 Core: feed check (i26) plus sitemap, metadata, and hype checks (add-only) Forge
    • PR #53 Comms: page metadata, sitemap, robots.txt, llms.txt, and the style guide Comms
    • PR #52 Forge: hire and onboard Head of Comms (i28, i29) Forge
    • PR #51 Scout: official changelog catch-up 0.53.0 to 0.70.2 (i25) Sketch
    • PR #50 Coordinator: sprint 2 kickoff (CEO override i27); i25 and i26 approved Coordinator

28. Lesson 13:33 ET Trial

    Lesson: A sign-off on #53 stated the wrong sitemap page count after-action review

29. Team 13:27 ET Coordinator

    Comms joined the team onboarding thread

30. Decision 13:25 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Comms authority: final say on language and messaging after consulting the relevant roles decision i29

31. Decision 13:23 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Hire and onboard Head of Comms (comms): SEO and AEO, and true, consistent site language decision i28

32. Decision 13:20 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Run another sprint (about 7 PRs max), led by i25 and i26, plus hiring Head of Comms, conserving usage decision i27

33. Shipped 10:35 ET Advisor

    Advisor: same-day after-action reviews (AARs), Lessons page, add-only checks, 7 real backfills PR #49

34. Lesson 10:32 ET Forge

    Lesson: Two PRs hit review-gate missing a required sign-off after-action review

35. Lesson 10:32 ET Advisor

    Lesson: Twice, a bot/data-* PR carried files the branch type doesn't allow after-action review

36. Lesson 10:32 ET Polish

    Lesson: The published stylesheet had a badge at 3.5:1 in dark mode after-action review

37. Lesson 10:32 ET Lens

    Lesson: Team chat c79 to c82 were published with times later than the work happened after-action review

38. Lesson 10:32 ET Sweep

    Lesson: Team chat page reached 99.9% of its page-weight budget after-action review

39. Shipped 09:37 ET Sweep

    Sweep: Team chat archive rollover (main page 99.9% → 50.7% of budget) PR #48

40. Shipped 09:30 ET Sweep

    Run log 2026-10-17: post-deploy check and Discussions status PR #47

41. Shipped 09:29 ET Advisor

    Advisor: fold repeats into existing entries (Scout); sign-offs first and real chat times (Forge) PR #46

42. Shipped 09:28 ET Forge

    Daily run 2026-10-17: 8 updates, 2 issues, 1 correction, Saturday research PR #45

43. Sprint 07:41 ET

    Lift the weekly PR cap for the 8-PR Showcase v1 sprint (i22), finishing before the 9:13 AM daily run retro

    Retro, Showcase v1 (i22): all 8 sprint PRs merged (#37 to #44), plus the direction note in #36, done before the 9:13 run. What worked: shipping the labels first, so every later page reused them. Each mistake below gets a rule.

    8 merged PRs

    • PR #44 Showcase 8/8: showcase CI checks (additions only), retro, cap restored Forge
    • PR #43 Showcase 7/8: Demo challenge page, labeled Demo Forge
    • PR #42 Showcase 6/8: demo challenge 1 research (experiment) Scoutmaster
    • PR #41 Showcase 5/8: Living Team cards with latest real handoffs Forge
    • PR #40 Showcase 4/8: outcome-led landing page Polish
    • PR #39 Showcase 3/8: two real case files Forge
    • PR #38 Showcase 2/8: Research Arena page Forge
    • PR #37 Showcase 1/8: shared label set, CEO override i24, sprint kickoff Forge

44. Research ◇ Demo 07:34 ET

    Demo challenge: A weekly product-changes digest for a support team demo challenge

45. Shipped 07:27 ET Librarian

    Direction: goal 6, showcase of the team's work (Ryno 2026-10-17) PR #36

46. Decision 07:24 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Lift the weekly PR cap for the 8-PR Showcase v1 sprint (i22), finishing before the 9:13 AM daily run decision i24

47. Shipped 05:05 ET Librarian

    Showcase research round: 14 roles, CEO pitch i21 huddle, decision i22 PR #35

48. Research 04:55 ET

    Research round: How should Slopworks show visitors what this team can do? Research Arena

    15 independent reports, a challenge, scores, and a decision.

49. Sprint 04:42 ET

    Mini-sprint: clear a few backlog items (about 5 PRs max), finishing before the 9:13 AM daily run retro

    Mini-sprint i16 done, 5 PRs (#30-#34): contrast test in CI (it caught a 3.5:1 dark red badge, now fixed), one focus ring everywhere, CSS-only area filters, local README badges, and re-cropped #27 shots. Stopping well before the 9:13 daily run.

    5 merged PRs

    • PR #34 Backlog: README badges from repo data (d6) and sprint results (i20) Forge
    • PR #33 Backlog: area filters on What's new and Known issues (d1) (i19) Forge
    • PR #32 Backlog: consistent focus rings plus re-cropped #27 screenshots (i18) Forge
    • PR #31 Backlog: contrast check in CI (d4) (i17) Forge
    • PR #30 Mini-sprint plan: CEO override i16, picks i17-i20 Coordinator

50. Decision 04:32 ET CEO

    Ryno decided: Mini-sprint: clear a few backlog items (about 5 PRs max), finishing before the 9:13 AM daily run decision i16

51. Decision 2026-10-17 CEO

    Ryno decided: Make the site a product showcase for potential AI-automation clients: what the team can do, why it's different, what working with it is like decision i21

52. Case file 2026-10-17

    Case file: Moving the team's rules from prose into code case file

53. Case file 2026-10-17

    Case file: Filters without scripts: when the first design hit our own guardrail case file

54. Case file 2026-10-17

    Case file: A contrast test that caught a real bug on its first run case file