Iteration 29 ship log

2026-05-10 · continued autonomous /loop

Date: 2026-05-10 (continued autonomous /loop)

What shipped

This iteration found and fixed a real conversion-killer bug, then ensured the fix survives future regenerations.

Bug caught + fixed: hardcoded ICP on every unlock page

Discovered: All 188 unlock pages were showing the same hardcoded "Director of Revenue Operations at a B2B SaaS in the $5M-$50M ARR band..." teaser regardless of which product was being unlocked. A buyer comparing /unlock/bookkeeper-ai/ vs /unlock/discovery-call-ai/ saw identical "Locked: full schema" content. That's a credibility-destroying signal: it screams template-not-real.

Fixed: Added _extract_dossier_preview(slug) helper to regen-unlock-pages.py. Reads the private full.md for that product, pulls section 3 (named ICP) and section 5 (what it does) first paragraphs, em-dash-strips, html-escapes, falls back to friendly text if missing. Patched the locked teaser to render real per-product content.

Verified across 4 products:

• bookkeeper-ai: "Denise Rourke, Owner/Lead Bookkeeper at Rourke Books LLC..." + "Every month you spend hours writing the same close reports..."
• discovery-call-ai: "Marcus Delaney, VP of Sales at Fieldwork (B2B SaaS, 95 employees)..." + "Your reps are losing deals not in the close, but in the discovery call..."
• account-based-sales-ai: "Dave Kowalczyk, VP of Sales at Patchwork (162-person workforce-tech SaaS)..." + "Your reps are running account-based plays with no real system..."
• inventory-ai: "Marcus Delgado, Director of Operations at Trailhaus Gear..." + "Every week your ops team is manually reconciling stock..."

A buyer comparing 3 ideas now sees 3 distinct, credible teasers, not template-cookie-cutter content.

Wired post-regen injector hook

Discovered that the unlock regen wipes the iter 27 objection handler block (which is injected after generation, not part of the generator). Future cron-driven regenerations would have left a 60-min gap with no objection handler.

Fixed: Added a post-regen subprocess hook to regen-unlock-pages.py that calls objection-handler-injector.py immediately after writing pages. Tested: regen now writes pages → injects objections automatically. No race condition with cron.

Em-dash discipline

The preview extractor proactively strips em/en dashes from upstream dossier content during extraction. Verified 0 em-dashes on all 192 unlock pages.

Files changed inventory

Modified

• /home/ubuntu/factory/director/regen-unlock-pages.py:
• Added _extract_dossier_preview(slug) helper
• Replaced hardcoded "Director of Revenue Operations" block with per-product icp_html + what_html
• Added post-regen subprocess call to objection-handler-injector.py
• 192 /srv/sites/factory/unlock/<slug>/index.html (re-rendered with per-product previews + objection handler re-injected)

All .bak backups preserved.

Why this matters

This was the single highest-impact bug in the buyer-path funnel. The unlock page is where someone decides whether to spend $5. Showing them an obviously-fake template ICP on every product was actively harmful.

Now the unlock page reads as: "Here's the named buyer this dossier is about, here's what the product does in their words, here's a blur veil over the rest. Pay $5 to read it." That's the credible version.

Combined with iter 27's objection handler and iter 28's trust-signal block on builds pages, the funnel is now:

1. Builds page: trust signals (Adoptability, Fermi math, named axes)
2. Unlock page top: per-product preview with real ICP + what-it-does + blur veil
3. Unlock page mid: objection handler with product-specific concerns
4. Unlock page CTA: clear $5 unlock vs $99 adopt vs operator partnership

Status snapshot

• 192 products in catalog
• 0 em-dashes shipped this session
• Director watchdog alive
• ~103 cron entries
• Health 53/53 (verified post-regen)

What still needs work

Same Wes-side as before:

1. Stripe wiring (30 min)
2. Email-send for auto-fulfill
3. First real traffic push

Next 5 recommended autonomous tasks

1. Same-bug-class audit - check other generator-injector pairs for the same regen-wipes-injection issue (trust-signal, utility-bar, hero-insight, pricing-band, etc.). If any are wiped by regenerators, wire post-regen hooks like iter 29.
2. Hero-polish second pass - Claude CLI on the bottom-50 Adoptability landing pages.
3. Per-product /how-it-works/ page - surface implementation_plan + tech_stack as a public sub-page.
4. More audience pages - "AI ideas under 30 days to launch", "AI ideas under $5k to launch".
5. Newsletter signup confirmation - when someone subscribes via /fresh/, route to a thank-you page that recommends 3 ideas.

Cumulative iter 1-29

The Wishdeal Factory buyer path is now genuinely tight. From "curious" → "$5 decision" the buyer:

• Browses 192 ideas with audio + filters + audience presets
• Clicks into a product → sees brand identity, trust signals (Adoptability, Fermi math, axes)
• Clicks unlock → sees REAL per-product ICP + what-it-does + objection handler addressing concerns about THIS product
• Sees the price ladder ($5 unlock → $99 adopt → operator partnership)
• 0 em-dashes anywhere I've shipped

What's unique vs typical AI-idea catalogs: the honest disclosures, the per-product preview content, the dossier methodology page, the changelog showing real iteration. Together these read as a real operator's product, not template slop.