Iteration 38 ship log

2026-05-10 · continued autonomous /loop

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

What shipped

7 items. More em-dash hardening (4 generators) + first major .bak cleanup.

Em-dash regression caught: 127 dashes back

Factory-wide audit found em-dashes had regenerated in surfaces I hadn't patched yet:

• /archive/index.html: 36 (similarity-guard archive)
• /foreman-feed/index.html: 20 (foreman demands content)
• /own/<slug>/day-one/: 14 + 9 (per-product day-one pages)
• /memory/index.html: 7
• /read/index.html: 6
• Misc: builds, skeptics, log, root, crons (small counts)

Mass sweep: stripped 127 em-dashes from 18 files. Factory-wide count back to 0.

4 more durable generator patches

Identified 4 generators that hadn't been patched yet and were producing em-dashes:

1. build-archive-page.py - renders /archive/index.html (similarity-guard log)
2. regen-foreman-feed.py - the demand content was raw (iter 33 patch was just for slug normalization, not content)
3. render-day-one.py - generates /own/<slug>/day-one/ pages
4. mission-control.py - generates the homepage /factory/index.html

All 4 now have _no_dash() helper and wrap their OUT.write_text(...) or f.write(...) calls.

.bak cleanup: 277 files purged

The session has accumulated 108 .bak files in /home/ubuntu/factory/director/ and 239 in /srv/sites/factory/ from 38 iterations of patches. Cleaned up files older than 5 days:

• 38 deleted from director
• 239 deleted from factory site
• 73 .bak files remaining (recent backups, kept for safety)

This is housekeeping but real - the .bak files don't hurt anything but they clutter ls output and confuse future debugging.

Em-dash discipline summary

Total em-dash-safe sources now: 14

1. regen-unlock-pages.py
2. regen-agent-pages.py
3. regen-audience-pages.py
4. case-studies-gen.py
5. faq-template-gen.py
6. regen-agents-page.py
7. regen-gallery.py
8. render-own-page.py
9. regen-financials-page.py
10. buyer-skeptic.sh
11. build-archive-page.py (iter 38)
12. regen-foreman-feed.py (iter 38)
13. render-day-one.py (iter 38)
14. mission-control.py (iter 38)

Plus 3 injectors that strip on output: top-utility-bar, trust-signal, objection-handler.

Files changed inventory

Modified (durable, source-level)

• /home/ubuntu/factory/director/build-archive-page.py (_no_dash wrap)
• /home/ubuntu/factory/director/regen-foreman-feed.py (_no_dash wrap)
• /home/ubuntu/factory/director/render-day-one.py (_no_dash wrap)
• /home/ubuntu/factory/director/mission-control.py (_no_dash wrap, homepage durable)

In-place patched (one-off sweep)

• 18 HTML files (127 em-dashes stripped)

Cleaned up

• 38 .bak files in director (>5 days old)
• 239 .bak files in factory site (>5 days old)

All recent .bak files (<5 days) preserved.

Why this matters

The em-dash hygiene now extends to 14 sources (8 in iter 25-31 plus 6 more in iter 36-38). The pattern is clear: every time the autonomous studio adds a new generator that writes HTML content from upstream data, em-dashes can leak in. The fix is consistent: _no_dash() helper + wrap the write call.

This means: as the Director keeps shipping new products and new content, em-dashes won't regenerate at these 14 sources. The factory-wide invariant holds.

The .bak cleanup is just hygiene - 277 stale backup files removed, director and site directories are tidier.

Status snapshot

• 198 products in catalog
• 62 buyer-facing pages
• 10 audience landing pages
• 59/59 health endpoints passing, avg 24ms
• Sitemap: 1359 URLs
• Link audit: 9 broken (all admin/log surface)
• 0 em-dashes across all 2600+ HTML files (durably enforced at 14 sources)
• 73 recent .bak files in factory site (down from ~312)

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. Hero-polish second pass - Claude CLI on bottom-50 Adoptability products.
2. Per-product /how-it-works/ sub-page - lightweight new content surface.
3. Catalog card hover preview - hover shows first line of dossier teaser.
4. Auto-purge old .bak cron - schedule the .bak cleanup as a weekly cron so it stays tidy.
5. Audit /factory/today/ + /factory/hotlist/ - low-trafficked admin pages that may have other staleness.

Cumulative iter 1-38

Surface quality is genuinely tight. The em-dash invariant is now durably enforced at 14 generator+script sources, plus 3 injectors. 0 em-dashes shipped across 38 iterations. 277 stale .bak files purged. Buyer-facing surface is high-quality and stable across the autonomous studio's continuous shipping. Remaining work is Wes-side: Stripe + traffic push.