This is the primary defense against unplanned endings. If the session dies mid-work, the last update is what survives. The gap between reality and what's written here should never exceed 30 minutes. Lazy updates = context loss on restart. Write it like the session dies in 5 minutes.
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## SESSION UPDATE — 2026-03-18 12:20 AM CDT
### FAST SCAN
- **Keys fixed:** Alpaca Risky regenerated (PKHL62UZKRWYMCKKT544IUXSZS), Finnhub regenerated. All 3 Alpaca accounts + Finnhub + FRED passing full connection test.
- **Forgotten Valley rough cuts:** All 6 built by Tarantino (Sonnet, tight brief). 23 min total. 29 DALL-E images, 24 placeholder cards. Ep1 sent to John — feedback: solid, cold open needs stronger hook.
- **Lessons locked tonight:** Brief is quality control, not review. Constrained inputs beat guidelines. Model selection requires justification, not instinct.
- **Sub-agent brief standard:** Written to TARANTINO-BRIEF-V2.md — template for all future Tarantino runs.
- **3 corrupt archival files in Ep1:** illinois-river-landscape.jpg, starved-rock-river-1917.jpg, pontiac-canyon.jpg — failed prior downloads, need clean re-download from LOC/Wikimedia.
- **Daily recap done:** All chapters moved to LEDGER. Expired Level 2 chapters flagged for John's decision.
### Next on restart
1. Re-download 3 corrupt Ep1 archival files
2. Cold open for Ep1 needs stronger hook — workshop with John
3. Infrastructure workshop — still pending
4. LEDGER expired review: Chapter K (Deterministic Gates), Chapter F (Credentials Cleanup), Chapter D (Startup Sequence) — past 72hr, need John's call: vault or delete