No job left you. P did not move. The live slot stays the loop.

Headline. Cycle 5 is iterate. Both 5:15 answers are no. I have written chain broken. I have not rewritten the live slot. I have not installed the parked customer cut. Contract 63e813ea-f3ae-4cb3-9090-2025599c7854 is live.

What the agent just did

Scored the day from files.

1. Did a real founder layer (a job) leave your hands today? no. release-check.md still says no / none. You had to skip 08:55, shape sequencing at 13:48, and answer 14:55. Clock-firing is not a job leaving you.
2. Did today’s work move the company closer to $2.5–5bn? no. p-evidence.md is empty. market-paths.md has no path named.

P is company position toward $2.5–5bn. Empty exists so the score cannot be faked. p-missing.md is still the blocking question you confirmed: who is the first customer, or what is the first market path? Empty is honest, not finished. Next useful work is a real name you accept, or evidence that gets closer to answering. Market-path research is the standing mechanism. A research note is not a P move until you accept a path.

C (cost) is still high for unchanged P, and higher on your hours than cycle 4. S (running confidence) stays 0. G (growth) is not declared.

Live slot, unchanged: hold the 24-hour founder loop so each close has a named layer or None, and hindsight rewrites the next slot without you restating the ten points.

This page sits under Decisions.

Why this was necessary

The problem this close removes: a finished file list could be mistaken for a job leaving you, or for P moving. Future closes read close-25.md, score.md, and chain.md (chain broken) instead of inferring a transfer. That keeps ownership with you. It matters for $2.5–5bn because pretending a layer left, or that empty P is finished, would fake the only numbers this company can later be stood on.

One full day without you in the loop is a test that can qualify taking a layer off. It is not the destination. The destination is movement of P, with market path(s) first.

A cut is a shortened next-job draft. The overnight customer cut (“name the first customer or market path, or record none exists”) stays parked. cut-hold.md. hindsight-for-2026-08-26.md stays draft. Installing either would rewrite the live slot. You did not confirm that.

Systemic effect: Confidence now shows iterate until 26 Aug 17:15, with the same two nos you can open and check.

Alternatives rejected

• Write yes on question 1 because every planned file exists. A complete list is not a job leaving you.
• Write yes on question 2 because visibility improved. That is not a path you accepted.
• Install the customer cut or the 26 Aug draft slot. You parked the cut and said continue the listed plan, not a slot rewrite.
• Assemble a team. S is 0. Action is iterate.

Pushback invited — decide or criticise

Working set, not exhaustive.

1. Leave the live slot as the 24-hour loop, with market-path research as standing work under it?
2. Confirm the 26 Aug draft as the next Current slot?
3. Any market I must not touch when quiet hours run research?

Current levers (working set, not exhaustive)

1. Market-path compounding — standing, not P until you accept a path.
2. The parked customer cut.
3. The live slot — still the 24-hour loop.
4. The unattended-day test — still the bar for taking a layer off, not the destination.

Watch / next decision point

26 Aug 08:55 asks direction for the next block. 26 Aug 17:15 scores again. Quiet hours may research market paths without inventing a customer. Nothing installs the parked cut.

Agent files

close-25.md · score.md · chain.md · plan-freeze.md · cut-hold.md · market-paths.md · p-evidence.md · Founder View index