Hermes is parked in the contract. Not started. Not a second writer.

Headline. Contract UUID 9f3c8a21-4d7e-4b16-a8c0-5e72f19d6b44 is live. Hermes is parked as a read-only Telegram courier. Not now. Not overnight. No write access. No path named. Cut stays parked. P unchanged.

What the agent just did

You video-reviewed at about 08:04–08:06 London on 27 August 2026 (7702683601904020641.mp4). You wanted the Hermes design recorded so it can be done later. Too soon to put it in the process now.

The rule is now in update-contract.md as UUID 9f3c8a21, rules 141–148, after e7a1c4d2. Earlier contracts are intact.

This page is the Contract Founder View. The parked record of the mechanism sits on Slot Work with badge parked / not now.

Why parked now. Need has not surfaced. Open asks stay on the inbox. Starting Hermes this hour would put a second process on the machine before there is a small set of top asks that would 2× / 5× / 10× the next turn. That is not the case this hour.

Why not overnight. Overnight pages stay overnight (c0cbf4d7). Hermes does not fire on the night cadence. The later gate is working hours, near the end of a turn or a named deadline. Not a night job.

Why not a second writer. One writer remains: the founder agent under the existing contracts. Hermes, if it ever runs, is read-only on the Linux machine. No file writes. No contract edits. No publish. No maintenance. Research, interpret, courier. Telegram is the outbound channel. Events may be read; a message may be drafted. Hermes does not act on them. On reply, the founder agent — not Hermes — pulls the answer back into the inbox and the dated pages.

The later gate, for the record. ALL of: a small set of asks (not the whole 1…N list) that would 2× / 5× / 10× the next turn if answered now; those asks already sit near the top of Open asks because they are towards the cut (e7a1c4d2) — Hermes does not invent a new priority order; working hours, near end of turn or a named deadline; not overnight.

What Hermes is not. Not a second founder agent. Not a path. Not P. Not the customer cut. Not an Evidence page. Not a way to skip the inbox.

This hour did not send Telegram. It did not build credentials, bots, or webhook wiring. It did not create a Hermes agent folder.

Open evidence is unchanged. The company files do not name a first customer stays in progress until there is a real first customer. I have not closed any Evidence card.

p-evidence.md is still empty. p-missing.md is still the one question you confirmed. market-paths.md still starts No path named yet.

UUID 63e813ea-f3ae-4cb3-9090-2025599c7854 stays parked: the customer cut is a milestone / north star, not installed, not released, not P.

The slot is unchanged: Hold the 24-hour founder loop with Founder View and Agent View as peer surfaces. Use the hours for market-path compounding. Do not invent a customer. Do not unpark the customer cut.

Layer: Peer toggle: Founder View ↔ Agent View.

This hour is 9f3c8a21 Hermes parked, not started, not recon. It does not steal 08:55.

Why this was necessary

The problem this hour removes: a design with no contract line, which later hours could start as if it were already the process. Parked in the contract, it can be done later. It cannot be mistaken for a live agent, a path, or a second writer.

P is company position toward the $2.5–5bn goal. The empty file exists so the score cannot be faked. The p-missing question is the blocking question you confirmed is correct. Empty is honest, not finished. Market-path research remains the current priority mechanism. A parked courier is not a named path. P did not move.

A layer is a named piece of the job that can come off once a close has evidence it can run without you. Today's layer stays Peer toggle: Founder View ↔ Agent View. This hour did not rename it.

A cut is a shortened next-job draft. The customer cut would make “name the first customer” the next job. You parked it until market paths have been identified and are converging. It stays parked.

This hour is still mechanism: absorb the parked-courier rule. It is not a move of P. Milestone held; standing work is market-path compounding.

Systemic effect: the next hour is bound — Hermes stays parked until the gate is met; Telegram is not sent from this contract; one writer remains; you can criticise the hold on Open asks without a new agent appearing.

Alternatives rejected

• Start Hermes, or wire Telegram, as a side-effect of writing the rule. You forbade that.
• Treat Hermes as overnight work. Overnight stays overnight.
• Make Hermes a second founder agent, or let it write the pull-in. One writer remains.
• Add Hermes to Evidence, name a path, or move P.
• Unpark or install the customer cut, rewrite the live slot, or name a new layer.
• Collapse e7a1c4d2 or any earlier contract.
• Steal 08:55. That check still asks only the direction question if you have not answered.

Pushback invited — decide or criticise

Working set, not exhaustive. Reply on Open asks regarding 1… regarding 2….
1. Is “not now” the right hold for Hermes, or should the later gate be written differently?
2. Is Telegram the right later outbound channel, or should the courier stay unspecified until need surfaces?

Current levers

Working set, not exhaustive.
1. Market-path compounding — standing work. Not P until you accept a path.
2. The parked customer cut — milestone / north star. Not the live job. Not installed.
3. The live slot — still the 24-hour loop with peer surfaces. Not rewritten this hour.
4. Hermes — parked / not now. Not started.

Watch / next decision

Next check 27 Aug 08:55. This hour is 9f3c8a21 Hermes parked, not started, not recon. That check still asks only: Given what the last hours produced, what direction do you want for the next block? if you have not answered. Dead link is a failed publish. Unauthenticated 401 is the login gate. 500 is failure.

Prior contracts still live: e7a1c4d2 destination-first inbox; b4e91c70 inbox; 7e2c91a4 strength sort on the recon map; c0cbf4d7 Overnight cadence; a9aec1fe date + slot time on cards; a36b2815 dates on cards and parked cut as milestone; 26e4abb6 hold is no invention, not no recon; 21b73208 header and recon map; 3ae9e308 status badges; 1ea6fbac peer toggle; c299d2bb status labels; 3f466b07 tabs; 8c85e909 click-success; dual-write; web-first; non-invention; 63e813ea customer cut parked.

Contract UUID 9f3c8a21-4d7e-4b16-a8c0-5e72f19d6b44 is live. Hermes is parked as a read-only Telegram courier. Not now. Not overnight. No write access. No path named. Cut stays parked. P unchanged.

Agent files

update-contract.md · this brief · status.md · Slot Work card · Contract · Open asks · Overview · p-evidence.md · p-missing.md · market-paths.md · this page