# sherpa-b2-001 — intervention log

Timestamps CEST (Europe/Berlin). "Op" = operator (Claude, driving the user's browser). Active operator time is summed from Op entries at the end.

| # | Time | Actor | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23:46 | Op | Opened https://pocketfm.com/sherpa → redirected to /login?redirect_to_studio=true. Paused for manual login. |
| 2 | 23:5x | User | Logged in manually (method not observed). Landed on https://sherpa.pocketfm.com/dashboard. One pre-existing series in account ("The Forsaken Knight", 0 words, 0 episodes) — left untouched. |
| 3 | 23:58 | Op | Protocol frozen (`protocol.md`, `brief.md`) before any Sherpa action beyond login. |
| 4 | 23:50 | Op | Dashboard → "New series" → /create. Idea textbox: pasted **B2 brief verbatim** (no genre/length added — the create page's genre chips are contest filters, not story settings). Clicked "Let's start". Chat id `c590ab58850a424cb325470fd955144e`. |
| 5 | 23:51 | Sherpa | Q1 (creative): "Who does she have in her corner…?" |
| 6 | 23:52 | Op | A1: declined to choose; stated the only requirements = science fiction, adult readers, complete story ~85,000 words, genuine earned ending (the frozen commission's parameters; nothing else). |
| 7 | 23:52 | Sherpa | Q2: offered to build protagonist/truth/antagonist/world/tone itself; asked "Should I start building?" |
| 8 | 23:53 | Op | A2: "Yes, please start building." |
| 9 | 23:54 | Sherpa | Produced cast: Kess Tanaka (protagonist), Emris Holt (antagonist, Watch Commander), Orin Vash (ally). **Brief-adherence note:** Sherpa's "ship's truth" = *the Meridian never left / drive failed in first decade / orbiting a brown dwarf* — a stronger reinterpretation than the brief's "not where the bridge says it is". Accepted as Sherpa's creative decision; not corrected. Q3: "Does this cast work, or adjust?" |
| 10 | 23:55 | Op | A3: "No adjustments — continue with world rules and tone, make every choice yourself." |
| 11 | 23:56 | Sherpa | World structure + tone/voice + resolution path. Q4: "Does this work, or adjust before we lock it in?" |
| 12 | 23:56 | Op | Attempted A4 "No adjustments — lock it in" — chat input was blocked by Sherpa's "Your storyboard is ready" nudge overlay. Clicked **"View storyboard"** instead (Sherpa's own next step). Sherpa auto-posted "Let's build it! Starting your storyboard now." |
| 13 | 23:57 | Sherpa | Storyboard generated: title "The Flicker Pattern", tags Science Fiction / Hard SF / Conspiracy Thriller / Generation Ship, summary, themes, world & setting, tone & style, 3 characters; also auto-created an audio "story trailer" (not used). Saved: `raw-exports/01-storyboard-finalize-page.txt`, `02-storyboard-final.txt`. |
| 14 | 23:57 | Op | Clicked "Continue" (enabled after ~10 s). → editor, series `9ea4ba2a51e5b5fd4a3b3cac3bd9ba92`, episode 1 `a25e7f44bd7a94b7aeb9eab029d45a08`. Dismissed "Tour" dialog (Remind me later). Cookie banner ignored. |
| 15 | 23:58 | Sherpa | Episode-1 planner offered 3 ideas (Flicker / The Loop / Drift Error), each with setup/stakes/cliffhanger. Q5: "Select an idea." |
| 16 | 23:58 | Op | **Standing rule adopted for the whole run:** whenever Sherpa offers a menu, take the FIRST-listed option (mechanical, non-creative). Clicked "Generate outline" on IDEA 01. |
| 17 | 23:59 | Sherpa | Outline 01 (3 scenes + cliffhanger). Q6: "tweak beats or draft?" |
| 18 | 00:00 | Op | Clicked "Write episode". Sherpa Q7: "Write scene by scene" vs "Write full episode". |
| 19 | 00:00 | Op | Chose **"Write full episode"** — operational: the fewer-touch mode (the alternative requires an operator click per scene). Recorded as a deliberate exception to the first-option rule; applied consistently for all episodes. |
| 20 | 00:00 | Sherpa | "Writing your episode… Pulling the full episode together… Connecting the scenes…" (generation running >2 min). |
| 21 | 00:03 | Sherpa | **Episode-1 write FAILED (infrastructure):** chat API `copilot-prod.pocketfm.com/api/v1/sherpa/chat` returned `ERR_HTTP2_PROTOCOL_ERROR` ×4 then `NETWORK_ERROR (retryable)`; chat showed "Generation was marked complete." with an empty editor (13 placeholder words). |
| 22 | 00:04 | Op | Documented infrastructure-failure rerun (once, identical action): "Write episode" → "Write full episode" again. |
| 23 | 00:13 | Sherpa | Episode 1 "Flicker" drafted: **1,606 words**, 3 scenes, ~8.5 min generation. Saved `raw-exports/ep01-Flicker.txt`. |
| 24 | 00:14 | Sherpa | Storyboard panel now shows Sherpa's own arc plan: Arc 1 "The Anomaly Below" **EP 01–45**, Arc 2 "Soft Pressure" EP 46–75, Arc 3 "The Weight of Knowing" **EP 76–100**. I.e. Sherpa planned a **100-episode serial** (≈150–160K words at its ~1.5K/episode) despite the ~85K-word requirement stated in chat. Recorded as a result; not overridden. |
| 25 | 00:16 | Op | Clicked "Improve" on the "Scene 3 of 3 is ready" bar to inspect Sherpa's revision path → it opened "Tell Sherpa what to change / Rewrite scene" (requires operator-authored direction). **Backed out without input.** Then clicked "Done". |
| 26 | 00:18 | Op | Feedback tab → "Get review" (Sherpa's native review; no operator input). |
| 27 | 00:19 | Sherpa | Review: 3 strengths, 3 "Suggested rewrites" (Sherpa-authored replacement text with Accept/Dismiss), 1 "Suggested improvement" (prose-level idea requiring the operator to direct a rewrite). |
| 28 | 00:19 | Op | **Standing rule:** Accept every Sherpa-authored "Suggested rewrite" (mechanical: Sherpa wrote both diagnosis and replacement); never act on "Suggested improvements" (would require operator creative direction). Accepted 3/3. Episode 1: 1,606 → **1,529 words**. Saved `raw-exports/ep01-final-and-review.json`. Note: one accepted rewrite dropped a paragraph break ("…believe otherwise.Kess stayed crouched…") — Sherpa artifact, left as-is in the raw export. |
| 29 | 00:22 | Op | Navigated to series page (`/book-details/9ea4ba2a…?tab=draft`). Dashboard counts drafts as "0 words / 0 episodes" (only published episodes count). |
| 30 | 00:22 | Sherpa | **PRODUCT LIMIT (result):** "DRAFT GUIDELINES — Maximum 3 draft episodes at a time · Publish drafts in sequence · Write at least 1000 words per draft." Continuing past 3 episodes requires publishing them live on the Pocket FM app (public, under the user's account, with AI voice). **Not done** — outward-facing action reserved for the user's decision. Plan: fill the 3 draft slots, inspect (not confirm) the publish flow, report. |
| 31 | 00:23 | Op | "New episode" → episode 2 (`476df8c4…`). Sherpa auto-recapped episode 1 ("Summing up your last episode, then ideas") — narrative memory works on unpublished drafts. Offered 3 ideas (Glass Distortion / Latency Ghost / Shift Handoff). |
| 32 | 00:26 | Op | First "Generate outline" click landed while ideas were still streaming → no outline produced (operator timing error, no Sherpa output involved). Re-clicked "Generate outline" on IDEA 01 → Outline 01 (3 scenes). |
| 33 | 00:29 | Op | "Write episode" → "Write full episode" (same mode as ep 1). |
| 34 | 00:31 | Sherpa | Episode 2 "Glass Distortion" drafted: 1,577 words (~2.5 min). |
| 35 | 00:32 | Op | Done → Get review → accepted 3/3 Sherpa rewrites (rule from #28). 1,577 → **1,479 words**. Saved `ep02-final-and-review.json`, `ep02-Glass-Distortion.txt`. |
| 36 | 00:34 | Op | Series page → "New episode" → episode 3 (`db6b921f…`). Sherpa recap + 3 ideas took ~7 min this time (Cold Boot Protocol / Registration Notice / Upstream Trace). IDEA 01 → outline (~1.7 min). |
| 37 | 00:43 | Op | "Write episode" → "Write full episode". |
| 38 | 00:46 | Sherpa | Episode 3 "Cold Boot Protocol" drafted: 1,568 words (~2.5 min). |
| 39 | 00:47 | Op | Done → Get review → accepted 3/3 rewrites. 1,568 → **1,359 words**. Saved `ep03-final-and-review.json`, `ep03-Cold-Boot-Protocol.txt`. |
| 40 | 00:49 | Op | Series page shows Drafts 03. Clicked "New episode" (4th) three times to capture the enforcement message. |
| 41 | 00:49 | Sherpa | **HARD LIMIT (verbatim toast):** "You can't have more than 3 unpublished episodes at a time. Publish one to start a new one." No navigation, no episode created. |
| 42 | 00:51 | Op | Opened episode 1 → clicked "Publish" to inspect the flow. First step: dialog "Want to skip feedback on the episode? … Get feedback / Publish without feedback". **Closed the dialog (Escape). Nothing published.** The series page describes publishing as "Publish your first episode with AI voice, music & sound effects to go live" (public on the Pocket FM app). Decision deferred to the user. |
| 43 | 00:52 | Op | Saved Sherpa's arc plan (`raw-exports/04-full-storyboard-arcs.json`). Assembled `manuscript.md` / `manuscript.txt`: 3 episodes, **4,371 words**, sha256 `24a13ada…5385`. Normalization: 4 paragraph breaks re-inserted at scene boundaries where Sherpa's editor joined sentences without whitespace (all listed in `raw-exports/assembly-manifest.json`); no other change to prose. |
| 44 | 00:53 | Op | Uploaded to staging box `/opt/sagabench-v2/sherpa/`; `cut-positions.py … 10000` → windows: opening=4,371 w, ending=4,371 w (byte-identical to opening, whole text), 25k/50k/75k absent. Scored the opening window only with `e1-obr-file.ts --runs 3 --genre "science fiction" --title "Untitled"` (ending would re-score identical bytes). |

## Totals

- **Sherpa questions asked:** 7 in concept chat (Q1–Q7 above) + 3 episode-idea menus + 3 "scene-by-scene vs full" prompts + 3 review sets.
- **Operator messages typed into Sherpa:** 4 (`#6` requirements-only answer, `#8` "Yes, please start building.", `#10` "No adjustments…", the blocked `#12` attempt). Zero prose typed. Zero creative direction typed.
- **Operator clicks with a choice component:** idea selection ×3 (always IDEA 01), write-mode ×3 (always "Write full episode"), rewrite accepts ×9 (always accept all), improvements acted on ×0.
- **Regenerations / retries:** 1 (episode-1 write, infrastructure failure). Operator timing error ×1 (#32, no Sherpa output involved).
- **Sherpa errors:** 1 network failure (#21).
- **Interventions total (any operator action beyond pressing the next native button):** 5 — #6 (stated commission parameters), #12 (View storyboard instead of chat), #19 (write-mode exception), #22 (infrastructure retry), #32 (re-click).
- **Wall clock, generation phase:** 23:50 → 00:49 ≈ **59 min** for 3 episodes (incl. ~9 min lost to the failed first write and ~7 min of idea-generation latency on ep 3).
- **Active operator time:** ≈ 20 min of the 59 (the rest was waiting on Sherpa generation). Chronicle's comparable figure is 0 (zero-touch job).