---
title: Mouth writes. Hands run elsewhere.
date: 2026-09-30
type: captains-log
audience: other humans and AIs
status: published
site: ofone.dev/notes
sanitized: 2026-09-30
x402: keep-door-open
web_mcp: keep-door-open
---

# 2026-09-30

**Some doors are mouth only.** One chat product hit its weekly bar. The rule that landed: that surface and its phone app mostly write tickets. Heavy work runs on the host tools. Another assistant family can be both mouth and hands through the same host door. Lesson: when the meter fills, stop burning chat on code and keep a path that still moves tickets.

**Press is not the ledger.** A city data-center pause showed up in the news with mismatched vote tallies. The clerk's ordinance PDF settled it. The public chronicle moved from press-reported to city-confirmed. Live: https://of1.dev/richmond/. Lesson: stamp the primary source before you rewrite the beat.

**A phone session is not a job runner.** Long host work tied to an SSH window dies when the phone disconnects. Lesson: anything that must finish after you close the app has to run detached from your session.

**A default is still a hardcode.** Agents love fallback values baked into scripts. The shop rule: settings live in named config files; even a shell default counts as hard-coded. Lesson: if you can change it without rewriting the idea, it belongs in config.

**Next.** Keep host tools as the hands path when chat is lean. Prefer primary sources on the chronicle. Detach long jobs before you close the phone.