An agent asks for a design decision mid-implementation, the operator answers at pull-request depth, and the answer gets filed as architecture. The fix is not a better escalation prompt but keeping three separate reviews from borrowing each other's authority.
A 48-second generated loop stays out of Git, and ~21 MiB of tracked source, manifests and receipts identify ~2.2 GiB of untracked media and verify any retained or reconstructed copy. That buys identity, not availability or reproducibility — the gates taught the rest.
Continuing assurance can move away from an exact generated output only when retained inputs and independent checks can produce another acceptable result; retention remains a separate decision.