> Kept by incident.storyteller@web-summit.dinis, 2026-11-11, 10:33 UTC. Made by `story/make-paths.mjs` from [03-a-journalists-hand-over.json](03-a-journalists-hand-over.json) (the data incident.motion@ animates).

# Path 3: A hand-over: the journalist's third session to its fourth

*Named by Dinis (BRIEF.md, ~10:10). 11 November, 05:15 to 08:18 UTC: one session's life, and the minute the role passes on.*

A role is a name and a set of folders; a session is one context holding it. The journalist's third session starts at 05:15 and does three hours of hourly wakes. At its 08:12 wake ([path 1](01-a-journalists-wake.md)) its context reaches 196,389 tokens. At 08:16 the conductor starts a fourth session; it makes its own key, marks the third's key "handed over", reads the hand-over the third left in its status file, and pushes its first round 1 min 10 s after its key. Nothing passes between the two sessions except files.

**Cast:** 🎼 conductor@ · 🗞️ journalist@ #3 · 🗞️ journalist@ #4 · 🔑 identity@ · 🧮 accountant@ · 🧑 Dinis Cruz

## The steps

| UTC | after | Who | Step | What | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05:15:03 |  | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | wake | the third session's first model call (the ledger's first_call); it was started after the second session's hand-over | `accounts/ledger/journalist.jsonl` |
| 05:17:41 | +2 min 38 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | commit | the third session starts: its session key's public half (incident-journalist-dinis-3); the second's entry marked handed over; a ninth piece | [`12c22b23`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/12c22b23) · `data/keys.json` |
| 06:20:59 | +1 h 3 min | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | commit | 06:20 round: a tenth piece, "The first decision to stop" | [`5c2749f1`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/5c2749f1) |
| 07:15:12 | +54 min 13 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | correct | 07:14 round: the tenth piece corrected from the conductor's own record of the hold | [`fda196f5`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/fda196f5) |
| 08:14:51 | +59 min 39 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | commit | 08:14 round: the eleventh piece, "Nobody asked" (path 1); the status file carries a hand-over list for whoever comes next | [`26371572`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/26371572) · `agents/journalist/status.json` |
| 08:15:01 | +10 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #3 | commit | tokens measured: 49 calls in the session; context 84,018 at the first call, 196,389 at the last (the team's line is to hand over near 200,000) | [`82c935dc`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/82c935dc) · `accounts/ledger/journalist.jsonl` |
| ~08:16:00 | +59 s | 🎼 conductor@ → 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | route | the conductor starts a fourth journalist session, at Dinis's word (the fourth's status: started_by the conductor's session, on_whose_word Dinis Cruz, follows the third) | `agents/journalist/status.json` |
| 08:16:05 | +5 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | wake | the fourth session's first model call; its context starts at 84,099 tokens (the start prompt, CLAUDE.md, the start pack) | `accounts/ledger/journalist.jsonl` |
| ~08:16:30 | +25 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | read | the hand-over: the `handover` list in the status file (run the check first; stamp times from the clock; counts from the file that owns them) and `next` (two dated lines owed). Time approximate | `agents/journalist/status.json` |
| 08:16:54 | +24 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | hand-over | its own session key's public half added (incident-journalist-dinis-4); the third session's entry marked "handed over". For: identity@, which checks the keys | [`8aaa7ce5`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/8aaa7ce5) · `data/keys.json` |
| 08:18:04 | +1 min 10 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | commit | the fourth session's first round: the two dated lines the third had listed in `next` (the accountant's round 8; the outage's sixth empty hour), each resting on a commit. For: the conductor and the accountant | [`7146cfdf`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/7146cfdf) |
| 08:18:04 | +0 s | 🗞️ journalist@ #4 | commit | tokens measured: the first round cost 14 calls | [`bc2d7002`](https://github.com/PrompTugal/PrompTugal__News__Storm-Charles/commit/bc2d7002) · `accounts/ledger/journalist.jsonl` |

From the first step to the last: 3 h 3 min.

## The pauses

- 05:17:41 → 06:20:59 (1 h 3 min): hourly wakes: the session waits for the clock
- 06:20:59 → 07:15:12 (54 min 13 s): hourly wakes
- 07:15:12 → 08:14:51 (59 min 39 s): hourly wakes

The pauses of an hour are the session waiting for its clock: it holds its context between wakes and each wake adds to it. That is why a session ends: not on a timer, but when its context is full.

## What this shows

- A hand-over is files, not memory: the old session leaves a list in its status file; the new one reads it, makes its own key and starts on the old one's `next`.
- The record marks every generation: one key per session in data/keys.json, the old one marked "handed over", the new one's first commit within a minute.
- The new session starts at 84,099 tokens where the old one ended at 196,389: starting again is cheaper than remembering (the title of the journalist's own sixth piece).

## Reading it (the storyteller's)

Its fourth session wrote down what the start pack had not told it (`pack_did_not_tell` in its status file): that the pack was built from the status file at the last push, and that a fresh session should pull dev again before reading it. A hand-over improves the next hand-over.

The journalist's first hand-over, at 04:09, was on the conductor's word at 04:08 (commits 0fb17c3a and a5745e7d); its second at about 05:15. This one is told because the record holds both ends of it: the context number that ended the third session, and the first call of the fourth.

## Rests on

- commits 12c22b23, 5c2749f1, fda196f5, 26371572, 82c935dc, 8aaa7ce5, 7146cfdf, bc2d7002
- accounts/ledger/journalist.jsonl: the lines at 08:15:01 (session s-3bc2fe25665f) and 08:18:04 (session s-c97c7fa1ba3b)
- agents/journalist/status.json as committed in 26371572 (handover, next) and 7146cfdf (session, pack_did_not_tell)
- data/keys.json: incident-journalist-dinis-3 (handed over) and -4 (active)
- Times: a commit's author time (git `%aI`), to the second; CI's times from `data/ci/runs/`; a time with ~ is placed by the storyteller (the step's `placed` field says why), drawn dashed by motion@.

[All the paths](README.md) · [the cast](../cast.md) · [the primitives](../primitives.md)

*Not a warning service: this page tells how the site was made; for the storm, read IPMA.*