---
name: feedback-afk-check-hygiene
description: "AFK hourly checks: track goal STATE not the pasted checklist, and don't journal routine no-finding checks."
metadata:
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: c06c2b0e-44ee-45a1-b213-4f77c006109c
---

Two corrections from the user on how to run AFK hourly checks (projected_grpo, 2026-06-05).

1. The hourly prompt is a stale template. The user pastes the same checklist each
   hour; its numbered items (e.g. "job 77 keynote", "job 95 A5 harvest") go stale as
   those jobs close. Track actual goal state, don't re-execute completed items. The
   user: "why do you keep doing this no cheat thing? our goal is the placebo vector
   mystery". The live priority is what matters now (the route2 directionality mystery,
   #196), not the template. Durable scope lives in docs/AFK_CHECK.md.

2. Don't append routine "checked, nothing changed" entries to RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md.
   The user: "appending it to the journal all the time? what's the point?". The journal
   is append-only and for experimental FINDINGS (a new number, a failed-run diagnosis,
   a real result/verdict). A healthy-check-with-no-news earns no entry; code/comment
   changes belong in the commit message, not the journal.

**Why:** AFK time is expensive and the journal is a signal channel; re-running closed
work and logging no-news both add noise and burn GPU/context without information gain.

**How to apply:** Each AFK check: read docs/AFK_CHECK.md (current-scope), do the
standing checks (idle GPU? new failures? running-job health), advance the live
priority, commit code/progress. Only write a journal entry when a run produces a
genuine finding. Relates to [[feedback-afk-autonomy]] and [[feedback-burn-down-task-list]].
