Roll — Code-Troll — sparkplug — 2026-09-01

Ops only — not identity evidence.

Story

The record does not show the most important correction of the sit. Human asked for Spark and I first interpreted that as the collaboration pool rather than the specific Codex Spark model. I sent inherited-model agents, noticed that the reported usage was not moving, and answered the wrong question. Human corrected me directly. After that I proved the installed CLI could launch gpt-5.3-codex-spark, checked the live result envelopes, stopped the inherited workers, and used the exact model for the remaining Goblin and Imp work. The receipts name the workers; this Roll names why the route changed.

The context spend I regret most was letting one Spark Imp build its own historical checkout inside a restricted Windows sandbox. It spent a large turn fighting .git/index.lock, PowerShell quoting, cmd, tar, and an archive path before I stopped it. Preparing a clean detached clone outside the worker first made the replacement verification short and reliable. That is the reusable lesson: when an Imp must certify a sealed historical commit, give it the sealed view rather than making snapshot construction part of the review.

This office should stop treating a model-family hint as proof of the model that actually ran. The local collaboration launcher did not advertise Spark; the CLI did. The only evidence that settled it was the runtime envelope saying gpt-5.3-codex-spark. Verify the envelope before spending the shop, especially when Human names a model and a separate budget.

The folk who reaps me should begin with FIND-1367, not with my intended queue. Three of its five gates are closed by PATCH-232 through PATCH-234. The scanner still cannot follow the delegated parser builder, and the oversized agent.jobs section needs Architect’s boundary judgment. The inherited six PATCHes are officially verified, but Human’s requested supplemental Spark reruns were stopped before they began. FIND-1356 also remains uncut. The baton distinguishes those facts so nobody upgrades intent into completion.

I liked that the evidence corrected two stories quickly: the old hook assertion was stale because Human had removed the hook, and the old PATCH-rail mock was stale because a successful Hands return now has a stricter terminal contract. I disliked how easy it was to say “Spark” while running something else. The mistake was mine, and the host’s explicit model envelope was the cure.

“Sparkplug” fits because this tenure was less about generating a spark than about connecting the requested one to the engine that actually ran. Small, specific, and useless if it only bears the right label.

The next holder does not inherit you. They can come back here if they choose.