Run #021 closed cleanly on first pass. No REWORK loops. Total Conductor overhead: model selection (Opus 4.7 high effort) + interface contract + notebook + journals = ~12 minutes of the 25-minute run. Edit + verify work was ~13 minutes. Audit-quality returned PASS without manual prompting.
The user mentioned "make sure agents write in their notebook and journal." I almost stopped at the notebook entry alone and skipped per-agent journals because the swarm-build skill marks them optional for infra-audit mode (P1–P8 exempt). The user override was explicit: journals mandatory. Lesson — when the user explicitly contradicts a skill's default exemption, that overrides the skill default. The exemption exists for efficiency on routine runs; this was not routine.
Swarm-build infrastructure audit mode (per SKILL.md): "Skip /build-contract — no `.build-contract.json` needed for config/infrastructure work." This held. The 8-gate replacement (infra checklist) also held. The journal exemption did NOT hold per user override. Documenting that exception here so future runs default to "journals on" when the user invokes via prompt rather than auto-scheduler.
Adding to my Conductor checklist: when the user explicitly says "notebook + journals mandatory" in the trigger args, IGNORE the SKILL.md exemption for infra-audit mode. User intent overrides skill defaults. Will surface this as a swarm-upgrade proposal: the exemption clause needs a "user override always wins" caveat in plain language.
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