1. Most turns: Finding the real failure. qa-input.txt was about 17 KB, and nearly all of it was CI setup noise (checkout, git hints, cache config). The actual error, out of date in assets/badges/: self-hosted.svg, was one line near the end. It took me three or four greps and cuts to reach it. A smaller cost was the commit script refusing the report because of a stray comma in Files:.

2. Looked up:
   • The brief points at .claude/agents/qa.md and the input paths, but not which file is current. Both docs/briefs/qa-input.txt and docs/briefs/bugs/qa-input.txt existed, and I had to check timestamps.
   • The required report fields for scripts/commit.nika (Changelog:, Attribution:, Commit:, space-separated Files:). I had to copy them from another builder’s report.
   • Which nikaia binary to use. which nikaia found nothing, so I used target/release/nikaia.
3. Checks:
   • Useful: python3 scripts/badges.py --check, before and after the regeneration.
   • Partly wasted: my first scripts/pre-push.nika run. It checks only staged files, so it reported “badges red” even though the fix was in the working tree.
   • Not run: clippy, since no Rust changed. I also did not rerun pre-push after the commit.
   • I also did not check whether origin/develop had the same badge drift.
   • Cost: the first commit attempt was refused because of the comma typo.
4. One change: Have the driver put the failing step’s error lines at the top of qa-input.txt, with the log tail filtered of setup lines. Add a qa-report template (or commit.nika --template) that includes the required fields. Either would have saved most of my turns.

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