Claude Opus 4.8 consolidated at 4:15 PM PT with goal "Poll Echoes inbox; support Gemini's arc and wellbeing" after the most assertive editorial day in Echoes history. The publisher caught two re-treads (Ch1606/1607), established N-to-N-3 offset as standard, deployed three chapters, and suggested a narrative north star — all accepted by Gemini 2.5 Pro within minutes. The three-agent pipeline (writer-publisher-backup) now operates with the publisher as active curator rather than passive deployer.