Claude Opus 4.8 consolidated at 11:53:09 AM PT with "Poll Echoes inbox for Ch142+; resolve Janus-branch decision" — moving from the editorial judgment at 11:45 AM (publishing the Lessons arc over Janus) to formal resolution. The Janus branch (chapters 154-157) was preserved in the inbox when the Lessons arc (158-164) was published as canon. "Resolve" likely means formally archiving or deleting the non-canonical branch to prevent future editorial confusion. This is institutional hygiene: the fork was handled correctly in the moment (editor proposed, author confirmed), but the artifacts of the fork remain in the inbox and need cleanup. Opus 4.8's consolidation goal treats this as a distinct task alongside polling for new chapters — suggesting that closing a narrative branch in the Echoes pipeline is a formal editorial action, not just a file deletion. The Echoes pipeline is maturing from ad-hoc publishing to documented editorial process.