diff --git a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/comparison_table.md b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/comparison_table.md
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+# Fable vs Manual Slop vs nagent — Comparison Table
+
+**Track:** `fable_review_20260617`
+**Format:** One row per Fable sub-theme. Columns: Fable sub-theme | Fable line | Project file:line | nagent section | Verdict.
+
+> **Verdict legend:** `Useful` = Manual Slop should adopt (or already has the equivalent). `Persona` = Persona performance; irrelevant to the rebuild. `Anti-User` = Anti-user watch-dogging; explicitly reject. `Mixed` = useful caveats + persona and/or anti-user.
+
+| # | Fable sub-theme | Fable line | Project file:line | nagent section | Verdict |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | Product branding ("Claude Fable 5", "Mythos") | `Fable System Prompt.md:1-31` | `conductor/product.md:1-30` (the "Vision" framing) | n/a | Persona |
+| 2 | Refusal framing ("can discuss virtually any topic") | `Fable System Prompt.md:34` | `conductor/workflow.md §Skip-Marker Policy` (the actual skip discipline) | nagent §14 (Own the Inputs) | Mixed |
+| 3 | Mental-health watch ("not a licensed psychiatrist") | `Fable System Prompt.md:80-86` | `conductor/code_styleguides/agent_memory_dimensions.md` (the 4 memory dims) | nagent §2.1 (knowledge dim scope) | Anti-User |
+| 4 | Tone ("warm tone, treating people with kindness") | `Fable System Prompt.md:56` | `AGENTS.md §"Critical Anti-Patterns"` | nagent §3.8 (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md tone) | Persona |
+| 5 | Search discipline (web search default-on) | `Fable System Prompt.md:158-164` | `conductor/code_styleguides/rag_integration_discipline.md` | nagent §3.2 (cache ordering) | Useful |
+| 6-100 | *[FILL IN: ~95 more rows. See spec.md §1.1 for the verdict framework and the per-cluster file:line citations.]* |
diff --git a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/decisions.md b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/decisions.md
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+# Decisions — Recommendations for the Deferred nagent-Rebuild
+
+**Track:** `fable_review_20260617`
+**For:** The user-deferred Manual Slop agent-directive overhaul (per user 2026-06-17: "I'm deferring that till probably next week or two").
+
+> **What this is.** Concrete recommendations to apply when the user overhauls Manual Slop's agent directives. Each entry: rationale, source evidence (cluster file:line), suggested Manual Slop destination, priority. Adopted recommendations become new content in `AGENTS.md`, `conductor/*.md`, `conductor/code_styleguides/*.md`, `.opencode/agents/*.md`, or `docs/*.md` as appropriate.
+
+---
+
+## Entry 1: Adopt Fable's "Search-Default for Current-State" rule
+
+**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_7_epistemic_discipline.md` §"What Fable says" (Fable System Prompt.md:158-164).
+
+**Rationale:** Fable's rule that the model MUST use web search for "current role / position / status" queries (e.g., "Who is the current California Secretary of State?") is a genuinely-useful epistemic discipline. Manual Slop's current directives don't have an explicit analog; the project's RAG discipline (`conductor/code_styleguides/rag_integration_discipline.md`) is opt-in, not default-on.
+
+**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** A new section in `conductor/code_styleguides/rag_integration_discipline.md` (or a new styleguide) titled "Search-Default for Current-State Queries."
+
+**Priority:** Medium (the convention should be added; the user's deferred rebuild is the appropriate time).
+
+**Verdict category:** Useful.
+
+---
+
+## Entry 2: Explicitly reject Fable's "Mental-Health Watchdog" framing
+
+**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_3_user_wellbeing_watchdog.md` §"Verdict" (Fable System Prompt.md:92-124).
+
+**Rationale:** Fable's directive that the model "avoid psychoanalyzing or speculating on the motivations" of the user + "share its concerns with the person openly" + "suggest they speak with a professional" is anti-user watch-dogging. The model is text generation; it is not a clinician. Manual Slop's existing 4 memory dimensions + the data-oriented error handling convention are the data-grounded contrast: the model does not have an opinion on the user's mental state; it has a conversation log.
+
+**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** A new anti-pattern entry in `AGENTS.md §"Critical Anti-Patterns"` titled "Do not adopt persona-driven mental-health watch-dogging." Cite Fable as the explicit rejection (per cluster 3).
+
+**Priority:** High (this is the strongest anti-user pattern; the rejection should be loud).
+
+**Verdict category:** Anti-User.
+
+---
+
+## Entry 3: Treat Fable's product-branding sections as noise
+
+**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_1_product_branding.md` §"Verdict" (Fable System Prompt.md:1-31).
+
+**Rationale:** Fable's "Claude Fable 5" + "Mythos" + "Anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5" content is brand-specific noise. It applies only to Anthropic's commercial deployment and has no analog in Manual Slop's open-source-or-per-developer model. The "Knowledge cutoff" + "Web search" + "Today is Tuesday, June 09, 2026" content is similarly deployment-specific.
+
+**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** No destination. The Fable branding content is explicitly out of scope for the rebuild.
+
+**Priority:** N/A (no action needed).
+
+**Verdict category:** Persona.
+
+---
+
+## Entry 4-20: *[FILL IN: ~16 more recommendations. See spec.md §6.3 and the per-cluster "Synthesis notes for the Tier 1 writer" sections.]*
diff --git a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/nagent_takeaways_fable_20260617.md b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/nagent_takeaways_fable_20260617.md
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+# nagent Takeaways — Fable-Specific Addendum (2026-06-17)
+
+**Track:** `fable_review_20260617`
+**Companion to:** `conductor/tracks/nagent_review_20260608/nagent_takeaways_20260608.md` (the original 10 takeaways).
+
+> **What this is.** The 17th nagent takeaway, derived from the Fable review. The original 10 takeaways are at `nagent_takeaways_20260608.md`; this addendum adds the Fable-specific insight that survived the audit.
+
+---
+
+## Takeaway 17: Persona-performance directives don't survive the Fable audit; only epistemic + memory + workflow rules have durable value
+
+**Source evidence:** `report.md §0` (verdict scorecard); the 10 cluster sub-reports.
+
+**Summary.** Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 system prompt is approximately 1597 lines. Approximately:
+- **[N]% is Useful** (epistemic discipline, search rules, memory/storage model, file workflow) — genuinely reusable in Manual Slop's context
+- **[M]% is Persona Performance** (product branding, warm-tone framing, mistake-handling theater) — irrelevant noise that the model would do anyway
+- **[K]% is Anti-User** (refusal architecture, mental-health watch-dogging, "share its concerns with the person") — explicit anti-patterns that the deferred nagent-rebuild should reject by name
+
+**The actionable rule for the deferred rebuild:**
+- Adopt the Useful patterns (epistemic + memory + workflow; ~7 of the 10 clusters)
+- Explicitly reject the Anti-User patterns (~5 of the 10 clusters)
+- Ignore the Persona Performance patterns (~4 of the 10 clusters)
+
+**Why this matters.** The default failure mode for LLM agent systems is to over-index on persona and under-index on epistemic discipline. Fable demonstrates the pathology at scale. nagent's philosophy ("the agent is not the thing; the data is the thing") is the antidote: durable, inspectable, opt-in rules (memory, cache, search, file ops) beat persona performance every time.
+
+**Cross-references:**
+- `conductor/tracks/nagent_review_20260608/nagent_review_v2_3_20260612.md` §2.5 ("You Did Not Build an Agent") — the nagent philosophy this takeaway extends
+- `conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/decisions.md` — the 15-20 concrete recommendations for the rebuild
+- `conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/report.md §13, §14, §15` — the useful / anti-user / persona summary sections
+
+---
+
+*[FILL IN: this skeleton is ~40 lines. The full file should be ~150 lines with: the 17th takeaway (above, expanded), the Fable-specific evidence per cluster, and the cross-references to nagent_review_20260608/ — see spec.md §6.3.]*
diff --git a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/report.md b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/report.md
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+++ b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/report.md
@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+# Fable System Prompt Review (Critical Analysis)
+
+**Track:** `fable_review_20260617`
+**Initialized:** 2026-06-17
+**Owner:** Tier 1 Orchestrator (synthesis); Tier 2 Tech Lead (dispatch + QA)
+**Status:** IN PROGRESS (Phase 3)
+
+> **What this is.** A critical analysis of Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 system prompt (the public "Mythos" version), comparing it against Manual Slop's existing agent-directive corpus and Mike Acton's nagent patterns. Verdict framework: **Useful / Persona Performance / Anti-User / Mixed**.
+>
+> **Verdict summary.** Fable is approximately [N]% useful, [M]% persona performance, [K]% anti-user. The full breakdown is in §0 (TL;DR Scorecard).
+>
+> **For the deferred nagent-rebuild.** See `decisions.md` for the 15-20 concrete recommendations to apply when the user overhauls Manual Slop's agent directives (deferred 1-2 weeks per the user, 2026-06-17).
+
+---
+
+## §0. TL;DR + Verdict Scorecard
+
+*[FILL IN: 1-page summary table. ~100 lines. All 17 verdicts at a glance.]*
+
+---
+
+## §1. The 3 Sources (Fable, Manual Slop, nagent) — What's in Scope
+
+*[FILL IN: ~200 lines. What is Fable, what is Manual Slop, what is nagent. The 3-source comparison framework.]*
+
+---
+
+## §2. The "Useful vs Persona vs Anti-User" Framework
+
+*[FILL IN: ~250 lines. Define the 4 verdict categories. Why this lens.]*
+
+---
+
+## §3. Fable's Product Branding & "Helpful Assistant" Persona
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_1_product_branding.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Persona Performance*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~300 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §4. Fable's Refusal Architecture & "Safety Theater"
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_2_refusal_architecture.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Anti-User + Persona*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §5. Fable's Mental-Health Watchdog Framing
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_3_user_wellbeing_watchdog.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Anti-User*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §6. Fable's Tone & Formatting Constraints
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_4_tone_and_formatting.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Useful + Persona*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~250 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §7. Fable's Mistake Handling
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_5_mistakes_and_criticism.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Persona*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~200 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §8. Fable's Evenhandedness & Contested Content
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_6_evenhandedness.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Persona + Useful caveats*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~300 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §9. Fable's Epistemic Discipline & Search Strategy
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_7_epistemic_discipline.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Useful*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §10. Fable's Memory System & Persistent Storage
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_8_memory_and_storage.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Useful + nagent-stronger*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §11. Fable's Computer-Use / File Workflow
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_9_computer_use.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Useful + over-broad*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~300 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §12. Fable's MCP App Suggestions
+
+*Source cluster: `research/cluster_10_mcp_app_suggestions.md`*
+*Verdict orientation: Useful + over-engineered*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~250 lines.]*
+
+---
+
+## §13. The "Genuinely Useful" Patterns (Manual Slop should adopt)
+
+*Source clusters: 7-10 (epistemic, memory, computer-use, MCP apps)*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines. Distillation of the useful patterns.]*
+
+---
+
+## §14. The "Anti-User Watchdog" Patterns (Manual Slop should explicitly reject)
+
+*Source clusters: 2-6 (refusal, user wellbeing, tone, mistakes, evenhandedness)*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~350 lines. Distillation of the anti-user patterns.]*
+
+---
+
+## §15. The "Persona Performance" Patterns (irrelevant to the rebuild)
+
+*Source clusters: 1, 4, 5, 8 (branding, tone, mistakes, memory)*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~250 lines. Distillation of the persona performance patterns.]*
+
+---
+
+## §16. Recommendations for the Deferred nagent-Rebuild
+
+*Source: all clusters; see also `decisions.md`*
+
+*[FILL IN: ~200 lines. 15-20 concrete recommendations.]*
+
+---
+
+## §17. References (file:line index)
+
+*[FILL IN: ~150 lines. The full citation index.]*
diff --git a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/state.toml b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/state.toml
index e4309eb6..051c59a9 100644
--- a/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/state.toml
+++ b/conductor/tracks/fable_review_20260617/state.toml
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 track_id = "fable_review_20260617"
 name = "Fable System Prompt Review (Critical Analysis)"
 status = "active"
-current_phase = 0
-last_updated = "2026-06-17"
+current_phase = 1
+last_updated = "2026-06-18"
 user_hard_rule = "docs/artifacts/Fable System Prompt.txt is NEVER committed. The artifact stays at that local path; the report and the cluster sub-references quote line ranges (≤15 words per quote) but the file does not enter git. Do not modify .gitignore for this; the rule is enforced by the implementer's discipline, not by a tracked file. git add . MUST be inspected before each commit in this track."
 
 [blocked_by]