---
session: 2026-05-10 / 2026-05-11
participants:
  - human: Jack Danger
  - agent: Claude Code (Opus 4.7)
summary: |
  A multi-day session that started with a single DVD-transcode failure
  message and ended with a top-to-bottom refactor + governance pass.
  Spawned an agent fleet to implement 15 follow-up improvements as
  parallel PRs, then reviewed and merged them, then refactored the
  resulting 2,235-line `main.rs` into a typed pipeline module tree, then
  added OSS hygiene + CI hardening.
---

# Prompts

In chronological order, with light context preserved for each.

## 1. Clearer ffmpeg error for a DVD transcode failure

> Check out deploy.sh for how to execute on our test machine. Then iterate
> until this command gives a much clearer error message for why
> transcoding failed:
>
> *(followed by hvac stderr from the user showing
> `ffmpeg failed (exit status: 234): … Nothing was written into output
> file …` for `Spandau_Ballet-Parade-LP-1984-ERP_INT.iso`)*

## 2. Land it

> commit through PR flow

## 3. What else should we anticipate before public release?

> PR merged. Before we release this broadly to the public what other
> errors can we anticipate and fix?

## 4. Fix them inline

> fix them inline

## 5. Spawn an agent fleet to do the implementation

> Create an agent team to implement each of these, each on their own git
> worktree (./git/worktrees/) and via their own PR. Harden the
> LaunchDarkly feature by making it take an SDK key via CLI only (strip
> any env var) and call out in the README that this is how you control
> machine resource usage during multi-day transcodes

## 6. Pre-commit hook for cargo fmt

> Not all branches pass 'cargo fmt'. Add that as a pre-commit hook and
> run it on all our branches and push.

## 7. Also clippy in CI/pre-commit

> Check CI for failing clippy stuff and make sure that's got a
> pre-commit hook too

## 8. Read Copilot's review comments

> Read copilot's review comments on each PR

## 9. Fix Copilot's review comments

> fix them inline

## 10. Ask Copilot to re-review

> get copilot to re-review each

## 11. Review and merge the fleet myself

> review each PR yourself and improve each one. Then merge them
> sequentially, checking for and fixing conflicts. Improve the codebase
> structure as you go

## 12. Review the codebase and improve its structure

> Review the codebase and improve its structure. Make it a far more
> organized, maintainable, and reliable system. Add unit tests where
> missing

## 13. Take the project to exemplar OSS state

> PR 25 is now merged. what other cleanups or unit tests additions or
> release tooling improvements or integration test or CI actions can we
> make. Do everything to get this project into an absolutely ideal
> status. One that people would use as the exemplar for source code and
> OSS projects

## 14. Publish the prompt log

> Also implement this as a CI step and write my prompts from this
> session to https://jackdanger.com/promptlog/

---

# What landed (high-level)

| PR | What |
|---|---|
| #7  | First fix — clearer ffmpeg error + pcm_dvd → MKV audio re-encode auto-retry. |
| #8  | Broaden `is_audio_copy_error` for TrueHD / DTS / E-AC-3 / FLAC / pcm_bluray. |
| #9  | Replace `1%-of-source-size` validation with a duration × 50 kbps bitrate floor. |
| #10 | Widen duration tolerance to `max(5 s, 1 %)` for VFR sources. |
| #11 | Split multi-title DVDs into per-title work items (one output per VTS). |
| #12 | Re-encode subtitles before nuking them entirely. |
| #13 | Permanently freeze NVENC max after repeated session-limit hits. |
| #14 | Skip too-short (< 1 s) files cleanly. |
| #15 | Probe every inner file of multi-file ISOs for accurate `-maxrate`. |
| #16 | ffprobe watchdog timeout + network-mount warning. |
| #17 | Gate `--overwrite` adopt path behind a `.hvac.complete` marker. |
| #18 | Pre-flight gate: skip 10-bit on Maxwell / early Pascal NVENC silicon. |
| #19 | Preserve HDR / color metadata on transcode. |
| #20 | Pre-flight writable check on destination directory. |
| #21 | Detect AACS / BD+ encrypted Blu-rays and skip with a clear message. |
| #22 | LaunchDarkly SDK key is CLI-only (no env var); README "Controlling resource usage". |
| #23 | `cargo fmt` pre-commit hook in `.githooks/pre-commit`. |
| #24 | Add `cargo clippy` to the same pre-commit hook. |
| #25 | Pipeline refactor — `main.rs` 2,235 → 401 lines; restored regressed multi-title / AACS / adopt-marker logic; 51 new unit tests; typed `RetryDecision` state machine. |
| #26 | Governance: CONTRIBUTING / SECURITY / CHANGELOG / templates / dependabot / architecture doc. |
| #27 | CI tooling: audit / deny / coverage / docs / MSRV / typos + this prompt log. |
