internal field guide · under the hood

The machine behind the work: 14 agents, three layers, one compounding brain.

This is how Scale By Video actually runs, the infrastructure, the specialist agents, and the weekly learning loop that turns every client's results into a sharper next round. Internal reference, current as of June 2026.

Stack: a dedicated Hetzner box (sbv-prod-01) over Tailscale · markdown brain as source of truth · Anthropic Claude (Opus / Sonnet / Haiku) with native prompt caching + model tiering · the official Meta Ads MCP.
/ the three layers

Control, execution, memory, kept separate on purpose.

Each layer does one job. Paperclip decides and pays, OpenClaw runs the agents and touches the outside world, Hermes remembers and automates.

Paperclipcontrol + economics

The orchestration and budget layer. Routes incoming work to the right specialist agent, enforces a per-agent spend cap, and exposes the budget API that Ledger reads. Every agent is invoked through it.

paperclip.service · shared env at /etc/paperclip/env
OpenClawagent execution

The gateway that runs the 14 agents as subprocesses and connects them to the outside world: channels (Telegram capture via Scribe) and MCP connectors (the official Meta Ads MCP, HubSpot, Slack, Calendar). Where the agents actually do things.

openclaw-gateway.service
Hermesmemory + research + automation

The NousResearch runtime. Holds Honcho-backed memory, runs scheduled jobs and skills, and provides native gateway prompt caching. The agents' long-running thinking and recall live here.

hermes-gateway.service · 127.0.0.1:8642 · v0.14.x

The substrate underneath

The Brain
Markdown vault = source of truth. Contracts, doctrine, client notes, mesh signals.
Honcho
Memory daemon inside Hermes. Crystallizes learnings into vault notes nightly (2 AM).
Agent Vault
Credential broker. Secrets injected at runtime, never sit in configs.
Tailscale + Mail
Private network between Mac and VPS; per-agent email aliases.
/ how one task runs

Every agent reads before it acts, and writes when it's done.

01 · IN
Work arrives, from Ramon, a schedule, or an inbound lead
→
02 · ROUTE
Paperclip invokes the right agent under a budget cap
→
03 · RECALL
Agent's first move: read the vault + query Honcho memory
→
04 · ACT
Works via LLM + MCP connectors (Meta, HubSpot, Slack)
→
05 · WRITE
Results written back to the vault
→
06 · LEARN
Honcho ingests overnight → a richer next run
/ the roster

14 specialists, each on the right model for its job.

Cheap, deterministic work runs on Haiku; reasoning and client-facing work on Sonnet; only Boss's weekly synthesis touches Opus. That tiering plus prompt caching is what keeps the whole stack running on a few dollars a day.

◆ mesh
Boss Opus
Orchestrator. Routes work, approves deliverables, handles escalations, runs the Friday synthesis.
◆ mesh
Reach Sonnet
Meta campaign manager. Audiences, budgets, optimization, scaling. The Meta MCP operator.
◆ mesh
Scout Sonnet
Ecosystem watch. Meta algorithm/policy shifts, top-performer ad-library patterns. Feeds Reach.
◆ mesh
Probe Sonnet
Discovery & research. A two-page brief before every call; refines ICP and vertical packs.
◆ mesh
Studio Sonnet
Pre-production. Shoot scheduling, shot lists, creative briefs, footage handoff.
◆ mesh
Anchor Sonnet
Reporting. Daily monitoring, Friday Loom, bi-weekly report, health score, churn alerts.
◇ observer
Concierge Haiku
Lead response. First touch under 5 minutes, qualifies, books. Kept fast and cheap on purpose.
Pitch Sonnet
SBV's own outbound. Sources ICP-fit prospects, drafts cold outreach for approval.
Voice Sonnet
Brand voice & short-form. Ad copy, hooks, LinkedIn and organic content scripts.
Quill Sonnet
Long-form. Blog posts, case studies, lead magnets, and compliance review of ad copy.
Cutter Sonnet
Video editor. Hook variations (3 hooks × 2 formats per concept), captions, motion graphics.
Pipeline Haiku
CRM hygiene. HubSpot records, dedup, lead-source tags, qualified-lead counting.
Ledger Haiku
Internal finance. Weekly pipeline, revenue, per-agent API cost, and capacity.
Scribe Haiku
Capture surface. Receives Ramon's Telegram notes, classifies, writes to the vault in seconds.
Opus · high-judgment Sonnet · reasoning & client-facing Haiku · fast, deterministic ◆ mesh participant · ◇ observer
/ the moat

The optimization mesh: one agent's signal on Tuesday is informing the other five by Wednesday.

Without it, every client engagement is a clean slate, the same patterns re-discovered and forgotten. The mesh is a closed weekly feedback loop on ad performance. This is the compounding edge, not the tools.

/ 6 participants + 1 observer
Boss · integration & decisions Scout · external shifts Probe · customer signals Studio · creative patterns Reach · campaign performance Anchor · outcome data Concierge · observer (emit-only)
EACH WEEK
Every agent writes to its own path and drops a one-line pointer into shared by-type signal files (patterns, contradictions, questions, numbers, ideas).
FRIDAY 17:00 UTC
Boss reads the signals and hunts for 4 connection types, then writes 3–5 typed decisions into an append-only DECISIONS.md.
MONDAY 09:00
Participants load the synthesis. The next ad batch is built informed by what won and lost, across clients in the same vertical.
GUARDRAIL
A pattern stays niche-local until it replicates in 2+ verticals before graduating to shared signals. No cross-contamination.
/ three learning loops

It gets smarter on three clocks.

per action

Read & log

Every run starts with a vault + Honcho read and ends with a line in the daily note. Nothing is done from a blank slate.

nightly · 2 AM

Honcho ingest

The memory daemon crystallizes the day's transcripts and outcomes back into vault notes, so tomorrow's agents know more.

weekly · Friday

The mesh

Signals become decisions become the next batch. Anchor closes the loop: did the decision actually improve booked → showed → closed?

/ the operating rhythm

What the agents actually do, day to day, week to week, month to month.

This isn't a one-time setup that hands you a reel. It runs on three clocks, and the longer it runs the sharper it gets.

day to day

Keep the money moving

  • Concierge answers every new lead in minutes and books it before it goes cold
  • Reach watches the campaigns, pauses fatigue, scales what's booking jobs, never killing top-of-funnel
  • Pipeline keeps the CRM clean and counts qualified leads honestly
  • Scribe captures notes; every agent reads the brain first and logs what it did
week to week

Get sharper

  • Reach reads the week's numbers, reallocates budget, tests fresh hooks
  • Anchor ships the Friday Loom and the written report
  • Scout flags Meta algorithm, policy, and top-performer shifts before they bite
  • The mesh: every Friday, Boss turns the week's signals into concrete decisions for the next ad batch
month to month

Compound

  • Fresh creative replaces fatigued ads before they decay; lookalikes refreshed
  • Monthly retrospective (first Monday): what's working across the whole account
  • Each batch is built on what won and lost last month, across clients in the same vertical
  • Ledger reviews cost, revenue, and capacity, cost-per-booked-job trends down
/ efficiency

How it runs on a few dollars a day.

prompt caching
  • Native in the Hermes gateway since v0.4.0
  • The stable prefix (system prompt + brain docs) is cached; dynamic content goes at the tail so it never busts the cache
  • Cached tokens bill at ~10% — identical output, far lower cost
  • 1-hour TTL so cron-spaced calls stay warm
model tiering
  • Haiku for the grunt work: capture, classification, dedup, lead replies
  • Sonnet for reasoning, creative, and anything client-facing
  • Opus gated to Boss's Friday synthesis only
  • No silent escalation — a cheap-tier failure errors, it doesn't quietly bill Sonnet
/ what changed recently

What's new since the last version.

  • The stack matured into three named layers new — Paperclip (control + budget), OpenClaw (execution), Hermes (memory + automation), plus the markdown brain and Honcho memory daemon.
  • Roster grew from 11 to 14 new — added Scout (ecosystem watch), Scribe (Telegram capture), and Ledger (internal finance).
  • The optimization mesh now exists new — a formal weekly loop, 6 participants + Concierge observer, with an append-only decisions log. This is the headline capability.
  • The official Meta Ads MCP is live new — Reach runs 100% natural-language Meta operations, with an account-level funnel guardrail (never kill top-of-funnel on last-click ROAS).
  • Cost optimization is doctrine now new — native prompt caching, Haiku tiering, Opus gated to Friday, real spend ~$13/day and falling.
  • The client portal is a 3-layer multi-tenant system — agents are the source of truth and write results to it (Supabase, per the current operational doc; reconcile vs the Vercel-Postgres reference before relying on it).

Scale By Video · internal field guide · sbv-prod-01 · brain synced Mac → VPS · current June 2026