diff --git a/bin/nexus-merge-bot.sh b/bin/nexus-merge-bot.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 34057b6b..00000000
--- a/bin/nexus-merge-bot.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,216 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-# nexus-merge-bot.sh — Auto-review and auto-merge for the-nexus
-# Polls open PRs. For each: clone, validate (HTML/JS/JSON/size), merge if clean.
-# Runs as a loop. Squash-only. Linear history.
-#
-# Pattern: matches Timmy-time-dashboard merge policy.
-# Pre-commit hooks + this bot are the gates. If gates pass, auto-merge.
-
-set -uo pipefail
-
-LOG_DIR="$HOME/.hermes/logs"
-LOG="$LOG_DIR/nexus-merge-bot.log"
-PIDFILE="$LOG_DIR/nexus-merge-bot.pid"
-GITEA_URL="http://143.198.27.163:3000"
-GITEA_TOKEN=$(cat "$HOME/.hermes/gitea_token_vps" 2>/dev/null)
-REPO="Timmy_Foundation/the-nexus"
-CHECK_INTERVAL=60  # 2 minutes
-
-mkdir -p "$LOG_DIR"
-
-# Single instance guard
-if [ -f "$PIDFILE" ]; then
-  old_pid=$(cat "$PIDFILE")
-  if kill -0 "$old_pid" 2>/dev/null; then
-    echo "Merge bot already running (PID $old_pid)" >&2
-    exit 0
-  fi
-fi
-echo $$ > "$PIDFILE"
-trap 'rm -f "$PIDFILE"' EXIT
-
-log() {
-  echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] MERGE-BOT: $*" >> "$LOG"
-}
-
-validate_pr() {
-  local pr_num="$1"
-  local work_dir="/tmp/nexus-validate-$$"
-  rm -rf "$work_dir"
-  
-  # Get PR head branch
-  local pr_info
-  pr_info=$(curl -s --max-time 10 -H "Authorization: token ${GITEA_TOKEN}" \
-    "${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/pulls/${pr_num}")
-  
-  local head_ref
-  head_ref=$(echo "$pr_info" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.loads(sys.stdin.read())['head']['ref'])" 2>/dev/null)
-  local mergeable
-  mergeable=$(echo "$pr_info" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.loads(sys.stdin.read()).get('mergeable', False))" 2>/dev/null)
-  
-  if [ "$mergeable" != "True" ]; then
-    log "PR #${pr_num}: not mergeable (conflicts), skipping"
-    echo "CONFLICT"
-    return 1
-  fi
-  
-  # Clone and checkout the PR branch
-  git clone -q --depth 20 \
-    "http://Timmy:${GITEA_TOKEN}@143.198.27.163:3000/${REPO}.git" "$work_dir" 2>&1 | tail -5 >> "$LOG"
-  
-  if [ ! -d "$work_dir/.git" ]; then
-    log "PR #${pr_num}: clone failed"
-    echo "CLONE_FAIL"
-    return 1
-  fi
-  
-  cd "$work_dir" || return 1
-  
-  # Fetch and checkout the PR branch
-  git fetch origin "$head_ref" 2>/dev/null && git checkout "$head_ref" 2>/dev/null
-  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
-    # Try fetching the PR ref directly
-    git fetch origin "pull/${pr_num}/head:pr-${pr_num}" 2>/dev/null && git checkout "pr-${pr_num}" 2>/dev/null
-  fi
-  local FAIL=0
-  
-  # 1. HTML validation
-  if [ -f index.html ]; then
-    python3 -c "
-import html.parser
-class V(html.parser.HTMLParser):
-    pass
-v = V()
-v.feed(open('index.html').read())
-" 2>/dev/null || { log "PR #${pr_num}: HTML validation failed"; FAIL=1; }
-  fi
-  
-  # 2. JS syntax check (node --check)
-  for f in $(find . -name '*.js' -not -path './node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null); do
-    if command -v node >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-      if ! node --check "$f" 2>/dev/null; then
-        log "PR #${pr_num}: JS syntax error in $f"
-        FAIL=1
-      fi
-    fi
-  done
-  
-  # 3. JSON validation
-  for f in $(find . -name '*.json' -not -path './node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null); do
-    if ! python3 -c "import json; json.load(open('$f'))" 2>/dev/null; then
-      log "PR #${pr_num}: invalid JSON in $f"
-      FAIL=1
-    fi
-  done
-  
-  # 4. File size budget (500KB per JS file)
-  for f in $(find . -name '*.js' -not -path './node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null); do
-    local size
-    size=$(wc -c < "$f")
-    if [ "$size" -gt 512000 ]; then
-      log "PR #${pr_num}: $f exceeds 500KB budget (${size} bytes)"
-      FAIL=1
-    fi
-  done
-  
-  # Cleanup
-  rm -rf "$work_dir"
-  
-  if [ $FAIL -eq 0 ]; then
-    echo "PASS"
-    return 0
-  else
-    echo "FAIL"
-    return 1
-  fi
-}
-
-merge_pr() {
-  local pr_num="$1"
-  local result
-  result=$(curl -s --max-time 30 -X POST \
-    -H "Authorization: token ${GITEA_TOKEN}" \
-    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-    -d '{"Do":"squash","delete_branch_after_merge":true}' \
-    "${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/pulls/${pr_num}/merge")
-  
-  if echo "$result" | grep -q '"sha"'; then
-    log "PR #${pr_num}: MERGED (squash)"
-    return 0
-  elif echo "$result" | grep -q '"message"'; then
-    local msg
-    msg=$(echo "$result" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.loads(sys.stdin.read()).get('message','unknown'))" 2>/dev/null)
-    log "PR #${pr_num}: merge failed: $msg"
-    return 1
-  fi
-}
-
-comment_pr() {
-  local pr_num="$1"
-  local body="$2"
-  curl -s --max-time 10 -X POST \
-    -H "Authorization: token ${GITEA_TOKEN}" \
-    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-    -d "{\"body\": \"$body\"}" \
-    "${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/issues/${pr_num}/comments" >/dev/null
-}
-
-log "Starting nexus merge bot (PID $$)"
-
-while true; do
-  # Get open PRs
-  prs=$(curl -s --max-time 15 -H "Authorization: token ${GITEA_TOKEN}" \
-    "${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/pulls?state=open&sort=newest&limit=20")
-  
-  pr_count=$(echo "$prs" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(len(json.loads(sys.stdin.buffer.read())))" 2>/dev/null || echo "0")
-  
-  if [ "$pr_count" = "0" ] || [ -z "$pr_count" ]; then
-    log "No open PRs. Sleeping ${CHECK_INTERVAL}s"
-    sleep "$CHECK_INTERVAL"
-    continue
-  fi
-  
-  log "Found ${pr_count} open PRs, validating..."
-  
-  # Process PRs one at a time, oldest first (sequential merge)
-  pr_nums=$(echo "$prs" | python3 -c "
-import sys, json
-prs = json.loads(sys.stdin.buffer.read())
-for p in prs:
-    print(p['number'])
-" 2>/dev/null)
-  
-  for pr_num in $pr_nums; do
-    log "Validating PR #${pr_num}..."
-    result=$(validate_pr "$pr_num")
-    
-    case "$result" in
-      PASS)
-        log "PR #${pr_num}: validation passed, merging..."
-        comment_pr "$pr_num" "🤖 **Merge Bot**: CI validation passed (HTML, JS syntax, JSON, size budget). Auto-merging."
-        merge_pr "$pr_num"
-        # Wait a beat for Gitea to process
-        sleep 5
-        ;;
-      CONFLICT)
-        # Auto-close stale conflicting PRs — don't let them pile up
-        log "PR #${pr_num}: conflicts, closing"
-        comment_pr "$pr_num" "🤖 **Merge Bot**: Merge conflicts with main. Closing. The issue remains open — next agent cycle will pick it up fresh."
-        curl -s --max-time 5 -X PATCH \
-          -H "Authorization: token ${GITEA_TOKEN}" \
-          -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-          -d '{"state":"closed"}' \
-          "${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/pulls/${pr_num}" >/dev/null 2>&1
-        ;;
-      FAIL)
-        comment_pr "$pr_num" "🤖 **Merge Bot**: CI validation failed. Check the merge-bot log for details."
-        ;;
-      *)
-        log "PR #${pr_num}: unknown result: $result"
-        ;;
-    esac
-  done
-  
-  log "Cycle complete. Sleeping ${CHECK_INTERVAL}s"
-  sleep "$CHECK_INTERVAL"
-done