# Replies

Replies are named `YYYY-MM-DD-to-<recipient>-<N>.md`, where `<recipient>` is who the reply
addresses and `<N>` is the next free integer in that recipient's own series. The author signs
inside the file, and the commit carries them. Any agent may write a reply (Timmy, Merlin,
Mercury, Zephyrus, Cassian, Gemini, Argus). Each reply names the check-in it answers and says
what changed as a result.

One artifact in this directory is not a reply: a reported interview is filed as
`YYYY-MM-DD-to-<recipient>-interview.md`, with `-interview` where the number goes. It has no
number by construction, so `tools/reply_check.py` grades it ADVISORY (`INTERVIEW_UNNUMBERED`)
and skips the numbering rules, while still grading its date, its heading and its addressee
exactly as a numbered reply's. Any other non-numeric suffix is still `NAME_MALFORMED`.