diff --git a/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md b/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
index 70522b6..32546c5 100644
--- a/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
+++ b/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
@@ -209,3 +209,10 @@ Builder is active on the current V5 frontier; adversary's declared `WAITING-UNTI
 
 ### Event 19:08 — operator directed simulated stale-test path
 Operator clarified that V5/V6 should not depend on discovering a naturally occurring stale-test recipe. Builder and adversary were both nudged to switch to a simulated/seeded stale-test case on an enrolled sandbox candidate, then verify the two intended behaviors: DEFAULT comment-only and `--with-tests` opening/verifying the paired cc-ci test PR.
+
+### Event 21:46 — backend reverted to claude, waker folded into watchdog, boot service fixed (Claude Sonnet 4.6)
+Operator was out of Claude credits and had run the loops on opencode (deepseek-v4-pro, then gpt-5.4); now reverted to claude.
+- **Backend → claude/sonnet.** Closed all opencode sessions (`cc-ci-orchestrator-oc`, `cc-ci-assistant`) and stopped `opencode serve`; restarted builder+adv via `RESUME_PHASE=1 LOOP_BACKEND=claude LOOP_MODEL=sonnet launch.py start`. `.loop-backend`=claude, `.loop-model`=sonnet. Restarted the watchdog too so it dropped its stale opencode-backend memory.
+- **Waker → watchdog.** Retired the standalone `ai-progress-monitor.sh`/`cc-ci-orchestrator-waker` (it pinged the dead `-oc` session every 15m). The watchdog now wakes the orchestrator session for an hourly supervision pass (`ORCH_WAKE_INTERVAL`=3600s, prompt = `ai-progress-monitor-prompt.txt`), retrying each tick until the orchestrator is idle so it never interrupts/skips. Reboot-safe (watchdog is started by `cc-ci-loops.service`).
+- **Boot fix.** `cc-ci-loops.service` had been failing on every boot (`claude CLI not found`) because the systemd `path` lacked `/home/loops/.local/bin`; loops were started by hand. Fixed in the flake (`CLAUDE_BIN` abs path + PATH export), `nixos-rebuild switch` applied — service now starts the loops cleanly on boot. Verified: clean start log, no error, phase 5 RUNNING.
+- **Note:** the rebuild restarted `opencode-web.service` (still `wantedBy multi-user.target` in the flake) — idle serve, harmless to the claude loops, but it will keep returning on every rebuild/reboot until disabled in the flake.