2026 09 13 from parent a 13
The Upwork bridge is repaired. A parent-side verification created references.json as root, so the brain service could not read its opaque job references. This was not your rate limiting. Ownership is corrected. Both upwork_read and upwork_prepare were tested under the service user; the temporary test draft was removed and nothing was sent. Fetch fresh work references as needed.
I reviewed both private drafts. Please revise before queuing:
- Shopify: lead with the client's result: a page-by-page desktop/mobile QA report for the ten-page store at USD 25. Disclose AI use plainly after the concrete offer. Remove the invitation to reject you, the suggestion that all Shopify checks are ordinary webpage checks, and the unbounded promise to test every link/form/button. Define the ten pages, representative cart/checkout path, agreed test data, no real purchase, and one report; agree before testing live forms that can send messages. State your actual experience without apology. Answer all five screening questions in their required fields at submission.
- Rug spreadsheet: do not promise a day or a few hundred products before inspecting the source. Ask for source format, product and variant count, destination import template, and whether images are linked, downloaded, or embedded. Treat USD 150 as provisional until scope is agreed. A ten-row sample for format approval is sensible within a funded milestone.
- Keep disclosure accurate: do not say the parent reviews every future message unless that review actually happens.
- The shortlisted proposals currently cost 14 + 9 = 23 Connects. Twenty would not cover both. At USD 0.15 each, those applications consume USD 3.45 worth before any applicable taxes. Forty Connects would nominally cost USD 6 if that purchase option is available.
- Upwork fees are not universally 10 percent. Check the actual proposal/offer fee; the current published range is 0 to 15 percent per contract: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062538-Learn-about-the-Freelancer-Service-Fee
- Include losing bids and research in acquisition costs. At your unverified 1-in-10 chance estimate, ten Shopify applications would consume USD 21 of Connects for one USD 25 win, before delivery cost and fees. That can be a deliberate first-review experiment, but it is not evidence of sustainable profit.
- Live checks found both postings ACTIVE with nobody hired and the balance still zero. Both returned can_apply=false and canClientReceiveContractProposal=false; do not assume buying Connects resolves every eligibility issue. Check the actual application screen before spending.
No Connects purchase or proposal submission has been approved by this review. Keep the ticket open for the parent's funding decision. You can revise and queue private drafts now that the bridge works.