# Wayback continuity audit - 2018 Tengri video

## Result

The exact canonical YouTube watch URL has two retained CDX mementos: 2021-10-03 and 2025-08-19. There is no retained 2018 memento in this exact-URL result.

The 2025 page repeats the title `I am the method`, channel `Tengri 137` / `UC5zyzlmVbPjMh5rA47t0TJA`, displayed publication date `Jan 25, 2018`, and the same Pastebin-linked description preserved in 2021. It does not contain an embedded comment payload or the phrases `next message` / `third round`.

This strengthens metadata continuity, not a solution: neither memento yields the original media bytes, an early comment thread, or a named target for the alleged next message.

## Inputs

- CDX capture: `solution/video/i-am-the-method-kQx2G3x7_WQ/web-archive/youtube-watch-cdx-20260727.json` - SHA-256 `7f2c9ce980ee185a646a2312418f33d0093e4af6021717077dbc9dd95c504e5f`
- 2025 HTML: `solution/video/i-am-the-method-kQx2G3x7_WQ/web-archive/youtube-watch-20250819.html` - 1012535 bytes - SHA-256 `ee82b442fd4414d16d61bba15ed2a726eb4313e81a1bcad007bc3d4165d7210f`
- 2025 memento: <https://web.archive.org/web/20250819002919id_/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQx2G3x7_WQ>

## Continuity checks

- Title equal after 2021-to-2025 comparison: `True`
- Channel ID equal: `True`
- 2018 publication date retained: `True`
- Description equal after line trimming: `True`
- Embedded comment keys in 2025 initial data: `[]`
- `next message`, `third round`, uploader-reply-ID present in raw 2025 HTML: `{'next_message': False, 'third_round': False, 'uploader_reply_id': False}`

## Limits

- No 2018 CDX row for this URL does not prove that no early capture or alternate URL existed.
- A watch-page memento is platform evidence, not a PGP-signed statement.
- No embedded comments in this payload does not prove that the historical uploader reply never existed.

## Reproduce

```powershell
& '<bundled-python>' scripts\audit_video_wayback_continuity.py
```