What broke this week · Remco Livainhttps://www.livain.com/series/what-broke/Post-mortems from real client and own-project work: what failed, how I found it, what I changed.enA fix applied to the live page is not a fix: locking rebuilt pages against the generator that re-creates the errorhttps://www.livain.com/blog/fix-applied-to-live-page-not-a-fix-lock-rebuilt-pages-against-generator/https://www.livain.com/blog/fix-applied-to-live-page-not-a-fix-lock-rebuilt-pages-against-generator/Mon, 26 Oct 2026 08:00:00 GMTFix the generator, not the page, and lock rebuilt pages against it."The draft is ready" is not a status: what an agentic routine owes you when it reports on its own workhttps://www.livain.com/blog/draft-is-ready-not-a-status-agentic-routine-verify-own-claims/https://www.livain.com/blog/draft-is-ready-not-a-status-agentic-routine-verify-own-claims/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTAn agent must verify the claims it carries in its own state.A shop platform upgrade took out the ad layer, not the shop: 60 disapproved Google Ads that don't come back when the pages dohttps://www.livain.com/blog/shop-platform-upgrade-disapproved-google-ads-dont-come-back-by-themselves/https://www.livain.com/blog/shop-platform-upgrade-disapproved-google-ads-dont-come-back-by-themselves/Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTAd disapprovals are stored state. Somebody has to ask for the re-review.A counted conversion with a made-up value is worse than no tracking: the flat €10 add-to-cart that flattered four markets' CPAhttps://www.livain.com/blog/counted-conversion-made-up-value-flat-add-to-cart-placeholder/https://www.livain.com/blog/counted-conversion-made-up-value-flat-add-to-cart-placeholder/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTA conversion with a made-up value is worse than no tracking at all.Price governance in ecommerce: how a promotion died silently on four country shops for a monthhttps://www.livain.com/blog/price-governance-ecommerce-promotion-died-silently-four-shops/https://www.livain.com/blog/price-governance-ecommerce-promotion-died-silently-four-shops/Mon, 05 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTDeclare a price once and audit the whole chain daily. The price guard itself can be the bug.The LinkedIn account I deleted came back: why closing an account isn't closing it, and the four steps that arehttps://www.livain.com/blog/closing-an-account-oauth-resurrection-gdpr-erasure-playbook/https://www.livain.com/blog/closing-an-account-oauth-resurrection-gdpr-erasure-playbook/Fri, 02 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTClosing an account means revoking every sign-in grant behind it.An expired promotion doesn't expire by itself: the ended sale still on the shop, the promotion asset still serving a 404https://www.livain.com/blog/expired-promotions-price-mismatch-google-ads-promotion-assets/https://www.livain.com/blog/expired-promotions-price-mismatch-google-ads-promotion-assets/Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTA promotion is a set of artefacts, not a date. End every one of them.I called a keyword set off-product before I opened the client's shop: how to check product–query fit before cutting a Google Ads campaignhttps://www.livain.com/blog/check-product-query-fit-before-cutting-google-ads-campaign/https://www.livain.com/blog/check-product-query-fit-before-cutting-google-ads-campaign/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTOpen the client's shop before you call a keyword set off-product.Nineteen days of ad spend with no measurement: the Google Tag Manager snippet was gone from the page, not broken in the consolehttps://www.livain.com/blog/gtm-snippet-removed-from-page-nineteen-days-no-measurement/https://www.livain.com/blog/gtm-snippet-removed-from-page-nineteen-days-no-measurement/Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTWhen a conversion drops to zero, check the page source before the container, and tell Smart Bidding its data was wrong.I replaced a monthly client report with a 90-day review — and found two broken comparisons in my own numbershttps://www.livain.com/blog/monthly-client-report-to-90-day-review/https://www.livain.com/blog/monthly-client-report-to-90-day-review/Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTCompare equal windows, measured with the same ruler as the target.My scheduled Claude Code routine failed three weeks running: what agentic workflows need that a written lesson doesn't give themhttps://www.livain.com/blog/scheduled-claude-code-routine-failed-agentic-workflows-context/https://www.livain.com/blog/scheduled-claude-code-routine-failed-agentic-workflows-context/Wed, 09 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTAn agent has to know what its environment can do, and every lesson needs an owner.The channel filter on my dashboard silently broke ROAS: how to attribute ad spend across sales channelshttps://www.livain.com/blog/channel-filter-broke-roas-attributing-ad-spend/https://www.livain.com/blog/channel-filter-broke-roas-attributing-ad-spend/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTAd spend lives per advertising channel, revenue per sales channel. Filter both or neither.I named the cookie the obvious thing. So had the script that was already there.https://www.livain.com/blog/i-named-the-cookie-the-obvious-thing/https://www.livain.com/blog/i-named-the-cookie-the-obvious-thing/Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:00:00 GMTNamespace what you add, and treat your own change as the first suspect.The lead went out to a company. It had been struck off the register two years earlier.https://www.livain.com/blog/the-lead-went-to-a-company-struck-off-two-years-earlier/https://www.livain.com/blog/the-lead-went-to-a-company-struck-off-two-years-earlier/Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTCheck a directory against the commercial register before it sends anyone a lead.Forty-six live ads. Not one of them had a page to land on.https://www.livain.com/blog/forty-six-live-ads-no-page-to-land-on/https://www.livain.com/blog/forty-six-live-ads-no-page-to-land-on/Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTSomebody has to own the landing page of every ad.Our ROAS doubled. We hadn't sold a thing more.https://www.livain.com/blog/our-roas-doubled-we-hadnt-sold-more/https://www.livain.com/blog/our-roas-doubled-we-hadnt-sold-more/Mon, 24 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTWhen a ratio jumps, check the denominator and the definition before you celebrate.I scheduled a weekly check that could never run.https://www.livain.com/blog/i-scheduled-a-weekly-check-that-could-never-run/https://www.livain.com/blog/i-scheduled-a-weekly-check-that-could-never-run/Fri, 21 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTSchedule a check where its tools exist, and let it report "nothing" honestly.We fixed checkout in production. The generator was still holding the bug.https://www.livain.com/blog/we-fixed-checkout-in-production/https://www.livain.com/blog/we-fixed-checkout-in-production/Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTA fix that never reaches the build engine gets rebuilt away.Everything returned 200. Four leads still went nowhere.https://www.livain.com/blog/everything-returned-200/https://www.livain.com/blog/everything-returned-200/Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTSilent failures are the expensive ones. Make the systems shout.My assistant created the same task three days running. The fix has a name: idempotency.https://www.livain.com/blog/the-same-task-three-days-running-idempotency/https://www.livain.com/blog/the-same-task-three-days-running-idempotency/Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMTAsk what happens when it runs twice, and make the automation idempotent.The form promised a copy by email. Nobody was sending it.https://www.livain.com/blog/the-form-promised-a-copy-nobody-was-sending-it/https://www.livain.com/blog/the-form-promised-a-copy-nobody-was-sending-it/Thu, 09 Jul 2026 06:45:00 GMTEvery promise a form makes is a send you have to test end to end.Yesterday's ad spend kept landing on today. Two bugs were wearing one costume.https://www.livain.com/blog/yesterdays-spend-landing-on-today/https://www.livain.com/blog/yesterdays-spend-landing-on-today/Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:50:00 GMTPin the day boundary to one timezone, and never show an estimate as a booked fact.The AI handed me a number that was wrong in the most convincing wayhttps://www.livain.com/blog/the-ai-handed-me-a-number-wrong-in-the-most-convincing-way/https://www.livain.com/blog/the-ai-handed-me-a-number-wrong-in-the-most-convincing-way/Wed, 10 Jun 2026 07:15:00 GMTPlausible wrong data survives longest. Check what a figure actually measures.