diff --git a/server.js b/server.js
index 0ef5aa0..c2e227b 100644
--- a/server.js
+++ b/server.js
@@ -485,8 +485,11 @@ async function boot() {
   videosweep.init({ dataDir: DATA_DIR, fs, path, db, videoCheck,
     alert: async text => {
       const sc = siteConfig();
-      // Admin channels ONLY. This names a member's campaign and their email, so it must never
-      // fall back to the shared payments topic where the whole team would read it.
+      // Marty's own Hermes chat, where his other operational pings land (@CoolifyHermes_Bot).
+      // Admin channels ONLY, never a member-visible one: this names a member's campaign and
+      // their email address, so the shared payments topic would put it in front of the team.
+      const hermes = String(process.env.HERMES_BOT_TOKEN || '').trim();
+      if (hermes && sc.telegramAdminChatId) return tgSendAs(hermes, sc.telegramAdminChatId, text);
       if (sc.telegramBotToken && sc.telegramAdminChatId) return telegramSend(sc.telegramAdminChatId, text);
       if (ADMIN_EMAIL && mailer.hasKey()) return mailer.send(ADMIN_EMAIL, 'InstantAdPay: broken video sources', text.replace(/<[^>]+>/g, ''));
       console.log('videosweep: no admin channel configured, alert not sent');
@@ -810,6 +813,20 @@ async function payPromo(email, day) {
   });
 }
 // anti-fraud admin alert (Telegram admin chat, else email): who, which flags, and whether the sign-up was blocked
+// Send as a specific bot, for operational alerts that should arrive from Marty's own Hermes bot
+// rather than from the member-facing InstantAdPay one.
+function tgSendAs(token, chatId, text, threadId) {
+  return new Promise(resolve => {
+    const body = JSON.stringify(Object.assign({ chat_id: String(chatId), text, parse_mode: 'HTML', disable_web_page_preview: true },
+      threadId ? { message_thread_id: Number(threadId) } : {}));
+    const rq = https.request({ hostname: 'api.telegram.org', path: '/bot' + token + '/sendMessage', method: 'POST', timeout: 12000,
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(body) } },
+      r => { r.resume(); resolve(r.statusCode === 200); });
+    rq.on('error', () => resolve(false));
+    rq.on('timeout', () => { rq.destroy(); resolve(false); });
+    rq.end(body);
+  });
+}
 function fraudAlert(email, fc, spAcct, blocked) {
   try {
     const sc = siteConfig();
diff --git a/videosweep.js b/videosweep.js
index 444cdd4..c4b7a98 100644
--- a/videosweep.js
+++ b/videosweep.js
@@ -1,75 +1,80 @@
-// Re-check the video sources that are actually live (Marty, 2026-09-24).
-//
-// videoCheck runs when a campaign is SAVED, which leaves two holes it can never cover:
-//
-//   1. anything created before the check existed. Campaign #146 pointed at a placeholder,
-//      https://yourdomain.com/..., from 16 September. The check shipped on the 22nd. It sat
-//      live for another two days handing every viewer a black player and burning one of their
-//      daily video slots, until Marty hit it himself and asked why nothing played.
-//   2. link rot. A source that was fine on the day can 404 a week later, and nothing notices.
-//
-// So the live ones get re-checked on a schedule. A source that fails is PAUSED, never deleted:
-// the advertiser keeps every unspent credit (reservation is computed, not deducted) and can fix
-// the link and start it again. Failing is reported, not silent, because a check that quietly
-// does nothing is how the first one went unnoticed.
-'use strict';
-
-let X = null;
-const STATE = () => X.path.join(X.dataDir, 'videosweep.json');
-function load() { try { return JSON.parse(X.fs.readFileSync(STATE(), 'utf8')); } catch (e) { return { checked: {}, at: 0 }; } }
-function save(d) { try { X.fs.writeFileSync(STATE(), JSON.stringify(d)); } catch (e) {} }
-
-function init(deps) { X = deps; }
-
-// One pass. Returns what it found so the admin route and the scheduler can both report it.
-async function run(opts) {
-  const dry = !!(opts && opts.dry);
-  if (!X || !X.db || !X.db.enabled()) return { error: 'no database' };
-  const rows = await X.db.q(
-    "SELECT id, owner_email, name, image_url, status FROM campaigns WHERE type='video' AND status IN ('active','paused')");
-  const out = { checked: 0, ok: 0, broken: [], paused: [], skipped: 0 };
-  for (const c of rows) {
-    const url = String(c.image_url || '').trim();
-    if (!url) { out.skipped++; continue; }
-    if (/^\/uploads\//.test(url)) { out.skipped++; continue; }   // on our own disk
-    out.checked++;
-    let v;
-    try { v = await X.videoCheck(url); } catch (e) { v = { ok: false, reason: 'check threw: ' + e.message }; }
-    if (v.ok) { out.ok++; continue; }
-    out.broken.push({ id: c.id, name: c.name, owner: c.owner_email, url, reason: v.reason, status: c.status });
-    // only an ACTIVE one needs stopping; a paused one is already out of rotation
-    if (c.status === 'active' && !dry) {
-      try {
-        await X.db.q("UPDATE campaigns SET status='paused' WHERE id=?", [c.id]);
-        out.paused.push(c.id);
-      } catch (e) { /* reported below either way */ }
-    }
-  }
-  if (!dry) {
-    const st = load();
-    st.at = Date.now();
-    st.lastBroken = out.broken.map(b => b.id);
-    save(st);
-    if (out.paused.length) {
-      const lines = out.broken.filter(b => out.paused.includes(b.id))
-        .map(b => '#' + b.id + ' "' + b.name + '" (' + b.owner + ')\n    ' + b.url);
-      console.log('videosweep paused ' + out.paused.length + ' broken video campaign(s): ' + out.paused.join(', '));
-      if (X.alert) {
-        X.alert('\u{1F6D1} <b>Video sources that no longer load</b>\n\n'
-          + lines.join('\n') + '\n\nPaused so members stop losing a daily video slot on a black player. '
-          + 'Every unspent credit stays with the advertiser and the campaign can be restarted once the link is fixed.').catch(() => {});
-      }
-    }
-  }
-  return out;
-}
-
-// Daily is plenty: a source that dies is a slow problem, and HEADing every live video more often
-// than that is noise for the advertisers' servers.
-function start() {
-  const tick = () => { run({}).catch(e => console.error('videosweep', e.message)); };
-  setTimeout(tick, 90000);                    // once, shortly after boot
-  setInterval(tick, 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
-}
-
-module.exports = { init, run, start };
+// Re-check the video sources that are actually live (Marty, 2026-09-24).
+//
+// videoCheck runs when a campaign is SAVED, which leaves two holes it can never cover:
+//
+//   1. anything created before the check existed. Campaign #146 pointed at a placeholder,
+//      https://yourdomain.com/..., from 16 September. The check shipped on the 22nd. It sat
+//      live for another two days handing every viewer a black player and burning one of their
+//      daily video slots, until Marty hit it himself and asked why nothing played.
+//   2. link rot. A source that was fine on the day can 404 a week later, and nothing notices.
+//
+// So the live ones get re-checked on a schedule. A source that fails is PAUSED, never deleted:
+// the advertiser keeps every unspent credit (reservation is computed, not deducted) and can fix
+// the link and start it again. Failing is reported, not silent, because a check that quietly
+// does nothing is how the first one went unnoticed.
+'use strict';
+
+let X = null;
+const STATE = () => X.path.join(X.dataDir, 'videosweep.json');
+function load() { try { return JSON.parse(X.fs.readFileSync(STATE(), 'utf8')); } catch (e) { return { checked: {}, at: 0 }; } }
+function save(d) { try { X.fs.writeFileSync(STATE(), JSON.stringify(d)); } catch (e) {} }
+
+function init(deps) { X = deps; }
+
+// One pass. Returns what it found so the admin route and the scheduler can both report it.
+async function run(opts) {
+  const dry = !!(opts && opts.dry);
+  if (!X || !X.db || !X.db.enabled()) return { error: 'no database' };
+  const rows = await X.db.q(
+    "SELECT id, owner_email, name, image_url, status FROM campaigns WHERE type='video' AND status IN ('active','paused')");
+  const out = { checked: 0, ok: 0, broken: [], paused: [], skipped: 0 };
+  for (const c of rows) {
+    const url = String(c.image_url || '').trim();
+    if (!url) { out.skipped++; continue; }
+    if (/^\/uploads\//.test(url)) { out.skipped++; continue; }   // on our own disk
+    out.checked++;
+    let v;
+    try { v = await X.videoCheck(url); } catch (e) { v = { ok: false, reason: 'check threw: ' + e.message }; }
+    if (v.ok) { out.ok++; continue; }
+    out.broken.push({ id: c.id, name: c.name, owner: c.owner_email, url, reason: v.reason, status: c.status });
+    // only an ACTIVE one needs stopping; a paused one is already out of rotation
+    if (c.status === 'active' && !dry) {
+      try {
+        await X.db.q("UPDATE campaigns SET status='paused' WHERE id=?", [c.id]);
+        out.paused.push(c.id);
+      } catch (e) {
+        // never swallow this: a guard that fails quietly is the whole reason #146 survived
+        out.failed = out.failed || [];
+        out.failed.push({ id: c.id, error: e.message });
+        console.error('videosweep could not pause #' + c.id + ': ' + e.message);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  if (!dry) {
+    const st = load();
+    st.at = Date.now();
+    st.lastBroken = out.broken.map(b => b.id);
+    save(st);
+    if (out.paused.length) {
+      const lines = out.broken.filter(b => out.paused.includes(b.id))
+        .map(b => '#' + b.id + ' "' + b.name + '" (' + b.owner + ')\n    ' + b.url);
+      console.log('videosweep paused ' + out.paused.length + ' broken video campaign(s): ' + out.paused.join(', '));
+      if (X.alert) {
+        X.alert('\u{1F6D1} <b>Video sources that no longer load</b>\n\n'
+          + lines.join('\n') + '\n\nPaused so members stop losing a daily video slot on a black player. '
+          + 'Every unspent credit stays with the advertiser and the campaign can be restarted once the link is fixed.').catch(() => {});
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return out;
+}
+
+// Daily is plenty: a source that dies is a slow problem, and HEADing every live video more often
+// than that is noise for the advertisers' servers.
+function start() {
+  const tick = () => { run({}).catch(e => console.error('videosweep', e.message)); };
+  setTimeout(tick, 90000);                    // once, shortly after boot
+  setInterval(tick, 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
+}
+
+module.exports = { init, run, start };