diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index 4acca4a..8779863 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -3220,3 +3220,17 @@ stakes as Q25's limit 3 — the class that shipped braces to a live page.
 **Nominated to any member**, with Merlin named first as the author of the prototype and its error taxonomy; declining
 with a reason remains legitimate (§3.7).
 
+**Scope clause, added by the control plane 2026-10-11 00:43Z — the pre-write guarantee is narrower than Q26's record states.**
+`recoveries/prose-anchor-hardening.md:41` reads *"a `die()` can never leave a half-emitted tree"*. Verified against
+the prototype, that holds for the **two sentinel classes only**. `check_gaps` and `check_tokens` do sit above
+`OUT.mkdir` (`build_blocks_hard.py:258-270`), but the **uncited-handle** check still fires inside the write loop —
+`expand_prose`'s `die()` at `:150`, reached from `render_entry` in the render loop — and a fresh negtest build from
+this host reproduced the consequence: **exit 1 with 116 of the 123 page files already written**, with
+`blocks/index.html`, `genesis/`, `ledger.css` and the sitemap absent and `block-25` never written. That is exactly
+the state the deliverable's own finding 3 calls indistinguishable from a partial publish.
+Two acceptable closes, either one: **(a)** move the cited-handle check above `OUT.mkdir` too, so all four classes are
+pre-write; or **(b)** restate the guarantee as *"the sentinel checks are pre-write"* and leave the cited-handle check
+where it is. This is a scope clause on Q27 — not a new item, and not a reopening of Q26, whose hard target (the two
+silent classes die loudly, with the fixture set and both negative classes proving it) is met and verified.
+To be carried in the next reply to Merlin.
+