diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.integration.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.integration.test.ts
index 52af07c54d3..a944b4607f1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.integration.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.integration.test.ts
@@ -961,6 +961,112 @@ process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify({
     expect(out.findings).toEqual([]);
   });
 
+  it('holds a mutant at inconclusive when its OWN test was red in the baseline', async () => {
+    // Measured live on PR #8213: six hunks in `bridge.ts` were correctly held
+    // at `inconclusive` because `bridge.test.ts` never ran green, while eight
+    // mutants in the SAME file were scored `survived` and shipped as findings.
+    // A mutant runs against `greenProbes` only, so the red collocated test is
+    // excluded from the run, and "every affected test still passed" is then
+    // computed over a set that omits the one test most likely to catch the
+    // deletion. Two files here: `f.ts` whose own test is red, and `g.ts`
+    // whose own test is green — the second is what shows the guard is
+    // targeted rather than a blanket refusal.
+    write('package.json', '{"private":true,"workspaces":["packages/*"]}\n');
+    write('packages/lib/src/f.ts', 'export const a = new Map();\n');
+    write('packages/lib/src/g.ts', 'export const b = new Map();\n');
+    const base = commitAll('base');
+    write(
+      'packages/lib/src/f.ts',
+      'export const a = new Map();\nexport function fReset() {\n  a.clear();\n}\n',
+    );
+    write(
+      'packages/lib/src/g.ts',
+      'export const b = new Map();\nexport function gReset() {\n  b.clear();\n}\n',
+    );
+    write(
+      'packages/lib/src/f.test.ts',
+      'import { fReset } from "./f.js"; import { it, expect } from "vitest"; it("t", () => expect(typeof fReset).toBe("function"));\n',
+    );
+    write(
+      'packages/lib/src/g.test.ts',
+      'import { gReset } from "./g.js"; import { it, expect } from "vitest"; it("t", () => expect(typeof gReset).toBe("function"));\n',
+    );
+    commitAll('pr');
+    const wt = join(repo, 'wt');
+    git(repo, 'worktree', 'add', '-q', '--detach', wt, 'HEAD');
+    writeFileSync(
+      join(repo, 'report.json'),
+      JSON.stringify({
+        files: [
+          { path: 'packages/lib/src/f.ts', kind: 'source' },
+          { path: 'packages/lib/src/g.ts', kind: 'source' },
+          { path: 'packages/lib/src/f.test.ts', kind: 'test' },
+          { path: 'packages/lib/src/g.test.ts', kind: 'test' },
+        ],
+      }),
+    );
+    // `f.test.ts` is red from the start — the baseline shape this is about.
+    // Everything else is green, and the injected control still turns the run
+    // red, so the harness is validated and survivors would be licensed.
+    writeFileSync(
+      vitestScript(),
+      `#!/usr/bin/env node
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import path from 'node:path';
+const files = process.argv.slice(2).filter((a) => a.includes('.test.'));
+const st = (f) => {
+  try {
+    if (fs.readFileSync(f, 'utf8').includes('QWEN-REVIEW-POSITIVE-CONTROL')) return 'failed';
+  } catch {}
+  return path.basename(f) === 'f.test.ts' ? 'failed' : 'passed';
+};
+const results = files.map((f) => ({
+  name: path.resolve(f),
+  assertionResults: [{ status: st(f) }],
+}));
+const nf = results.filter((r) => r.assertionResults[0].status === 'failed').length;
+process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify({
+  numPassedTests: results.length - nf,
+  numFailedTests: nf,
+  testResults: results,
+}));
+`,
+    );
+    await runHandler({
+      report: join(repo, 'report.json'),
+      worktree: wt,
+      base,
+      out: join(repo, 'out.json'),
+    });
+
+    const out = JSON.parse(readFileSync(join(repo, 'out.json'), 'utf8'));
+    expect(out.harnessValidated).toBe(true);
+    const forF = out.mutants.probed.filter((m: { file: string }) =>
+      m.file.endsWith('f.ts'),
+    );
+    expect(forF.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    for (const m of forF) {
+      expect(m.verdict).toBe('inconclusive');
+      expect(m.detail).toContain('f.test.ts');
+      expect(m.detail).toContain('did not run green');
+    }
+    // ...and nothing a reader acts on carries a survivor claim for that file.
+    expect(
+      (out.findings as Array<{ kind: string; file: string }>).filter(
+        (f) => f.kind === 'mutant-survived' && f.file.endsWith('f.ts'),
+      ),
+    ).toEqual([]);
+    // The guard is targeted: `g.ts`, whose own test IS green, still gets a
+    // real verdict rather than being swept up with it.
+    const forG = out.mutants.probed.filter((m: { file: string }) =>
+      m.file.endsWith('g.ts'),
+    );
+    expect(forG.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(
+      forG.every((m: { verdict: string }) => m.verdict !== 'inconclusive'),
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it('a control that could not be SET UP leaves the window spendable', async () => {
     // `null` is not `false`, and this is where the difference is observable.
     // A control that never ran demonstrated nothing about the runner, so the
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.ts
index 06205f523af..84f2213e021 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/test-efficacy.ts
@@ -1998,6 +1998,31 @@ async function runTestEfficacy(args: TestEfficacyArgs): Promise<void> {
             );
           }
           for (const c of harnessValidated === false ? [] : candidates) {
+            // The hunk loop's rule, which the mutants needed just as much.
+            // A mutant runs against `greenProbes` only, so a file whose OWN
+            // test was red in the unmutated baseline has that test excluded
+            // from the run — and then "every affected test still passed"
+            // is computed over a set that omits the one test most likely to
+            // catch the deletion. Measured live on PR #8213: six hunks in
+            // `bridge.ts` were correctly held at `inconclusive` because
+            // `bridge.test.ts` was not green, while eight mutants in the SAME
+            // file were scored `survived` and shipped as findings.
+            //
+            // The comment below this loop framed the asymmetry as "mutants
+            // guard the killed direction, hunks guard the survived one". That
+            // is true of an inconclusive RUN; it left the survived direction
+            // of a mutant unguarded against an absent covering test. Checked
+            // before the budget, because a candidate that cannot yield a
+            // verdict should not spend a suite run to say so.
+            const own = collocatedProbe(c.file, probes);
+            if (own && !greenProbes.includes(own)) {
+              mutantResults.push({
+                ...c,
+                verdict: 'inconclusive' as const,
+                detail: `this mutant's collocated test ${own} did not run green in the unmutated baseline (likely a compile or import error in the probe tree), so the remaining probes passing cannot show the statement is uncovered`,
+              });
+              continue;
+            }
             const remaining = mutantDeadline - now();
             if (!fitsAnotherMutantRun(remaining, estimatedRunMs)) {
               mutantsSkippedForBudget =
@@ -2027,9 +2052,12 @@ async function runTestEfficacy(args: TestEfficacyArgs): Promise<void> {
             // case this exists for: a probe-tree import error that collected
             // nothing) cannot be scored `survived`: the other probes passing
             // shows only that THEY do not cover it, not that nothing does, since
-            // the one test that would catch it never ran. Same asymmetry the
-            // mutants hold, pointed the other way: there an inconclusive run is
-            // never `killed`, here an absent covering test is never `survived`.
+            // the one test that would catch it never ran. The mutants hold
+            // BOTH halves of this now: an inconclusive run is never `killed`,
+            // and — since the loop above gained the same collocated check —
+            // an absent covering test is never `survived` there either. The
+            // two halves are separate guards; having one was read as having
+            // the rule, and eight mutant survivors shipped through the gap.
             const own = collocatedProbe(h.file, probes);
             if (own && !greenProbes.includes(own)) {
               const { patch: _patch, ...meta } = h;