diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
index 6a56af410cd..36bc911beab 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,11 @@ import {
 } from './lib/deadline.js';
 import { getGhHost, setGhHost } from './lib/gh.js';
 import { BRIEFS } from './lib/agent-briefs.js';
-import { LEDGER_MAX_ROUND, parseLedger } from './lib/ledger.js';
+import {
+  LEDGER_MAX_ROUND,
+  LEDGER_MAX_VOLUME,
+  parseLedger,
+} from './lib/ledger.js';
 import { countInlineFindings } from './lib/inline-counts.js';
 import {
   composeReview,
@@ -8750,6 +8754,22 @@ describe('convergence telemetry — volume, carried in the marker', () => {
     expect(parseLedger(r.body)?.posted).toBe(3);
   });
 
+  it('clamps the count at its origin, so every surface agrees', () => {
+    // The terminal line, the marker and the artifact must never disagree
+    // about one round's count. This is the defensive over-cap case: the
+    // reader is applied where the number is derived, not only where it is
+    // written, so no surface can see the raw value.
+    const r = composeReview({
+      planPath: plan(),
+      modelId: 'm',
+      criticalsInline: 0,
+      suggestionsInline: LEDGER_MAX_VOLUME + 5,
+      draftedComments: drafts(LEDGER_MAX_VOLUME + 5),
+    });
+    expect(r.postedInline).toBe(LEDGER_MAX_VOLUME);
+    expect(parseLedger(r.body)?.posted).toBe(LEDGER_MAX_VOLUME);
+  });
+
   it('counts the POST-enforcement set — what submit actually sends', () => {
     // The floor moves two of the three out of the posting set, so the
     // recorded volume is one. Counting the drafts would record a number no
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
index d78879fbd3b..3b4a1f649dd 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
@@ -1543,8 +1543,14 @@ function composeReviewBody(
 ): ComposeReviewResult {
   // The posting set this body describes — `input` here is already the
   // post-enforcement one, so the count needs no second derivation and
-  // cannot disagree with the marker's.
-  const postedInline = (input.draftedComments ?? []).length;
+  // cannot disagree with the marker's. Clamped AT THE ORIGIN through the
+  // shared reader: every other site that reads a volume applies it, and the
+  // one that did not was this count on its way to the terminal line, which
+  // in the defensive over-cap case would have printed the raw number beside
+  // a marker recording the capped one — the two-outputs-disagree failure
+  // the shared reader's own docstring exists to prevent. `?? 0` is
+  // unreachable for an array length; it keeps the type honest.
+  const postedInline = volumeOf((input.draftedComments ?? []).length) ?? 0;
   const criticalsInline = toCount(input.criticalsInline, 'criticalsInline');
   const suggestionsInline = toCount(
     input.suggestionsInline,
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/save-artifact.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/save-artifact.test.ts
index c4c5d1ab9ab..eeff2f41695 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/save-artifact.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/save-artifact.test.ts
@@ -69,9 +69,17 @@ const verdict = {
   deferredCount: 2,
   // Non-empty for the same reason — absent defaults to [].
   floorEnforced: [1],
-  // Non-zero for the same reason — absent defaults to 0.
+  // Non-zero on purpose too, but for the OPPOSITE reason to its siblings:
+  // this field's absence is preserved, not defaulted, so the fixture value
+  // proves passthrough against a validator that would otherwise omit the
+  // field entirely.
   postedInline: 3,
-  // Also non-default on purpose, for the same reason.
+  // Also non-default on purpose — and on the DEFAULTING side, with
+  // `deferredCount` and `floorEnforced`: an absent `bodyTrim` reads as an
+  // untrimmed one and the field is always emitted. Spelled out rather than
+  // said as "the same reason", which would now resolve against the
+  // preserved-absence block above it and teach the opposite of what
+  // `save-artifact.ts` does.
   bodyTrim: { sections: 2, deferralList: true, fold: true, truncated: true },
   lowSignal: { agents: 4, srcDiffLines: 120 },
   verdictLine: 'Verdict: Comment — Request changes was downgraded',