diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
index 475399226ca..0bdd895549d 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.test.ts
@@ -7557,7 +7557,8 @@ describe("composeReview — the composed body fits GitHub's limit", () => {
     // `contextUnavailableClause` is `keep: 1` so the rung-3 cut spends
     // blockers before the diff-only trust warning; no truncation fixture
     // carried the clause, so deleting the tag shipped green — the untagged
-    // clause sorted to rank 3 and the cut spent the warning first.
+    // clause sorted to `keep` 3 (the cut's axis, not a `trim` rank) and the
+    // cut spent the warning first.
     const r = composeReview(
       base({
         criticalsInline: 1,
@@ -9384,9 +9385,9 @@ describe('convergence diagnosis reaches the POSTED body', () => {
     // against a 56,830-character budget. Shed early it could pay for at
     // most 4% of an overflow, so any overflow bigger than itself spent it
     // AND went on to spend the disclosures — and the rounds this fires on
-    // are the high-volume ones where that is the normal case. It is rank 3
-    // now: the last rank to go, because it is the cheapest to keep and the
-    // only one whose reader is the PR author alone.
+    // are the high-volume ones where that is the normal case. It is trim
+    // rank 3 now: the last rank to go, because it is the cheapest to keep
+    // and the only one whose reader is the PR author alone.
     //
     // The blocker is sized to land in the window where the ladder sheds
     // rank 2 and stops. To retune after a body-copy change: raise it until
@@ -9424,9 +9425,9 @@ describe('convergence diagnosis reaches the POSTED body', () => {
     // notice say so instead of the paragraph vanishing silently.
     //
     // Sized one rung past the test above: the ladder sheds rank 2, still
-    // does not fit, sheds rank 3, and stops before the hard cut. To retune:
-    // raise it until `Convergence:` disappears, and stop before `TRUNCATED`
-    // appears.
+    // does not fit, sheds trim rank 3, and stops before the hard cut. To
+    // retune: raise it until `Convergence:` disappears, and stop before
+    // `TRUNCATED` appears.
     sideFile({
       round: 4,
       posted: 9,
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
index f38505ecaa8..ebf3db0ffc9 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/review/compose-review.ts
@@ -858,7 +858,7 @@ export interface ComposeReviewResult {
    * not-reviewed disclosures (the model's own inputs), a diagnosis derived
    * from the side file has no other copy anywhere. Ranking it last does not
    * retire this copy — it makes it the one that matters, because the rounds
-   * that reach rank 3 are the rounds that shed everything.
+   * that reach trim rank 3 are the rounds that shed everything.
    */
   convergence?: { en: string; zh: string };
   /**
@@ -3367,7 +3367,7 @@ function composeReviewBody(
    * last-resort path drops ranks AND cuts, and a stderr record naming only
    * the cut leaves the kinds it dropped disclosed nowhere but the body.
    * Rank 1 has a second durable copy (each deferral is a `D<round>-<n>`
-   * entry in the findings artifact) and rank 3 has one too (the composed
+   * entry in the findings artifact) and trim rank 3 has one too (the composed
    * result carries the paragraph, and the command prints it as
    * `CONVERGENCE:`); a trimmed disclosure section survives nowhere but the
    * terminal summary, so ask for it there rather than pointing at an
@@ -3823,8 +3823,12 @@ function composeReviewBody(
     cannotTell.length === 0
       ? []
       : [
-          // Deliberately untagged (rank 3, spent first by the last-resort
-          // cut). These entries are open blockers the review could not
+          // Deliberately untagged, so `keep` defaults to 3 and the
+          // last-resort cut spends it first. That 3 is the CUT's axis, not a
+          // `trim` rank — the two share the number and mean opposite things:
+          // `trim: 3` is the LAST rank the ladder sheds, while `keep: 3` is
+          // the FIRST thing the cut below the ladder spends.
+          // These entries are open blockers the review could not
           // clear — and every one of them was DELIVERED to the author in
           // the round that raised it, where this round's body Criticals are
           // the only copy that exists. So when the cut has to choose, it
@@ -5263,8 +5267,9 @@ export const composeReviewCommand: CommandModule = {
     // (findings artifact) or the not-reviewed disclosures (the model's own
     // inputs) it has no other copy anywhere — so the notice's "read them in
     // the terminal report" was a false record until this line existed. Last
-    // does not mean safe: a body that reaches rank 3 has already shed every
-    // other rank, which is exactly when this line is the only copy left.
+    // does not mean safe: a body that reaches trim rank 3 has already shed
+    // every other rank, which is exactly when this line is the only copy
+    // left.
     if (result.convergence) {
       writeStderrLine(`CONVERGENCE: ${result.convergence.en}`);
     }