diff --git a/docs/reference/agent-roles.md b/docs/reference/agent-roles.md
index b48d47dfed..32e0121ddb 100644
--- a/docs/reference/agent-roles.md
+++ b/docs/reference/agent-roles.md
@@ -482,7 +482,13 @@ Tasks are assigned based on the files they modify:
 
 The YAML schema restricts the `role` field to the enum values `coder`, `tester`, and `documenter`. The plan parser validates role values at parse time — invalid roles generate a parse warning and are treated as unassigned (`null`).
 
-The orchestrator also validates **role↔file alignment** at `CONSENSUS_PROPOSE` time for `task_planner` proposals ([#2527](https://github.com/jwbron/egg/issues/2527)). A task whose `role:` assignment cannot push its `files:` — per the same `shared/egg_restrictions/patterns.py` blocklist the gateway uses at push time — causes the proposal to be rejected with HTTP 400 before it reaches reviewers. This catches structurally broken plans at plan time rather than after a producer cycle is wasted on a `403 restricted_path_modified`. The `validator` is available for manual use via `egg_contracts.plan_parser.validate_task_role_alignment(slices)`.
+The orchestrator runs three checks at `CONSENSUS_PROPOSE` time for `task_planner` proposals — all in a single `git show` of the plan draft at the proposed commit — and rejects with HTTP 400 before the proposal reaches reviewers:
+
+1. **Presence** ([#3016](https://github.com/jwbron/egg/issues/3016)): the plan draft exists at the canonical `.egg-state/drafts/{id}-plan.md` path in the proposed commit. The phase gate, contract populator, and resume path all read from this exact path; a draft committed elsewhere is invisible to them.
+2. **Parseability** ([#3026](https://github.com/jwbron/egg/issues/3026)): the draft parses via the same `parse_plan` the contract populator runs. The dominant failure mode this targets is a missing machine-readable `# yaml-tasks` appendix — a plan that is complete in prose but omits the fence passes BRC consensus, then fails `populate_contract` much later in the pipeline with an empty contract. (`parse_plan` also catches YAML syntax errors and schema violations on the appendix itself, though those are far less common in practice.) Catching this at propose time costs the planner one re-propose; catching it at populate time stalls the whole pipeline.
+3. **Role↔file alignment** ([#2527](https://github.com/jwbron/egg/issues/2527)): no task is assigned to a role whose blocklist forbids its files, per the same `shared/egg_restrictions/patterns.py` patterns the gateway uses at push time. This catches misassigned tasks before a full producer cycle is wasted on a `403 restricted_path_modified`. The validator is also available for manual use via `egg_contracts.plan_parser.validate_task_role_alignment(slices)`.
+
+All three checks fail open rather than false-blame the producer. They skip silently across a range of infra and library-call failures — representative cases include: the proposal carries no commit SHA, the orchestrator's branch verification was inconclusive (a fetch glitch), the plan path cannot be resolved, the `git show` itself raises, or `parse_plan` / `to_contract_slices` / `validate_task_role_alignment` raise unexpectedly. The list is not exhaustive; the design intent is that any non-determinable result yields a skip and lets the gateway's push-time enforcement act as the backstop, rather than rejecting a proposal on incomplete information.
 
 ### Backward Compatibility