diff --git a/scripts/record-demo.py b/scripts/record-demo.py
index 2ad3a375b..271e56080 100755
--- a/scripts/record-demo.py
+++ b/scripts/record-demo.py
@@ -273,16 +273,20 @@ def shot(duration: int) -> None:
     shot(1600)
 
     select_text(page, "#p2", "Backfill history")
-    page.locator(".lf-fab").click()
-    page.locator(".lf-composer textarea").fill("Can the backfill stay online?")
+    # The selection raises the response bar with its field already open and focused,
+    # so the demo types into it directly and sends with Enter. The Comment button the
+    # bar used to show is now one Tab away, and the composer around the field draws
+    # nothing of its own.
+    field = page.locator(".lf-fab-input")
+    field.fill("Can the backfill stay online?")
     page.wait_for_function(
-        """() => document.querySelector('.lf-composer').style.display === 'block'
+        """() => document.querySelector('.lf-composer').style.display === 'contents'
             && (CSS.highlights.get('lf-pending')?.size ?? 0) > 0
             && document.getElementById('lf-composer-quote').classList.contains('lf-unseen')"""
     )
     shot(2300)
 
-    page.locator(".lf-composer").get_by_role("button", name="Comment").click()
+    field.press("Enter")
     page.wait_for_selector(".lf-margin-thread")
     shot(1500)
     page.locator(".lf-threads-toggle").click()
diff --git a/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md b/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
index 0f1d8c902..f10dd443e 100644
--- a/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
@@ -650,8 +650,13 @@ connected before the first state and one constructed by a later thread reconcile
 
 `lf-actions` fires after a complete state has reconciled, including a read whose
 event list did not grow and the heartbeat's re-application of the state the page
-already holds. This lets a module refresh elapsed time and retry a render
-deferred by live input without owning a timer or a second event cursor.
+already holds. The outbox fires it too, for the reconciliation it performs on an
+answer of its own — a refused action, or a read event — which withdraws or
+settles a winner without applying a state. Every pass that reconciles is
+therefore heard through this one event, which is what keeps a surface reading the
+projection rather than the DOM current with a withdrawal. It also lets a module
+refresh elapsed time and retry a render deferred by live input without owning a
+timer or a second event cursor.
 Callbacks must render from the sequence they receive and return their cleanup
 function from `watchActions` or `watchUpdates` when their element disconnects.
 
diff --git a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/conversation/acknowledgments.js b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/conversation/acknowledgments.js
index 509736ac6..e1ccdc6ad 100644
--- a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/conversation/acknowledgments.js
+++ b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/conversation/acknowledgments.js
@@ -120,7 +120,6 @@ export function createAcknowledgments(dependencies) {
     }
     for (const line of pageQueryAll(".lf-receipt"))
       if (!wanted.has(line)) line.remove();
-    document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent("lf-acknowledgments"));
   }
 
   return { paintAcknowledgments };
diff --git a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/living-margin.js b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/living-margin.js
index 53ab27ff7..ea1c9b886 100644
--- a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/living-margin.js
+++ b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/living-margin.js
@@ -1738,12 +1738,20 @@ export function createLivingMargin(dependencies) {
       syncThreadRelation(reading, reading.lfChoice?.kind === "comment");
     paintKeys();
   });
-  document.addEventListener("lf-actions", render);
   // TODO(2026-08-31): Reconcile this provisional acknowledgment-to-Button adapter
   // with the in-flight Target Button implementation before their combined changes
   // land. The canonical acknowledgment projection and page-edge placement remain the
   // contract; only this presentation seam should follow the final Button API.
-  document.addEventListener("lf-acknowledgments", render);
+  //
+  // The row's acknowledgment face is read out of the state projection, so it follows the
+  // applied log on `lf-actions` rather than the receipt paint: every path that reconciles
+  // a complete state dispatches that once it has reconciled, and both of the paths that
+  // paint receipts sit inside one. A repaint driven from the paint instead ran inside the
+  // panel render the application performs *before* reconciliation, which is early enough
+  // to read a candidate the same read is about to reject — and it ran inside a dispatch,
+  // where the fault that candidate throws is reported as an uncaught page error rather
+  // than rejecting the read.
+  document.addEventListener("lf-actions", render);
   document.addEventListener("lf-answered", render);
   document.addEventListener("lf-comparison", render);
   offerListeners.add(render);
diff --git a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/outbox.js b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/outbox.js
index 5a8010482..eea4524dc 100644
--- a/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/outbox.js
+++ b/skills/leaf/assets/runtime/outbox.js
@@ -234,6 +234,12 @@ export function createOutbox(runtime, dependencies) {
         // contains their attempt, never merely by a response whose rendering failed.
         if (entry.rejected || entry.readEvent) {
           if (reconcileKnownState()) releaseProjectedOutbox();
+          // Sequence consumers hear a reconciliation performed here the way they hear
+          // every other one. This one withdraws a refused winner from the projection, and
+          // a surface reading the projection rather than the DOM — the margin's row for
+          // that winner, acknowledgment face and all — would otherwise stand on the
+          // withdrawn state until the heartbeat's next tick.
+          document.dispatchEvent(new Event("lf-actions"));
         }
         // The list is an input to the key line and no focus/mouse event accompanies
         // either edge. Repaint before resolving the caller, whose own settlement may
diff --git a/tests/render_cases_navigation.py b/tests/render_cases_navigation.py
index 80b922c38..6602d6e5e 100644
--- a/tests/render_cases_navigation.py
+++ b/tests/render_cases_navigation.py
@@ -337,9 +337,15 @@ def wait_hovered(page, text):
 
 def card_body(page, says):
     """A point low on a comment's card, below the quote — where a reader's hand rests
-    while they read the comment, and where nothing presses."""
+    while they read the comment, and where nothing presses.
+
+    Low on the card *as the reader sees it*: the list scrolls, so the last card's own
+    bottom can sit below the scroller and behind the panel's foot. A point read off the
+    card's rect alone lands on the general box there, which hovers no card at all."""
     box = page.locator(".lf-thread").filter(has_text=says).first.bounding_box()
-    return box["x"] + box["width"] / 2, box["y"] + box["height"] - 8
+    seen = page.locator(".lf-threads").bounding_box()
+    bottom = min(box["y"] + box["height"], seen["y"] + seen["height"])
+    return box["x"] + box["width"] / 2, bottom - 8
 
 
 # Addressable links that start within one digit's width of each other: a run of footnote
diff --git a/tests/test_render_conversations.py b/tests/test_render_conversations.py
index 8cfd16f40..03d216f77 100644
--- a/tests/test_render_conversations.py
+++ b/tests/test_render_conversations.py
@@ -1750,12 +1750,18 @@ def test_a_coined_class_cannot_reach_the_chromes_rules(browser, serve):
     # Every one of these is worn by something the runtime puts inside the page rather than
     # inside its own container — or, for lf-address, on both sides of that line at once,
     # which is the same reason: a scoped rule cannot reach the copy in the page. Except the
-    # last, which is worn by nothing and is here for the other half of the sentence. lf-copy is the medium `version export` marks on the root, and the runtime
-    # names it under a negation to withhold the live page's scroller from a file that has
-    # no panel to scroll beside; a rule that dresses no element can leak onto none, and
-    # what the pin is for is the day one of these stops being either kind.
+    # first two, which document level names only to hold a rule off them and which are here
+    # for the other half of the sentence. lf-copy is the medium `version export` marks on
+    # the root, and the runtime names it under a negation to withhold the live page's
+    # scroller from a file that has no panel to scroll beside; a rule that dresses no
+    # element can leak onto none, and what the pin is for is the day one of these stops
+    # being either kind.
     assert {c for c in surface["global"] if c.startswith("lf-")} == {
         "lf-copy",
+        # The compact response field, named the same way: the general text box's rule
+        # excludes it at document level because the field takes its whole geometry from
+        # the response controls it shares a baseline with, inside the chrome's own scope.
+        "lf-fab-input",
         "lf-ui",
         # A native label can pass through an intermediate focus target. These project
         # the held control's focus until activation settles.
diff --git a/tests/test_render_margin.py b/tests/test_render_margin.py
index 4cc01726a..b41db13ca 100644
--- a/tests/test_render_margin.py
+++ b/tests/test_render_margin.py
@@ -706,13 +706,12 @@ def test_reaction_choices_and_their_receipt_share_an_unided_selected_block(
     bar = page.locator(".lf-fab-bar")
     expect(bar).to_be_visible()
     bar.locator(".lf-react-trigger").click()
-    item = page.locator(".lf-margin-item").filter(
-        has=page.locator('.lf-margin-more[aria-expanded="true"]')
-    )
-    expect(item).to_have_count(1)
-    assert abs(item.bounding_box()["y"] - paragraph.bounding_box()["y"]) <= 6
+    # The choices are the bar's own, raised on the selection where the reader is
+    # pointing: an anchored response opens in place rather than docking a row of
+    # options into the margin. What the margin holds for this block is the receipt.
+    expect(bar).to_have_class(re.compile(r"\blf-react-open\b"))
 
-    item.locator('.lf-margin-options .lf-react[data-token="ok"]').click()
+    bar.locator('.lf-react[data-token="ok"]').click()
     round_trip(page)
     sent = events_model.read_events(serve.page_dir)[-1]
     assert sent["anchor"]["section"] == "s-how" and sent["anchor"]["quote"]
diff --git a/tests/test_render_outbox.py b/tests/test_render_outbox.py
index df1c71d97..da11c3c31 100644
--- a/tests/test_render_outbox.py
+++ b/tests/test_render_outbox.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
     resized,
     round_trip,
     stamp_page,
+    ticked,
     told,
     undo,
     unfolded_button,
@@ -1427,6 +1428,75 @@ def test_a_refused_action_waits_for_a_live_gesture_before_reconciling(browser, s
     page.close()
 
 
+# Sampled rather than waited for, because the tick repairs a stale margin two seconds
+# later and an `expect` would take that for the pass under test. Both facts are read on
+# every frame and every task from before the refusal is answered: the reconciliation and
+# the render it tells consumers about are one turn, so no sample can fall between them,
+# and a margin left behind is sampled hundreds of times before the heartbeat hides it.
+CARD_AND_MARGIN_SAMPLES = """() => {
+  window.__lfMarginSamples = [];
+  const sample = () => {
+    window.__lfMarginSamples.push([
+      Boolean(document.querySelector("#col-done #card-heater")),
+      Boolean(document.querySelector('.lf-margin-marker[data-lf-kinds~="outcome"]')),
+    ]);
+    requestAnimationFrame(sample);
+  };
+  sample();
+  window.__lfMarginInterval = setInterval(sample, 0);
+}"""
+
+
+def test_a_refused_action_withdraws_its_outcome_from_the_margin_in_one_pass(
+    browser, serve
+):
+    """The margin reads the projection, so the outcome an optimistic winner raised
+    leaves with the winner. Reconciling a refusal is not a state application, and
+    `lf-actions` is the one thing every pass that reconciles tells its consumers
+    through; without it the page kept a ✓ Outcome for a move the log never took until
+    the heartbeat two seconds later. A widget that announces its own answer
+    (`lf-options` dispatches `lf-answered` for a rewound pick) covers this for its own
+    margin entry; a board move announces nothing."""
+    page, errors = open_page(browser, serve(BOARD_PAGE))
+    resized(page, 1440, 900)
+    held = []
+    page.route("**/api/event", lambda route: held.append(route))
+    heater = page.locator("#card-heater .lf-grip")
+    with page.expect_request("**/api/event"):
+        heater.focus()
+        for key in ["Enter", "ArrowRight", "Enter"]:
+            page.keyboard.press(key)
+    ticked(page)
+    outcome = page.locator('.lf-margin-marker[data-lf-kinds~="outcome"]')
+    expect(outcome).to_have_count(1)
+
+    page.evaluate(CARD_AND_MARGIN_SAMPLES)
+    attempt = held[0].request.post_data_json["attempt"]
+    with page.expect_response(lambda response: "/api/event" in response.url):
+        held[0].fulfill(
+            status=400,
+            json={
+                "ok": False,
+                "attempt": attempt,
+                "error": "refused before append",
+                "final": True,
+            },
+        )
+    page.wait_for_function('() => !document.querySelector("#col-done #card-heater")')
+    samples = page.evaluate("() => window.__lfMarginSamples")
+    page.evaluate("() => clearInterval(window.__lfMarginInterval)")
+
+    assert [True, True] in samples, "the pending move never reached the margin"
+    assert [False, True] not in samples, (
+        "the margin kept the outcome of a refused move after the board had taken it "
+        f"back: {samples}"
+    )
+    expect(outcome).to_have_count(0)
+    assert actions(serve.page_dir) == []
+    assert errors and all("400" in error for error in errors)
+    page.close()
+
+
 def test_a_lost_accepted_response_keeps_later_gestures_in_order(browser, serve):
     """The outbox retries an accepted gesture whose response was lost before it
     sends the next gesture. Both arrive once, in the order the reader made them."""