diff --git a/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.test.ts b/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.test.ts
index 30e0221c62..b4e7c96a0a 100644
--- a/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.test.ts
+++ b/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.test.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@ import "#veryfront/schemas/_test-setup.ts";
 import { assertEquals } from "#veryfront/testing/assert.ts";
 import { describe, it } from "#veryfront/testing/bdd.ts";
 import { createStyleScopeProfile } from "#veryfront/html/styles-builder/style-scope-profile.ts";
+import {
+  __registerLogRecordEmitter,
+  __resetLogRecordEmitterForTests,
+  type LogEntry,
+} from "#veryfront/utils/logger/logger.ts";
 import {
   getCandidateManifestCacheStats,
   getProjectCandidates,
@@ -9,6 +14,17 @@ import {
   invalidateProjectCandidateManifests,
 } from "./css-candidate-manifest.ts";
 
+function captureLogs(): { entries: LogEntry[]; restore: () => void } {
+  const entries: LogEntry[] = [];
+  __registerLogRecordEmitter((entry) => entries.push(entry));
+  return {
+    entries,
+    restore: () => {
+      __resetLogRecordEmitterForTests();
+    },
+  };
+}
+
 describe("rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest", () => {
   describe("invalidateProjectCandidateManifests", () => {
     it("should clear all caches when no scope provided", () => {
@@ -229,6 +245,109 @@ describe("rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest", () => {
       assertEquals(result.has("text-blue-500"), false);
     });
 
+    it("degrades a file that exceeds the candidate-count admission cap instead of throwing", () => {
+      invalidateProjectCandidateManifests();
+      // >MAX_CSS_SELECTOR_TOKENS (100_000) distinct candidates in one file —
+      // the shape of a large minified vendor bundle in project sources.
+      const poisonContent = Array.from({ length: 100_001 }, (_, i) => `tok-${i}`).join(" ");
+      const options = {
+        projectScope: "project-poison-count",
+        projectVersion: "v1",
+        projectDir: "/project",
+        files: [
+          { path: "/project/vendor/minified.js", content: poisonContent },
+          {
+            path: "/project/pages/index.tsx",
+            content: '<div className="text-red-500">Home</div>',
+          },
+        ],
+        developmentMode: false,
+      };
+
+      const result = getProjectCandidates(options);
+
+      assertEquals(result.has("text-red-500"), true);
+      assertEquals(result.has("tok-0"), false);
+
+      // The completed manifest must be cached so the pathological file is not
+      // re-scanned (and cannot re-fail) on every request.
+      const statsAfterFirst = getCandidateManifestCacheStats();
+      assertEquals(statsAfterFirst.manifests.entries, 1);
+      const second = getProjectCandidates(options);
+      assertEquals(second.has("text-red-500"), true);
+    });
+
+    it("logs rejected source files without exposing absolute project paths", () => {
+      invalidateProjectCandidateManifests();
+      const captured = captureLogs();
+      try {
+        const projectDir = "/Users/someone/private/path/my-project";
+        const absoluteSourcePath = `${projectDir}/vendor/minified.js`;
+        const outsideSourcePath = "/Users/someone/other-parent/minified.js";
+        const poisonContent = Array.from({ length: 100_001 }, (_, i) => `tok-${i}`).join(" ");
+
+        getProjectCandidates({
+          projectScope: "project-poison-log-redaction",
+          projectVersion: "v1",
+          projectDir,
+          files: [
+            { path: absoluteSourcePath, content: poisonContent },
+            { path: outsideSourcePath, content: poisonContent },
+          ],
+          developmentMode: false,
+        });
+
+        const projectWarning = captured.entries.find((entry) =>
+          entry.message === "Skipping file rejected by candidate extraction" &&
+          entry.context?.path === "vendor/minified.js"
+        );
+        assertEquals(projectWarning !== undefined, true, "the in-project warning must be emitted");
+        assertEquals(JSON.stringify(projectWarning!.context).includes(projectDir), false);
+        assertEquals(JSON.stringify(projectWarning!.context).includes(absoluteSourcePath), false);
+
+        const outsideWarning = captured.entries.find((entry) =>
+          entry.message === "Skipping file rejected by candidate extraction" &&
+          entry.context?.path === "[outside-project]/minified.js"
+        );
+        assertEquals(
+          outsideWarning !== undefined,
+          true,
+          "the outside-project warning must be emitted",
+        );
+        assertEquals(outsideWarning!.context?.path, "[outside-project]/minified.js");
+        const outsideContext = JSON.stringify(outsideWarning!.context);
+        assertEquals(outsideContext.includes(outsideSourcePath), false);
+        assertEquals(outsideContext.includes("/Users/someone"), false);
+        assertEquals(outsideContext.includes("other-parent"), false);
+      } finally {
+        captured.restore();
+      }
+    });
+
+    it("degrades a file that exceeds the byte-size admission cap instead of throwing", () => {
+      invalidateProjectCandidateManifests();
+      // >MAX_CSS_FILE_BYTES (16MB) — e.g. a giant generated asset in sources.
+      const oversized = "text-blue-500 ".repeat(
+        Math.ceil((16 * 1024 * 1024 + 1) / "text-blue-500 ".length),
+      );
+      const result = getProjectCandidates({
+        projectScope: "project-poison-bytes",
+        projectVersion: "v1",
+        projectDir: "/project",
+        files: [
+          { path: "/project/generated/blob.js", content: oversized },
+          {
+            path: "/project/pages/index.tsx",
+            content: '<div className="text-red-500">Home</div>',
+          },
+        ],
+        developmentMode: false,
+      });
+
+      assertEquals(result.has("text-red-500"), true);
+      assertEquals(result.has("text-blue-500"), false);
+    });
+
     it("keeps configured runtime roots in the candidate graph", () => {
       invalidateProjectCandidateManifests();
       const result = getProjectCandidates({
diff --git a/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.ts b/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.ts
index d2194e4ac6..05ad9e4f26 100644
--- a/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.ts
+++ b/src/rendering/orchestrator/css-candidate-manifest.ts
@@ -85,6 +85,19 @@ function toRelativeProjectPath(path: string, projectDir: string): string {
   return normalized.replace(/^\/+/, "");
 }
 
+function toDiagnosticProjectPath(path: string, projectDir: string): string {
+  const normalized = normalizePath(path);
+  const normalizedProjectDir = normalizePath(projectDir).replace(/\/+$/, "");
+  if (normalized === normalizedProjectDir) return ".";
+  if (normalized.startsWith(`${normalizedProjectDir}/`)) {
+    return normalized.slice(normalizedProjectDir.length + 1);
+  }
+  if (/^(?:[A-Za-z]:)?\//.test(normalized)) {
+    return `[outside-project]/${normalized.split("/").pop() ?? "unknown"}`;
+  }
+  return normalized.replace(/^\/+/, "");
+}
+
 function buildManifestCacheKey(
   projectScope: string,
   projectVersion: string,
@@ -123,7 +136,23 @@ function buildCandidateManifest(files: SourceFileLike[], projectDir: string): Ca
     if (!file.content) continue;
     if (!SOURCE_EXTENSIONS.some((ext) => file.path.endsWith(ext))) continue;
 
-    const candidates = new Set(extractCandidates(file.content));
+    // A file the tokenizer refuses to admit (over the byte or candidate-count
+    // cap) must degrade to "contributes no candidates", not abort the manifest:
+    // an escaping throw here propagates to the SSR boundary and, because it
+    // happens before manifestCache.set, is rebuilt and re-thrown on every
+    // request to the project (VERYFRONT-SERVER-F).
+    let extracted: string[];
+    try {
+      extracted = extractCandidates(file.content);
+    } catch (error) {
+      logger.warn("Skipping file rejected by candidate extraction", {
+        path: toDiagnosticProjectPath(file.path, projectDir),
+        error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
+      });
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    const candidates = new Set(extracted);
     const relativePath = toRelativeProjectPath(file.path, projectDir);
     const absolutePath = normalizePath(file.path);