diff --git a/packages/rest/src/package-door-5xx-message-sanitization.test.ts b/packages/rest/src/package-door-5xx-message-sanitization.test.ts
index 0a380ae320..58e170a581 100644
--- a/packages/rest/src/package-door-5xx-message-sanitization.test.ts
+++ b/packages/rest/src/package-door-5xx-message-sanitization.test.ts
@@ -339,13 +339,27 @@ describe('[#8136] a real sys_metadata failure, walked in process through this do
 // same `sendThrownError`.
 //
 // This site is nevertheless left driving the GATE, deliberately: the resolver
-// throw is the one path that reaches the outer catch on this route regardless of
-// what either data source does, so it keeps proving the DOOR rather than one
-// source — `refusePackageRequest` calls `options.resolveExecutionContext(req)`,
-// and a resolver that throws SYNCHRONOUSLY throws before the
+// throw reaches the outer catch on this route regardless of what either data
+// source does, so it exercises the CATCH SITE rather than one source —
+// `refusePackageRequest` calls `options.resolveExecutionContext(req)`, and a
+// resolver that throws SYNCHRONOUSLY throws before the
 // `.catch(() => undefined)` is attached. The list door's durable-read arm is
 // pinned separately in `package-list-durable-read-refusal.test.ts`.
 //
+// ⚠️ TEST-ONLY INJECTION POINT. This note used to end "so it keeps proving the
+// DOOR rather than one source", which reads as a claim about a PRODUCTION path.
+// It is not one: no production throw of any kind reaches this catch through
+// this seam. What the site proves is how the door answers a SYNCHRONOUS gate
+// throw — coverage of the catch site, never a claim about producers. ⛔ Do not
+// read it as evidence that a production resolver can deliver a throw here.
+//
+// The derivation is stated ONCE — in the `Seam census` block of
+// `package-door-declared-code.test.ts`, and the same conclusion is recorded in
+// `package-door-user-message.test.ts`'s reachability section. Stable anchors:
+// #12537, #12647. ⛔ It is deliberately NOT restated here. ⛔ The case is KEPT,
+// not deleted: `reached()` keeps it from going vacuous, and its 5xx-withhold
+// assertions still pin real door behaviour.
+//
 // ⚠️ [#11376] The sentence here used to add: "Still true of the REGISTRY
 // source: `protocol.getMetaItems` keeps its own inner catch, which #11063
 // deliberately did not touch". Neither registry read in this registrar has one
diff --git a/packages/rest/src/package-routes-coded-error-mapping.test.ts b/packages/rest/src/package-routes-coded-error-mapping.test.ts
index 7302baf57e..86d2b1ad37 100644
--- a/packages/rest/src/package-routes-coded-error-mapping.test.ts
+++ b/packages/rest/src/package-routes-coded-error-mapping.test.ts
@@ -30,16 +30,46 @@
  * ## What reaches each catch
  *
  * Three of the four have a service call directly under the `try`, so a throwing
- * `PackageService` drives them. `GET /packages` is different BY DESIGN: both of
- * its data sources sit in their own inner `try { … } catch {}` (a missing
- * protocol or a failed database read degrades to the other source rather than
- * failing the request), so nothing below it reaches the outer catch. What does
- * is the gate: `refusePackageRequest` calls
- * `options.resolveExecutionContext(req)`, and a resolver that throws
- * SYNCHRONOUSLY throws before the `.catch(() => undefined)` is attached. That
- * is not a contrived lever — the composition wires it to the `RestServer`'s own
- * identity/RBAC resolution, which is exactly the kind of code that raises a
- * coded 401/403.
+ * `PackageService` drives them. The fourth drives the GATE:
+ * `refusePackageRequest` calls `options.resolveExecutionContext(req)`, and a
+ * resolver that throws SYNCHRONOUSLY throws before the `.catch(() => undefined)`
+ * is attached.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ That fourth seam is a TEST-ONLY INJECTION POINT. This block used to argue
+ * the opposite — *"That is not a contrived lever — the composition wires it to
+ * the `RestServer`'s own identity/RBAC resolution, which is exactly the kind of
+ * code that raises a coded 401/403"*. The first clause is true; the conclusion
+ * does not follow. Precisely BECAUSE that resolution is reached through an
+ * `async` method, the coded 401/403s it raises are REJECTIONS — swallowed
+ * before this door sees anything, landing on the anonymous-deny 401 floor. The
+ * lever is exactly as contrived as that sentence denied. ⛔ Do not read this
+ * site as evidence that a production throw arrives here.
+ *
+ * The derivation is stated ONCE — in the `Seam census` block of
+ * `package-door-declared-code.test.ts`, and the same conclusion is recorded in
+ * `package-door-user-message.test.ts`'s reachability section. Stable anchors:
+ * #12537, #12647. ⛔ It is deliberately NOT restated here; a third copy is the
+ * defect those cards exist to end. The tell is already in the SITES table
+ * below, and was there before anyone read it that way: the three production
+ * seams inject `async () => { throw error; }` — a rejection — while this one
+ * injects a non-`async` `() => { throw error; }`, because a rejection here
+ * answers 401 instead of reaching this catch at all.
+ *
+ * ⛔ The case is KEPT, not deleted. It still pins how this door answers a
+ * synchronous gate throw, and `reached()` keeps it from going vacuous. Its
+ * value is coverage of the CATCH SITE, never a claim about producers.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ The block's OTHER reason for driving the gate here is stale as well. It
+ * read: *"`GET /packages` is different BY DESIGN: both of its data sources sit
+ * in their own inner `try { … } catch {}` … so nothing below it reaches the
+ * outer catch"*. #11063 and #11130 removed both inner catches —
+ * `package-routes.ts` now marks each read `NOT wrapped in a catch,
+ * deliberately` — so those arms DO reach this outer catch, and are pinned in
+ * `package-list-durable-read-refusal.test.ts` and
+ * `package-list-registry-read-refusal.test.ts`. The gate site stays because it
+ * reaches this catch independently of either data source, which is the reason
+ * the sibling `package-door-5xx-message-sanitization.test.ts` gives at its own
+ * SITES table.
  */
 
 import { describe, it, expect, vi } from 'vitest';