diff --git a/src/storage/baseStorage.ts b/src/storage/baseStorage.ts
index 0e7a444a..6ba42a7b 100644
--- a/src/storage/baseStorage.ts
+++ b/src/storage/baseStorage.ts
@@ -1620,9 +1620,23 @@ export abstract class BaseStorage extends BaseStorageAdapter {
     const paginatedNouns = collectedNouns.slice(offset, offset + limit)
     const hasMore = collectedNouns.length > targetCount
 
+    // totalCount must be the TRUE dataset total, not the size of this (peeked)
+    // page. The shard scan early-terminates at `peekCount = offset + limit + 1`
+    // for memory efficiency, so `collectedNouns.length` only ever reaches the
+    // page size + 1 — returning it as `totalCount` made every non-empty brain
+    // look like it held ~`limit` items (e.g. `getNouns({ pagination: { limit: 1 }
+    // }).totalCount` was 2, tripping the index-rebuild gate's "Small dataset"
+    // path). For the unfiltered case the authoritative total is the O(1) counter
+    // maintained on every add/delete and rehydrated on init; `Math.max` guards a
+    // stale counter from under-reporting below what we collected. A filtered scan
+    // has no cheap exact total, so it keeps the collected length (a lower bound).
+    const totalCount = filter
+      ? collectedNouns.length
+      : Math.max(this.totalNounCount, collectedNouns.length)
+
     return {
       items: paginatedNouns,
-      totalCount: collectedNouns.length,
+      totalCount,
       hasMore,
       nextCursor: hasMore && paginatedNouns.length > 0
         ? paginatedNouns[paginatedNouns.length - 1].id
diff --git a/tests/unit/storage/getNouns-totalCount.test.ts b/tests/unit/storage/getNouns-totalCount.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..748b5eec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/storage/getNouns-totalCount.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+/**
+ * @module tests/unit/storage/getNouns-totalCount
+ * @description Regression for the rebuild-gate count (the 8.0 port of the 7.32.1
+ * fix; see handoff BRAINY-MMAP-VECTOR-HOOK). The index-rebuild gate reads
+ * `getNouns({ pagination: { limit: 1 } }).totalCount` to decide whether a brain
+ * is "small" enough to rebuild inline. The shard-scan pagination
+ * (`BaseStorage.getNounsWithPagination`) early-terminates at `offset + limit + 1`
+ * (it peeks one extra item to compute `hasMore`), then returned
+ * `collectedNouns.length` as `totalCount` — i.e. the PAGE size, never the dataset
+ * total. So every non-empty brain reported a tiny `totalCount` and logged
+ * "Small dataset (N items)" on cold start regardless of the real corpus size.
+ * `totalCount` must be the authoritative O(1) noun counter (maintained on every
+ * add/delete, rehydrated from `counts.json` on init).
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
+import { mkdtempSync, rmSync } from 'fs'
+import { tmpdir } from 'os'
+import { join } from 'path'
+import { FileSystemStorage } from '../../../src/storage/adapters/fileSystemStorage.js'
+import type { NounMetadata } from '../../../src/coreTypes.js'
+
+const DIM = 8
+
+/** A deterministic non-zero vector so the noun record is well-formed. */
+function vec(seed: number): number[] {
+  return Array.from({ length: DIM }, (_, i) => ((seed + i) % 7) / 7 - 0.5)
+}
+
+/** Storage shards by UUID, so ids must be 32 hex chars. */
+function uuid(i: number): string {
+  return i.toString(16).padStart(32, '0')
+}
+
+/**
+ * Seed `n` unique nouns. Metadata is saved BEFORE the noun record: it is the
+ * recommended order (avoids stat drift) and it is also where the O(1) noun
+ * counter is incremented, so this mirrors the real add() path.
+ */
+async function seed(storage: FileSystemStorage, n: number): Promise<void> {
+  for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
+    const id = uuid(i)
+    await storage.saveNounMetadata(id, {
+      noun: 'thing',
+      createdAt: Date.now(),
+      updatedAt: Date.now()
+    } as NounMetadata)
+    await storage.saveNoun({ id, vector: vec(i), connections: new Map(), level: 0 })
+  }
+}
+
+describe('FileSystemStorage.getNouns totalCount (rebuild-gate count)', () => {
+  it('reports the TRUE total, not the page size, for a 1-item page', async () => {
+    const dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'brainy-totalcount-'))
+    try {
+      const storage = new FileSystemStorage(dir)
+      await storage.init()
+      await seed(storage, 25)
+
+      // The exact call the index-rebuild gate makes.
+      const onePage = await storage.getNouns({ pagination: { limit: 1 } })
+      expect(onePage.items.length).toBe(1)
+      // Before the fix this was the peeked page size (limit + 1 == 2).
+      expect(onePage.totalCount).toBe(25)
+      expect(onePage.hasMore).toBe(true)
+    } finally {
+      rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
+    }
+  })
+
+  it('still reports the true total after a cold reopen (counts rehydrate)', async () => {
+    const dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'brainy-totalcount-reopen-'))
+    try {
+      const first = new FileSystemStorage(dir)
+      await first.init()
+      await seed(first, 25)
+      // Flush the count to counts.json so a fresh instance rehydrates it.
+      await (first as unknown as { persistCounts(): Promise<void> }).persistCounts()
+
+      // Cold start: a brand-new instance over the same directory.
+      const reopened = new FileSystemStorage(dir)
+      await reopened.init()
+      const page = await reopened.getNouns({ pagination: { limit: 1 } })
+      expect(page.totalCount).toBe(25)
+    } finally {
+      rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
+    }
+  })
+})