diff --git a/tests/integration/fold-checkpoint-bound.test.ts b/tests/integration/fold-checkpoint-bound.test.ts
index 2f21248b..a02d75e0 100644
--- a/tests/integration/fold-checkpoint-bound.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/fold-checkpoint-bound.test.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import { Brainy } from '../../src/brainy.js'
 import { NounType } from '../../src/types/graphTypes.js'
 import {
   abandonAsCrashed,
+  armCrash,
   dropCanonicalNoun,
   makeTempDir,
   openBrain,
@@ -177,15 +178,33 @@ describe('fold-checkpoint bound — crash recovery folds (checkpoint, head], nev
     expect(founded, 'checkpoint founded at flip').toBe(committedOf(brain))
 
     // First post-flip boot, unclean (the production first-restart shape):
-    // a post-flip write above the checkpoint is restored FROM ITS AT-ACK FACT
-    // (deliberately NOT flushed — a flush would barrier-sync it and advance
-    // the stamp over it, making its loss synthetic); the pre-flip row (its
-    // baseline fact ≤ checkpoint, its bytes barrier-synced at the flip) is
-    // OUTSIDE the fold — vaporizing it synthetically proves the bound.
-    const postFlip = await brain.add({ data: 'post-flip write', type: NounType.Document, metadata: { era: 'log' } })
+    // a post-flip write above the checkpoint is restored FROM ITS AT-ACK FACT;
+    // the pre-flip row (its baseline fact ≤ checkpoint, its bytes barrier-
+    // synced at the flip) is OUTSIDE the fold — vaporizing it synthetically
+    // proves the bound.
+    //
+    // THE CRASH IS ARMED, NOT RACED. The post-flip write "dies" at exactly
+    // `singleop-after-fact-append`: its fact is in the log and at-ack synced,
+    // and NO pending flush was ever scheduled — so the checkpoint provably
+    // still reads the flip's stamp when the bytes are dropped. The earlier
+    // shape (`add()` then abandon) raced the store's 50ms pending-flush
+    // timer: on a loaded box the flush won, barrier-synced the row, advanced
+    // the stamp over it — and the fold, CORRECTLY bounded, did not restore
+    // bytes the test had synthetically destroyed after they were stamped
+    // durable. The plant lane caught it; the engine was right, the pin was
+    // timing-dependent.
+    const postFlip = `post-flip-${Date.now().toString(36)}-0000-4000-8000-000000000000`
+    const arm = armCrash(brain, 'singleop-after-fact-append')
+    await expect(
+      brain.add({ id: postFlip, data: 'post-flip write', type: NounType.Document, metadata: { era: 'log' } })
+    ).rejects.toThrow('simulated process crash at singleop-after-fact-append')
+    expect(arm.fired).toContain('singleop-after-fact-append')
+    expect(readCheckpoint(dir), 'the stamp did not move — nothing flushed after the flip').toBe(founded)
     await abandonAsCrashed(liveBrains.pop()!)
+    // The post-flip row's canonical bytes lived only in the pending tier's
+    // RAM (written at flush, never reached) — the crash takes them for real;
+    // nothing to drop. Only the pre-flip row is vaporized synthetically.
     dropCanonicalNoun(dir, preFlip)
-    dropCanonicalNoun(dir, postFlip)
 
     const reopened = await openBrain(dir, { logAuthority: 'adopt' })
     liveBrains.push(reopened)