diff --git a/tests/integration/health-gate.test.ts b/tests/integration/health-gate.test.ts
index 1c9a642d..f2952116 100644
--- a/tests/integration/health-gate.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/health-gate.test.ts
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ describe('health gate (b) — unledgered is unknown: never blocks a serving prov
 describe('health gate (c) — degraded-but-serving narrates once per generation', () => {
   // PER-FAMILY LAW (10.4.1): a metadata find() consults the METADATA leg only — the
   // degraded report lives on the family the read actually consults.
-  it('a heal:"repair" failure serves; narrates once per generation, twice across a generation bump', async () => {
+  it('a heal:"repair" failure serves; narrates once per DISTINCT VERDICT, not once per generation bump', async () => {
     const brain = new Brainy(createTestConfig({ silent: true }))
     await brain.init()
     brains.push(brain)
@@ -197,12 +197,13 @@ describe('health gate (c) — degraded-but-serving narrates once per generation'
 
     const internals = internalsOf(brain)
     let generation = 1
+    let detail = 'counter drift'
     internals.metadataIndex.healthReport = () =>
       healthReport({
         provider: 'vector',
         serving: true,
         healthy: false,
-        invariants: [invariant({ name: 'stale-vector-counter', holds: false, heal: 'repair', detail: 'counter drift' })],
+        invariants: [invariant({ name: 'stale-vector-counter', holds: false, heal: 'repair', detail })],
         generation
       })
 
@@ -212,11 +213,22 @@ describe('health gate (c) — degraded-but-serving narrates once per generation'
 
     await expect(brain.find({ where: { team: 'atlas' } })).resolves.toHaveLength(1)
     await expect(brain.find({ where: { team: 'atlas' } })).resolves.toHaveLength(1)
-    expect(countNarrations()).toBe(1) // same generation both times — one narration
+    expect(countNarrations()).toBe(1) // same verdict both times — one narration
 
+    // THE DEDUPE KEY IS THE VERDICT, NOT THE COUNTER. A provider's `generation`
+    // bumps on every ledger mutation and every rebuild boundary, so keying the
+    // narration on it re-printed an UNCHANGED health line on every read that
+    // consulted a busy provider — and, in the other direction, let a provider
+    // that never bumped suppress a line whose reasons had genuinely changed.
+    // An unchanged verdict is silent however the counter moves:
     generation = 2
     await expect(brain.find({ where: { team: 'atlas' } })).resolves.toHaveLength(1)
-    expect(countNarrations()).toBe(2) // generation bumped — a second narration
+    expect(countNarrations()).toBe(1) // generation bumped, verdict identical — still silent
+
+    // ...and a CHANGED verdict is always heard, bump or no bump:
+    detail = 'counter drift widened to 12 rows'
+    await expect(brain.find({ where: { team: 'atlas' } })).resolves.toHaveLength(1)
+    expect(countNarrations()).toBe(2) // the reasons changed — a new narration
 
     delete internals.metadataIndex.healthReport
   })
diff --git a/tests/integration/hybrid-search-vfs.test.ts b/tests/integration/hybrid-search-vfs.test.ts
index c881fa97..219c4c83 100644
--- a/tests/integration/hybrid-search-vfs.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/hybrid-search-vfs.test.ts
@@ -21,10 +21,16 @@ describe('Hybrid Search with VFS', () => {
     testDir = path.join(os.tmpdir(), `brainy-hybrid-vfs-test-${Date.now()}`)
     fs.mkdirSync(testDir, { recursive: true })
 
+    // `storage.path`, NOT the pre-8.0 `options.basePath` alias. That alias was
+    // removed at the 8.0 major and configures nothing, so this suite silently
+    // opened the DEFAULT store instead of its own temp directory — sharing one
+    // on-disk brain with every other run on the machine, accumulating tens of
+    // thousands of rows, and eventually failing on that shared store's graph
+    // adjacency rather than on anything it was written to test.
     brain = new Brainy({ requireSubtype: false,
       storage: {
         type: 'filesystem',
-        options: { basePath: testDir }
+        path: testDir
       }
     })
     await brain.init()