diff --git a/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.test.ts b/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.test.ts
index be4f40b0..4de8e8d8 100644
--- a/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.test.ts
+++ b/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.test.ts
@@ -1378,14 +1378,23 @@ describe('RelayFleetClient', () => {
     },
   )
 
-  // A stale `offline` record plus an unreadable presence must never authorise a
+  // A stale `offline` record plus an UNREADABLE presence must never authorise a
   // seizure: the cost of being wrong is stranding a LIVE factory's credential,
   // and the token taken is the one it would have needed to recover.
+  //
+  // "Unreadable" means exactly that — the request failed, or the body was not a
+  // list. A presence list that WAS read and simply omits this agent is the
+  // opposite case and is covered by the must-fire tests below; conflating the
+  // two is the defect this pair exists to pin.
   it.each([
     ['presence request throws', () => { throw new Error('presence unavailable') }],
     ['presence returns a non-list', () => ({ not: 'a list' })],
-    ['presence omits this agent', () => [{ agentName: 'someone-else', status: 'offline' }]],
     ['presence entry carries no status', () => [{ agentName: 'factory' }]],
+    // Omission only means absence if a row FOR this agent would have been
+    // recognised. A row we cannot name breaks that: if the SDK renamed the
+    // naming field, a LIVE agent's row stops matching and reads as absent.
+    ['a presence row carries no agent name', () => [{}]],
+    ['presence rows use an unrecognised naming field', () => [{ agent: 'factory', status: 'online' }]],
   ])('fails closed and does not take over when %s', async (_label, impl) => {
     const messaging = new FakeMessaging()
     const { agents, presenceImpl } = deprecatedAliasAgents()
@@ -1411,11 +1420,99 @@ describe('RelayFleetClient', () => {
 
     const error = await fleet.roster().then(() => undefined, (err: unknown) => err)
     expect((error as Error).name).toBe('FactoryAgentRegistrationError')
-    expect((error as Error).message).toMatch(/cannot be confirmed offline|could not read presence/)
+    expect((error as Error).message).toMatch(/cannot be confirmed offline/)
+    // The refusal must not claim absence from presence — that is the other,
+    // now-permitted case, and an operator has to be able to tell them apart.
+    expect((error as Error).message).not.toMatch(/does not list this agent/)
     // The seizure must never have been attempted.
     expect(takeovers).toBe(0)
   })
 
+  // The must-fire half of the pair. Absence from a presence list we actually
+  // READ is the strongest evidence the engine can give that the agent is
+  // offline; refusing to conclude it is what left an orphaned row permanently
+  // unreclaimable and gated dispatch (factory-cloud#55). The empty-list arm is
+  // the shape a single-agent cloud factory sees, where the dead row is the only
+  // agent there is.
+  it.each([
+    ['presence lists only other agents', () => [{ agentName: 'someone-else', status: 'online' }]],
+    ['presence is readable and empty', () => []],
+  ])('reclaims the identity when %s', async (_label, impl) => {
+    const messaging = new FakeMessaging()
+    const { agents, presenceImpl } = deprecatedAliasAgents()
+    await (agents.register as (i: { name: string }) => Promise<unknown>)({ name: 'factory' })
+    presenceImpl.value = impl as () => unknown
+    const bootstrap: RelayClientLike = { messaging: { agents } as unknown as RelayMessaging }
+    const calls: Array<{ url: string; body: Record<string, unknown> }> = []
+    const fleet = new RelayFleetClient({
+      workspaceKey: 'rk_live_test',
+      nodeId: 'node_test_1',
+      env: {},
+      sleep: immediateSleep,
+      pollIntervalMs: 0,
+      fetch: (async (url: string, init: { body: string }) => {
+        calls.push({ url, body: JSON.parse(init.body) as Record<string, unknown> })
+        return new Response(
+          JSON.stringify({ ok: true, data: { agent_id: 'agent-1', name: 'factory', token: 'at_live_seized' } }),
+          { status: 200, headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' } },
+        )
+      }) as unknown as typeof globalThis.fetch,
+      createRelay: (options) => (options.agentToken ? { messaging: messaging.asMessaging() } : bootstrap),
+    })
+
+    await expect(fleet.roster()).resolves.toBeDefined()
+
+    // Resolving is not enough on its own: the takeover must actually have been
+    // issued, for this record, rather than the conflict being routed elsewhere.
+    expect(calls).toHaveLength(1)
+    expect(calls[0]?.url).toBe('https://cast.agentrelay.com/v1/agents/factory/takeover')
+    expect(calls[0]?.body.expected_agent_id).toBe('agent-1')
+  })
+
+  // Control arm. Both presence shapes run through ONE harness that differs in
+  // nothing but the presence stub, so no setup difference can absorb a swap of
+  // the two branches. The `not.toBe` assertion additionally kills the inert
+  // fixture — the failure mode where both arms take the same path for a reason
+  // unrelated to presence, which is exactly what would let a swapped
+  // implementation pass a pair of separately-written tests.
+  it('separates readable-and-absent from unreadable presence, and would notice a swap', async () => {
+    const run = async (impl: () => unknown): Promise<{ seized: boolean; message: string }> => {
+      const messaging = new FakeMessaging()
+      const { agents, presenceImpl } = deprecatedAliasAgents()
+      await (agents.register as (i: { name: string }) => Promise<unknown>)({ name: 'factory' })
+      presenceImpl.value = impl
+      const bootstrap: RelayClientLike = { messaging: { agents } as unknown as RelayMessaging }
+      let takeovers = 0
+      const fleet = new RelayFleetClient({
+        workspaceKey: 'rk_live_test',
+        env: {},
+        sleep: immediateSleep,
+        pollIntervalMs: 0,
+        fetch: (async () => {
+          takeovers += 1
+          return new Response(
+            JSON.stringify({ ok: true, data: { agent_id: 'agent-1', name: 'factory', token: 'at_live_seized' } }),
+            { status: 200, headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' } },
+          )
+        }) as unknown as typeof globalThis.fetch,
+        createRelay: (options) => (options.agentToken ? { messaging: messaging.asMessaging() } : bootstrap),
+      })
+      const error = await fleet.roster().then(() => undefined, (err: unknown) => err)
+      return { seized: takeovers > 0, message: error instanceof Error ? error.message : '' }
+    }
+
+    const absent = await run(() => [{ agentName: 'someone-else', status: 'online' }])
+    const unreadable = await run(() => { throw new Error('presence unavailable') })
+
+    expect(absent.seized).toBe(true)
+    expect(unreadable.seized).toBe(false)
+    // Fails if the harness cannot tell the two apart at all.
+    expect(absent.seized).not.toBe(unreadable.seized)
+    // And the refusal has to say WHICH of the two it was.
+    expect(unreadable.message).toMatch(/presence is unreadable/)
+    expect(absent.message).toBe('')
+  })
+
   it('re-reads the agent id and retries once when the identity moved mid-takeover', async () => {
     const messaging = new FakeMessaging()
     const { agents } = deprecatedAliasAgents()
diff --git a/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.ts b/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.ts
index e06b7609..a49b7677 100644
--- a/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.ts
+++ b/src/fleet/relay-fleet-client.ts
@@ -921,52 +921,93 @@ export class RelayFleetClient implements FleetClient {
     }
 
     // Presence is the canonical liveness signal, and the agent record can be
-    // stale. Everything below fails CLOSED: only a presence row we actually
-    // read, for this agent, carrying a status we recognise as not-live, may
-    // authorise a seizure. A request that failed, a body we cannot parse, or a
-    // missing row is absence of evidence — not evidence of death.
+    // stale. Two outcomes are routed apart here, and collapsing them swaps one
+    // wrong conclusion for another:
     //
-    // This asymmetry is deliberate. Refusing to boot costs us a recoverable
-    // outage of our own; seizing a live agent's credential strands another
-    // running process and takes the very token it would need to recover.
-    let presence: unknown
-    try {
-      presence = await agents.presence()
-    } catch (error) {
+    //   presence UNREADABLE (threw, timed out, or came back as something other
+    //   than a list) — evidence of nothing. Fails CLOSED, because seizing a
+    //   live agent's credential strands another running process and takes the
+    //   very token it would need to recover.
+    //
+    //   presence READABLE and omitting this agent — the strongest evidence the
+    //   engine can give that the agent is offline. Proceeds. Treating this as
+    //   inconclusive is what made an orphaned row permanently unreclaimable
+    //   (factory-cloud#55): every registration attempt burned the bounded
+    //   budget, which only a success resets, and dispatch stayed gated.
+    //
+    // A row that IS listed still has to clear the status check below: presence
+    // listing us is the case where the engine may still be holding the
+    // identity, so an unrecognised or missing status stays fail-closed.
+    const presence = await this.#readPresenceRows(agents)
+    const entry = presence
+      .map((row) => asRecord(row))
+      .find((row) => readString(row, 'agentName', 'agent_name', 'name') === this.#agentName)
+    if (!entry) {
+      // Confirmed absence. Note this is also the correct reading of an empty
+      // list: a single-agent cloud factory whose only row is the dead one sees
+      // exactly that, and refusing it would re-latch the outage in its most
+      // common shape.
+      this.#log(`Presence is readable and does not list ${this.#agentName}; treating the existing record as offline`)
+      return
+    }
+    const seenStatus = readString(entry, 'status')
+    if (seenStatus === undefined) {
       throw new FactoryAgentRegistrationError(
         this.#agentName,
-        `could not read presence to confirm the agent is not live: ${errorMessage(error)}`,
-        { cause: error },
+        'presence lists this agent with no status, so it cannot be confirmed offline',
       )
     }
-    if (!Array.isArray(presence)) {
+    if (LIVE_AGENT_STATUSES.has(seenStatus)) {
       throw new FactoryAgentRegistrationError(
         this.#agentName,
-        'presence did not return a list, so the agent cannot be confirmed offline',
+        `presence reports this agent as "${seenStatus}"; another factory may still hold this identity`,
       )
     }
-    const entry = presence
-      .map((row) => asRecord(row))
-      .find((row) => readString(row, 'agentName', 'agent_name', 'name') === this.#agentName)
-    if (!entry) {
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Read the presence list, or fail closed.
+   *
+   * Every failure here means presence could not be read at all — a transport
+   * error, a timeout, or a body that is not a list. None of them say anything
+   * about whether the agent is alive, so none of them may authorise a seizure.
+   * The messages all name presence as UNREADABLE so an operator can tell this
+   * apart from a presence list that was read and simply did not list us.
+   */
+  async #readPresenceRows(agents: RelayMessaging['agents']): Promise<unknown[]> {
+    let presence: unknown
+    try {
+      presence = await agents.presence()
+    } catch (error) {
       throw new FactoryAgentRegistrationError(
         this.#agentName,
-        'presence does not list this agent, so it cannot be confirmed offline',
+        `presence is unreadable, so the agent cannot be confirmed offline: ${errorMessage(error)}`,
+        { cause: error },
       )
     }
-    const seenStatus = readString(entry, 'status')
-    if (seenStatus === undefined) {
+    if (!Array.isArray(presence)) {
       throw new FactoryAgentRegistrationError(
         this.#agentName,
-        'presence reported no status for this agent, so it cannot be confirmed offline',
+        'presence is unreadable (it did not return a list), so the agent cannot be confirmed offline',
       )
     }
-    if (LIVE_AGENT_STATUSES.has(seenStatus)) {
+    // A list whose rows we cannot name is not readable either, however
+    // well-formed the array around them is. Omission only means absence if a
+    // row FOR this agent would have been recognised — so if the SDK renames the
+    // naming field, or a row arrives without one, every row silently stops
+    // matching and a live agent reads as absent. That is the one way the
+    // permitted branch below could strand a running factory, so it is checked
+    // here, on the read, rather than inferred from the lookup missing.
+    const unnamed = presence.findIndex(
+      (row) => readString(asRecord(row), 'agentName', 'agent_name', 'name') === undefined,
+    )
+    if (unnamed !== -1) {
       throw new FactoryAgentRegistrationError(
         this.#agentName,
-        `presence reports this agent as "${seenStatus}"; another factory may still hold this identity`,
+        `presence is unreadable (row ${unnamed} carries no agent name), so the agent cannot be confirmed offline`,
       )
     }
+    return presence
   }
 
   async #takeOverAgent(workspaceKey: string, expectedAgentId: string): Promise<string> {