diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index fa8f80a8758..cc3cea27686 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -931,16 +931,26 @@ restores durability, or the explicit opt-out that makes the degradation delibera
 (`suspendedRunStore: 'memory'`, `OS_SKIP_SCHEMA_SYNC`). Say it **once**, at the first
 degradation, not once per failed write.
 
-**Do not over-apply it.** Escalating a functional degradation to `error` trains
-everyone to skim `error`. An `if (!service)` composition branch is usually functional
-and belongs at `warn`; a `catch` around a write, a DDL call, or a store initialization
-is where this rule bites. **And a failure handed to the CALLER is not a degradation at
-all** — the third legal answer: a `catch` that answers `errorFromThrown(e, 400)`, or a
-batch whose contract IS a per-item outcome report, does not look normal from the
-outside — the requester was told. Do **not** bolt a `logger.error` onto such a site;
-declare **how it delivers** instead — `FAILURE_PROPAGATION_CALLEES` (repo-wide names)
-or the function-scoped `FAILURE_PROPAGATION_SITES` in the checker, which then proves
-structurally that *every* path out of the `catch` delivers.
+**Do not over-apply it.** Escalating a functional degradation to `error` trains everyone
+to skim `error`. An `if (!service)` composition branch is usually functional and belongs
+at `warn`; a `catch` around a write, a DDL call, or a store initialization is where this
+rule bites. **And a failure handed to the CALLER is not a degradation at all** — the
+third legal answer: a `catch` that answers `errorFromThrown(e, 400)`, or a batch whose
+contract IS a per-item outcome report, does not look normal from the outside — the
+requester was told. Do **not** bolt a `logger.error` onto such a site; declare **how it
+delivers** instead — and which declaration exists depends on how the failure leaves the
+`catch`. Delivered by CALLING something: name that callee, repo-wide in
+`FAILURE_PROPAGATION_CALLEES` or function-scoped in `FAILURE_PROPAGATION_SITES`, and the
+checker then proves structurally that *every* path out of the `catch` reaches it.
+Delivered by **RETURNING** an outcome object — `return { ok: false, error }`, a `failed`
+receipt — there is **no callee to declare**: the delivery IS the constructed value, and
+both maps key on a name. ⛔ Never add such a seam to `DURABILITY_CRITICAL_CALLEES` or to
+either `FAILURE_PROPAGATION_*` map, ⛔ never baseline it, ⛔ never bolt on a
+`logger.error` to green the checker: the shape is outside its reach by construction. Pin
+it in **its own file's test** asserting the returned failure outcome (the
+`failed`-receipt case is the reference shape), and read its population from
+`scripts/measure-return-propagating-durability-seams.mjs`. ⭐ The invariant does not
+move: silent data loss must be loud, so what this checker cannot see, that test holds.
 
 **It has teeth**: `pnpm check:durability-log-level`
 (`scripts/check-durability-degradation-log-level.mjs`; its header is the authority)
diff --git a/scripts/pm/check-skill-line-ratchet.mjs b/scripts/pm/check-skill-line-ratchet.mjs
index 8d3288863b7..d78ac4eb18a 100644
--- a/scripts/pm/check-skill-line-ratchet.mjs
+++ b/scripts/pm/check-skill-line-ratchet.mjs
@@ -1435,7 +1435,35 @@ export const CEILINGS = new Map([
   // 并按实测行数抬上限」; recorded by the director on #15410 comment 5682595374, which
   // also refuses option D). AGENTS.md is not a CROSS_FILE_MOVES destination, so no
   // `ruledRaises` record applies. Landed count, headroom 0, same convention.
-  ['AGENTS.md', 1099],
+  //
+  // 1099 → 1109 (card #16233): § Degradation log levels' third-legal-answer
+  // paragraph brought to the instrument, per letter C — a `catch` that delivers by
+  // RETURNING an outcome object (`return { ok: false, error }`, a `failed` receipt)
+  // has no callee to declare, so it is ⛔ never added to
+  // `DURABILITY_CRITICAL_CALLEES` or to either `FAILURE_PROPAGATION_*` map,
+  // ⛔ never baselined and ⛔ never log-bolted to green the checker; it is pinned by
+  // its own file's test and its population read from
+  // `scripts/measure-return-propagating-durability-seams.mjs`. Until this line the
+  // text prescribed, for all 12 censused seams, the two remedies the gate's own
+  // header refuses — correct code reds the gate, and the only two ways to green it
+  // were the two it forbids. +10 lines, measured: the paragraph goes 10 → 20
+  // physical lines and the file 1099 → 1109, and it is bought by CONTENT, not by
+  // bad wrapping. Re-measured on the merged tree with this gate's own `wrapLine`,
+  // at the width the section is actually typeset at (median 85 B, p90 89 B, max
+  // 90 B — inside the ≤91-byte ASCII-prose convention the 120-byte cap above
+  // codifies): a greedy rewrap returns exactly the 20 lines the paragraph already
+  // occupies at 90 B, and 21 at 88 B ⇒ 0 lossless-rewrap headroom. Lines come back
+  // only by re-typesetting ASCII prose ABOVE that convention (18 at 100 B, 15 at
+  // 120 B; the whole section 88 → 69 at 120 B), which is the reflow that cap
+  // documents itself as NOT imposing — and re-wrap funding is refused per the
+  // 2026-08-17 rule in any case. Maintainer ruling, verbatim and untranslated:
+  // 「1. #19214 / 卡 #16233 —— AGENTS.md 行预算, A 批 +10(1099→1109)」
+  // — the maintainer's live instruction to `session_019srGWGCBBCBHqcDoRZpQRh`,
+  // recorded on #16233 comment 5750261694; it rules the line budget that the
+  // standing letter-C ruling 5716260390 left unruled when it named the text.
+  // AGENTS.md is not a CROSS_FILE_MOVES destination, so no `ruledRaises` record
+  // applies. Landed count, headroom 0, same convention.
+  ['AGENTS.md', 1109],
   // #9965: root CLAUDE.md is the other repo-root instruction file — same read
   // path (every seat session), same governance (Prime Directive #14). It is
   // structurally growth-prone in the way the ratchet is built for: it exists to