diff --git a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.SPEC.md b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.SPEC.md
index 0d741a4b0..2b497aba0 100644
--- a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.SPEC.md
+++ b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.SPEC.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ The daemon's one background clock: a single interval that runs a list of jobs, e
 ## Flows
 
 - A job's cadence is a small integer rather than a duration: the base interval is the finest cadence anything needs, and everything slower is that many ticks.
+- A tick is counted whenever the clock comes round, whether or not a turn could start: a job that runs long costs its own next turn and nothing else, and every other job's cadence keeps to the wall clock.
 - A missed turn is skipped, never queued: a slow job comes back to the next turn, not to a backlog of them.
 - A job that throws costs its own turn and nothing else, and says so with its name.
 - The first tick fires at start-up rather than an interval later; a job that only makes sense once the daemon has been up says so.
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@ The daemon's one background clock: a single interval that runs a list of jobs, e
 
 - One clock rather than a timer per sweep: a single schedule gives one place to look when "nothing is happening" turns out to be a sweep that was not running.
 - Tick counts rather than durations keep the ratios exact by construction, where separate timers drift.
+- A tick that no turn could take is still counted, because counting only the turns that ran let a single slow job stretch every cadence in the daemon by its own duration: while one project's data sync was failing slowly against a remote it could not reach, the ten-minute cloud-work pass came round every twenty-six minutes, and every other sweep with it.
 - A throwing job is named because a sweep failing silently is indistinguishable from one that was never scheduled.
 - The start-up tick exists because the case most of these jobs exist for is a machine that was off while something happened.
 - A tick you can await to completion is what makes the schedule testable without waiting on wall-clock time.
diff --git a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.SPEC.md b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.SPEC.md
index 243a5c2f8..fdc28f19d 100644
--- a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.SPEC.md
+++ b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.SPEC.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Covers the daemon's clock: a job running every Nth tick with missed turns skipped rather than queued, opting out of the start-up tick, a throwing job costing only its own turn and being named in the log, jobs running one at a time in order, overlapping ticks joining the one in flight, a stopped clock doing nothing further, and stopping resolving only once the turn already in flight has finished.
+Covers the daemon's clock: a job running every Nth tick with missed turns skipped rather than queued, opting out of the start-up tick, a throwing job costing only its own turn and being named in the log, jobs running one at a time in order, overlapping ticks joining the one in flight, a tick that came round mid-turn still counting towards every cadence, a stopped clock doing nothing further, and stopping resolving only once the turn already in flight has finished.
 
 ## Before modifying/creating SPEC.md files
 
diff --git a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.ts b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.ts
index 903a9edf9..f80387850 100644
--- a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.ts
+++ b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.test.ts
@@ -139,3 +139,47 @@ test('stopping waits out the turn already in flight, rather than only the next o
   assert.equal(finished, true, 'stop resolved only once the sweep had finished')
   await turn
 })
+
+test('a firing that lands mid-turn still counts, so one slow job cannot stretch every other cadence', async () => {
+  // #1607: a cadence was measured in turns that *ran*, and a firing arriving mid-turn joined the
+  // one in flight without being counted anywhere. A job that blocked for minutes — the case seen
+  // live was a data sync failing slowly against an unreachable remote — therefore pushed every
+  // other `every: N` job out by its own duration: a ten-minute pass came round every twenty-six.
+  let rare = 0
+  let slowTurns = 0
+  let releaseSlow = (): void => {}
+  const blocked = new Promise<void>(resolve => {
+    releaseSlow = resolve
+  })
+  const tick = startDaemonTick({
+    intervalMs: 5,
+    log: () => {},
+    jobs: [
+      { name: 'rare', every: 5, run: async () => void rare++ },
+      { name: 'slow', run: async () => void (slowTurns++ === 0 && (await blocked)) },
+    ],
+  })
+  try {
+    // The constructor's tick 0: `rare` takes its start-up turn, then `slow` holds the turn open.
+    const turn0 = tick.tick()
+    await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 50))
+    assert.equal(rare, 1, 'only the start-up turn so far — the clock is still inside tick 0')
+
+    // ~10 firings came round at 5ms apart while that one turn was in flight.
+    releaseSlow()
+    await turn0
+    await tick.tick()
+
+    // Well past tick 5, so `rare` is due now — not five *further* turns from now, which is what
+    // counting only the turns that ran used to mean.
+    assert.equal(rare, 2, 'the firings that landed mid-turn counted towards the cadence')
+    // And each job took exactly one further turn: the ones they missed are skipped, never queued
+    // up to be worked through one after another.
+    assert.equal(slowTurns, 2, 'one further turn, not one per firing that was missed')
+  } finally {
+    // Before `stop()`, which waits out the turn in flight: a turn still blocked here would
+    // deadlock the shutdown rather than fail the assertion above.
+    releaseSlow()
+    await tick.stop()
+  }
+})
diff --git a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.ts b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.ts
index ae1447675..58b0cf4e3 100644
--- a/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.ts
+++ b/packages/the-framework/src/daemon-tick.ts
@@ -20,8 +20,11 @@ export interface TickJob {
   /** For the log line when it throws. */
   name: string
   /**
-   * Ticks between turns. `1` is every tick, `20` is every twentieth. Its own turn is *skipped*
-   * rather than queued, so a slow job never accumulates a backlog of missed turns to work through.
+   * Ticks between turns. `1` is every tick, `20` is every twentieth. A tick is the interval
+   * coming round, not a turn that ran, so a slow job on the same clock cannot stretch this out.
+   *
+   * Its own turn is *skipped* rather than queued, so a slow job never accumulates a backlog of
+   * missed turns to work through.
    */
   every?: number
   /** Run one turn. Awaited, so a long job holds the tick rather than overlapping the next one. */
@@ -58,6 +61,11 @@ export interface DaemonTickOptions {
   log: (message: string) => void
 }
 
+/** Ticks between a job's turns, defaulted and floored. */
+function cadence(job: TickJob): number {
+  return Math.max(1, job.every ?? 1)
+}
+
 /**
  * Start the clock and return the handle that stops it.
  *
@@ -71,17 +79,34 @@ export interface DaemonTickOptions {
  */
 export function startDaemonTick(opts: DaemonTickOptions): DaemonTick {
   let stopped = false
-  let count = 0
+  /**
+   * Which tick is running now. Advanced by {@link elapsedWhileBusy} as well as by one, so it
+   * stays a count of how many times the interval has *come round* rather than how many turns
+   * happened to run (#1607).
+   */
+  let tickNow = -1
+  /**
+   * Interval firings that arrived while a turn was in flight. Time passed for them, so they count
+   * towards every cadence — the turn they would each have had is folded into the next one.
+   */
+  let elapsedWhileBusy = 0
   let inflight: Promise<void> | undefined
+  /**
+   * The tick each job last took a turn on, seeded so tick 0 is already due for a job that wants
+   * the start-up turn and one whole cadence away for a job that sits it out.
+   */
+  const lastTurn = opts.jobs.map(job => (job.onStart === false ? 0 : -cadence(job)))
 
-  const runTick = async (): Promise<void> => {
-    const n = count++
-    for (const job of opts.jobs) {
+  const runTick = async (n: number): Promise<void> => {
+    for (const [index, job] of opts.jobs.entries()) {
       if (stopped) return
-      const every = Math.max(1, job.every ?? 1)
-      // Offset by one so a job with `every: 20` runs on tick 0 too when it wants a start-up turn,
-      // and is skipped on tick 0 when it does not.
-      if (n === 0 ? job.onStart === false : n % every !== 0) continue
+      // Ticks *since this job's own last turn*, rather than `n % every`: when the clock jumps
+      // over the tick a job's cadence would have landed on, the job is due at the next turn
+      // instead of waiting a whole further cadence for the modulo to come round again.
+      if (n - lastTurn[index]! < cadence(job)) continue
+      // Claimed before the run, not after: a missed turn is skipped rather than queued, and a job
+      // that throws has still had its turn.
+      lastTurn[index] = n
       try {
         await job.run()
       } catch (err) {
@@ -92,14 +117,30 @@ export function startDaemonTick(opts: DaemonTickOptions): DaemonTick {
 
   const tick = (): Promise<void> => {
     if (stopped) return Promise.resolve()
-    inflight ??= runTick().finally(() => {
+    // A caller that arrives mid-turn joins it without moving the clock: `tick()` means "run a
+    // turn now" — the daemon's shutdown and the tests drive it, and neither is elapsed time.
+    // Only the interval is, and it says so through `elapsedWhileBusy`.
+    if (inflight) return inflight
+    tickNow += 1 + elapsedWhileBusy
+    elapsedWhileBusy = 0
+    inflight = runTick(tickNow).finally(() => {
       inflight = undefined
     })
     return inflight
   }
 
   void tick()
-  const timer = setInterval(() => void tick(), opts.intervalMs ?? DAEMON_TICK_MS)
+  const timer = setInterval(() => {
+    // The clock moved whether or not a turn can start. Counting a firing that lands on a busy
+    // daemon is the whole point: without it a long job — a data sync failing slowly against an
+    // unreachable remote — stretched every `every: N` cadence by its own duration, because a
+    // cadence was measured in turns that ran rather than in time that passed (#1607).
+    if (inflight) {
+      elapsedWhileBusy++
+      return
+    }
+    void tick()
+  }, opts.intervalMs ?? DAEMON_TICK_MS)
   timer.unref?.()
   return {
     tick,