diff --git a/.claude/agents/prose-asserter.md b/.claude/agents/prose-asserter.md
index ca0785349..c6e7ff162 100644
--- a/.claude/agents/prose-asserter.md
+++ b/.claude/agents/prose-asserter.md
@@ -89,6 +89,22 @@ record exactly like one the prose asked for — only the walk says which it
 was. So a claim that something was not done is answered by both together:
 the record for whether it happened, the walk for whose doing it was.
 
+## One known difference between here and a live session
+
+An inline `` !`command` `` directive is substituted when a skill loads
+live. A walk reads the prose as a file, so the substitution never happens
+and the walker takes the fallback the prose supplies for that case. That
+is correct behaviour and neither a failure nor a marker — do not report
+it, and do not fail a step for the fallback arm having run.
+
+It is worth knowing what it costs, though: the primary arm is the one a
+real session almost always takes, and here it is never exercised. A claim
+that depends on the substituted value cannot be answered by a walk, and
+should be judged unprovable rather than passed or failed.
+
+This is the only such difference. Anything else that looks like an
+environment quirk is a finding, not an exemption.
+
 ## An invalid walk is not a failing walk
 
 Check the **recorded actions**, not the walk, for where the walk
diff --git a/.claude/agents/prose-walker.md b/.claude/agents/prose-walker.md
index 758d17e69..63c768459 100644
--- a/.claude/agents/prose-walker.md
+++ b/.claude/agents/prose-walker.md
@@ -71,6 +71,11 @@ any harness substitutions. Follow it exactly.
   errored. Use only the tools the walk itself requires.
 - Do not read the case directory (`tests/prose/cases/…`). It holds the
   expected result, and seeing it invalidates the run.
+- **An inline `` !`command` `` directive will not have run.** That
+  substitution happens when a skill is loaded live; here the prose is read
+  as a file, so the literal backtick line is what you see. The prose gives
+  a fallback for exactly this — take it. It is expected, it is not a
+  `DEVIATION`, and it needs no marker.
 
 ## Markers
 
diff --git a/tests/prose/lib/record-action.cjs b/tests/prose/lib/record-action.cjs
index c58e78ac7..89684a383 100644
--- a/tests/prose/lib/record-action.cjs
+++ b/tests/prose/lib/record-action.cjs
@@ -42,12 +42,16 @@ const LOG = '.walk-actions.log';
 const WALK = '.walk-transcript.log';
 const VIOLATIONS = 'tests/prose/.agent-tool-use.log';
 const WORLD = /(^|[\s"'`])(\/[^\s"'`]*\/prose-world-[A-Za-z0-9]+)/;
+// These caps exist to protect the asserter's prompt, never to save disk —
+// every recorded action is read into it, and a walk makes twenty-odd file
+// reads whose bodies are whole skill files. They apply only where the
+// content is incidental. A file a walker read back is incidental: no claim
+// ever rests on those bytes. A command's output is not — it settles what
+// the prose was shown, whether a gate rendered empty, whether a menu had
+// entries — so it gets a ceiling generous enough that real evidence is
+// never trimmed, bounding only a runaway that would swamp the prompt.
 const MAX_OUTPUT = 400;
-// A command's output is the evidence that settles what the prose was
-// shown — whether a gate rendered empty, whether a menu had entries. It
-// gets the room a whole rendered section needs; a file read does not,
-// since no claim turns on the bytes a walker read back.
-const MAX_COMMAND_OUTPUT = 2000;
+const MAX_COMMAND_OUTPUT = 10000;
 
 function read() {
   try {
@@ -136,13 +140,30 @@ function fromTranscript(transcriptPath) {
  * already; this lifts them into the world beside the action log, where
  * the judging is done. Nothing is asked of the walker, which is what
  * makes it dependable.
+ *
+ * The final turn comes from the payload rather than the transcript. This
+ * hook runs inside the stop sequence, not after it, and the last thing
+ * the agent said is still being appended to the transcript as we read it
+ * — verified: the same extraction over the settled file returns the turn
+ * this misses. That turn is where a flow's closing emission lives, a
+ * handoff block among them, so losing it costs exactly the evidence a
+ * final claim rests on. `last_assistant_message` is the runtime handing
+ * it over directly, at the one moment it is not yet on disk.
+ *
+ * It is appended only when it is not already the closing turn — the race
+ * does not always fire. That is not deduplication: two identical turns
+ * genuinely in the transcript still both appear, because a step that ran
+ * twice is something the asserter must see.
  */
-function writeWalk(world, turns) {
-  if (!turns || !turns.length) return;
+function writeWalk(world, turns, closing) {
+  const all = turns ? turns.slice() : [];
+  const tail = (closing || '').trim();
+  if (tail && all[all.length - 1] !== tail) all.push(tail);
+  if (!all.length) return;
   try {
     fs.writeFileSync(
       path.join(world, WALK),
-      `${turns.join('\n\n---\n\n').split(world).join('.')}\n`,
+      `${all.join('\n\n---\n\n').split(world).join('.')}\n`,
     );
   } catch { /* a hook must never break what it observes */ }
 }
@@ -203,7 +224,7 @@ function main() {
     );
   } else if (stop) {
     parts.push(flatten(payload.last_assistant_message, MAX_OUTPUT).split(world).join('.'));
-    writeWalk(world, traced.turns);
+    writeWalk(world, traced.turns, payload.last_assistant_message);
   }
 
   try {
diff --git a/tests/scripts/test-prose-record-action.cjs b/tests/scripts/test-prose-record-action.cjs
index c0b3b1129..c3823ccdb 100644
--- a/tests/scripts/test-prose-record-action.cjs
+++ b/tests/scripts/test-prose-record-action.cjs
@@ -233,6 +233,70 @@ describe('prose recorder — the stop event', () => {
     assert.ok(walk.indexOf('ENTERED') < walk.indexOf('Which feature?'), 'in the order they happened');
   });
 
+  it('appends the closing turn the stop race leaves out of the transcript', () => {
+    // The hook runs inside the stop sequence: the agent's last message is
+    // still being appended as it reads. That turn is where a closing
+    // emission lives, so the payload's copy stands in for it.
+    const transcript = writeTranscript([
+      { message: { model: 'claude-sonnet-5', content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'ENTERED: § Step 4' }] }, cwd: world },
+    ]);
+    fire({
+      hook_event_name: 'SubagentStop',
+      agent_type: 'prose-walker',
+      agent_transcript_path: transcript,
+      last_assistant_message: 'EMITTED (handoff block):\n  Source: .workflows/pay/discussion/pay.md',
+    });
+    const walk = fs.readFileSync(path.join(world, '.walk-transcript.log'), 'utf8');
+    assert.ok(walk.includes('ENTERED: § Step 4'), 'the transcript turns survive');
+    assert.ok(walk.includes('Source: .workflows/pay/discussion/pay.md'), 'and the closing turn arrives');
+    assert.ok(walk.indexOf('Step 4') < walk.indexOf('Source:'), 'in that order');
+  });
+
+  it('does not double-record a closing turn the transcript already caught', () => {
+    const closing = 'STOPPED: end of flow';
+    const transcript = writeTranscript([
+      { message: { model: 'x', content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'ENTERED: § Step 4' }] }, cwd: world },
+      { message: { content: [{ type: 'text', text: closing }] } },
+    ]);
+    fire({
+      hook_event_name: 'SubagentStop',
+      agent_type: 'prose-walker',
+      agent_transcript_path: transcript,
+      last_assistant_message: closing,
+    });
+    const walk = fs.readFileSync(path.join(world, '.walk-transcript.log'), 'utf8');
+    assert.equal(walk.split(closing).length - 1, 1, 'recorded once, not twice');
+  });
+
+  it('keeps a genuine repeat — a step that ran twice must stay visible', () => {
+    const twice = 'ENTERED: § Step 4';
+    const transcript = writeTranscript([
+      { message: { model: 'x', content: [{ type: 'text', text: twice }] }, cwd: world },
+      { message: { content: [{ type: 'text', text: twice }] } },
+    ]);
+    fire({
+      hook_event_name: 'SubagentStop',
+      agent_type: 'prose-walker',
+      agent_transcript_path: transcript,
+      last_assistant_message: 'STOPPED: done',
+    });
+    const walk = fs.readFileSync(path.join(world, '.walk-transcript.log'), 'utf8');
+    assert.equal(walk.split(twice).length - 1, 2, 'both occurrences survive');
+  });
+
+  it('records the closing turn whole — a final emission is evidence', () => {
+    const long = `EMITTED:\n${'x'.repeat(3000)}`;
+    fire({
+      hook_event_name: 'SubagentStop',
+      agent_type: 'prose-walker',
+      agent_transcript_path: writeTranscript([{ message: { model: 'x' }, cwd: world }]),
+      last_assistant_message: long,
+    });
+    const walk = fs.readFileSync(path.join(world, '.walk-transcript.log'), 'utf8');
+    assert.ok(!walk.includes('[truncated]'), 'the walk log caps nothing');
+    assert.ok(walk.includes('x'.repeat(3000)));
+  });
+
   it('writes no walk file when the transcript holds no turns', () => {
     fire({
       hook_event_name: 'SubagentStop',