diff --git a/packages/spec/scripts/check-browser-reachable-entries.ts b/packages/spec/scripts/check-browser-reachable-entries.ts
index b7cd33c2f1..2b69476bf7 100644
--- a/packages/spec/scripts/check-browser-reachable-entries.ts
+++ b/packages/spec/scripts/check-browser-reachable-entries.ts
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@ import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
 import { dirname, join, relative, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
+import { buildStamp } from '../../../scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs';
 import { scanSource } from '../../../scripts/js-comment-mask.mjs';
 import { inspectBundleFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
@@ -927,6 +928,71 @@ function selfTest(): never {
       !inspectBundleFreshness(fresh, 'check', RERUN).fresh,
       mtimes(),
     );
+
+    // ── The acquittal: an mtime accusation that CAN be answered (#16175) ────
+    // Every case above is the mtime rule convicting, and until #16175 there was
+    // nothing it would accept as an answer. So it also refused the tree a
+    // `git merge`, `git checkout` or `git worktree add` leaves behind: those
+    // re-check-out an UNCHANGED source file — bytes identical, mtime bumped —
+    // and the build that follows is a turbo cache hit that rewrites nothing, so
+    // every dist/ mtime stays where the previous build left it. Measured on the
+    // real tree: `touch packages/spec/src/data/query.zod.ts` with `git status`
+    // empty made this gate exit 1 and prescribe a multi-minute rebuild of
+    // bundles that were already exactly current.
+    //
+    // The evidence is `dist/.build-input-hash`, which every build of the package
+    // writes AFTER its unconditional `tsup` pass. It may only ever ACQUIT, and
+    // the two cases after this one are what keep that non-vacuous.
+    const stampFile = join(fresh, 'dist', '.build-input-hash');
+    // Two steps, for the reason `dist-freshness.test.ts` gives: `buildStamp`
+    // computes `actual` only when a syntactically valid digest is recorded, so
+    // seed a placeholder, read what the sources really hash to, then write that.
+    // Asked of the rule's own reader rather than hardcoded — the input set
+    // includes turbo.json's globalDependencies and every input's repo-relative
+    // path, so a literal here would rot into a `mismatch` that reads exactly
+    // like the refusal these cases exist to tell apart. The stamp is written
+    // last, so it records the sandbox as it now stands, tsup.config.ts included
+    // (that file is in the digest's input set as well as in the mtime rule's).
+    writeFileSync(stampFile, `${'0'.repeat(64)}\n`);
+    const digest = buildStamp(fresh).actual;
+    check(
+      'the sandbox build-input digest can be computed at all (the fixture is not vacuous)',
+      typeof digest === 'string' && /^[0-9a-f]{64}$/.test(digest),
+      JSON.stringify(digest),
+    );
+    writeFileSync(stampFile, `${digest}\n`);
+    check(
+      'ACQUITS an mtime-stale tree whose build stamp matches the sources (#16175)',
+      inspectBundleFreshness(fresh, 'check', RERUN).fresh,
+      mtimes(),
+    );
+
+    // The half that makes the case above non-vacuous. If the acquittal were
+    // keyed on the stamp's mere PRESENCE rather than on the digest, this would
+    // stay green — and that is #7122's false green restored, one axis over. The
+    // stamp is written first and the source edited after, so the recorded digest
+    // is genuinely stale rather than never-valid.
+    writeFileSync(srcFile, 'export const a = 2;\n');
+    stamp(srcFile, 0);
+    check(
+      'and CONVICTS the same tree the moment a source byte actually changes',
+      !inspectBundleFreshness(fresh, 'check', RERUN).fresh,
+      mtimes(),
+    );
+
+    // Absence of the freshness input is not licence to acquit (#4690), and
+    // neither is a truncated or half-flushed write. Anything that is not 64 hex
+    // characters is `unstamped`, which leaves the mtime verdict standing. The
+    // source is restored to the bytes the digest above was taken over first, so
+    // the ONLY reason this refuses is the stamp itself.
+    writeFileSync(srcFile, 'export const a = 1;\n');
+    stamp(srcFile, 0);
+    writeFileSync(stampFile, 'not-a-digest\n');
+    check(
+      'ignores a build stamp that is not a digest at all',
+      !inspectBundleFreshness(fresh, 'check', RERUN).fresh,
+      mtimes(),
+    );
   } finally {
     rmSync(fresh, { recursive: true, force: true });
   }
diff --git a/scripts/build-input-hash.mjs b/scripts/build-input-hash.mjs
index 40100b0a59..b8a1aeecf3 100644
--- a/scripts/build-input-hash.mjs
+++ b/scripts/build-input-hash.mjs
@@ -34,13 +34,29 @@
  *
  * Both hold the SAME digest over the SAME inputs. The difference is which build
  * writes them, and that difference is the whole reason the second one exists —
- * see each constant's docblock, and `inspectDeclarationStamp` for the reader.
+ * see each constant's docblock, and the two `inspect*Stamp` readers at the
+ * bottom for what each stamp may and may not be believed about.
  */
 import { createHash } from 'node:crypto';
 import { existsSync, readdirSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import path from 'node:path';
 
-/** Where a build records the hash of the inputs it was built from. */
+/**
+ * Where a build records the hash of the inputs it was built from.
+ *
+ * Written by `--stamp` at the end of EVERY build of an amplifier package,
+ * `OS_SKIP_DTS=1` included. Two consumers read it, and the difference between
+ * what they may conclude is the whole reason the sibling stamp below exists:
+ *
+ *   - `check-dev-prereqs.mjs`'s boot gate, for which "this dist was built from
+ *     these sources" is the whole question (#5864);
+ *   - `bundlesAreStale` in scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs, for which it is
+ *     evidence about the emitted `.mjs`/`.js` ONLY — see `inspectBuildStamp`.
+ *
+ * ⛔ It says NOTHING about `dist/**\/*.d.ts`: the flag it is written under can
+ * skip the declaration pass entirely. That is #7122's rejected direction and it
+ * stays rejected; DTS_STAMP_BASENAME is the file that answers for those.
+ */
 export const STAMP_BASENAME = '.build-input-hash';
 
 /**
@@ -166,28 +182,28 @@ export function buildInputHash(root, pkgDir) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Did a declaration-emitting build produce THIS dist from THESE sources?
- *
- * The reader for DTS_STAMP_BASENAME, exported because the caller that needs it
- * is `distIsStale` in scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs — and it has to be THIS
- * function over THIS hash, or the comparison means nothing (the same argument
- * that keeps `--stamp` in this file rather than in a script of its own).
+ * Read ONE of the two stamps and say what it vouches for. Shared by both
+ * readers below, because "the stamp and the reader must compute the same
+ * digest" is exactly as load-bearing between the two stamps as it is between a
+ * stamp and its reader: two copies of this comparison would drift, and the
+ * direction drift takes is the one that acquits.
  *
  * Three verdicts, and the asymmetry between them is deliberate:
  *
  *   - `match`     the recorded digest equals the inputs on disk right now, so
- *                 the declarations describe exactly these sources. This is the
- *                 ONLY verdict that may clear an mtime accusation.
- *   - `mismatch`  a declaration-emitting build ran, and the sources have moved
- *                 since. Nameable in a refusal message: this is not an mtime
- *                 artefact, the content really did change.
+ *                 the artifact this stamp speaks for was emitted from exactly
+ *                 these sources. This is the ONLY verdict that may clear an
+ *                 mtime accusation.
+ *   - `mismatch`  a build that writes this stamp ran, and the sources have
+ *                 moved since. Nameable in a refusal message: this is not an
+ *                 mtime artefact, the content really did change.
  *   - `unstamped` NO EVIDENCE — no stamp, an unreadable one, a digest that
  *                 cannot be computed, or a package whose build does not stamp
  *                 at all. Every one of those collapses to the same answer on
  *                 purpose: "cannot vouch" must never read as "vouched for"
  *                 (#4690), and absence of the input is not licence to acquit.
  *
- * It never throws: it is called from inside a freshness predicate whose failure
+ * It never throws: it is called from inside freshness predicates whose failure
  * direction is a silently wrong artifact, so an unreadable tree has to degrade
  * to `unstamped` rather than take the caller down.
  *
@@ -197,9 +213,9 @@ export function buildInputHash(root, pkgDir) {
  * `actual` is computed only when there is a valid digest to compare it against,
  * so the ~30ms hash stays off the path where no amplifier stamp exists at all.
  */
-export function inspectDeclarationStamp(root, pkgDir) {
+function inspectStamp(root, pkgDir, basename) {
   const none = { state: 'unstamped', recorded: null, actual: null };
-  const stampFile = path.join(pkgDir, 'dist', DTS_STAMP_BASENAME);
+  const stampFile = path.join(pkgDir, 'dist', basename);
   let recorded;
   try {
     if (!existsSync(stampFile)) return none;
@@ -216,3 +232,49 @@ export function inspectDeclarationStamp(root, pkgDir) {
   }
   return { state: recorded === actual ? 'match' : 'mismatch', recorded, actual };
 }
+
+/**
+ * Did a DECLARATION-emitting build produce THIS dist from THESE sources?
+ *
+ * The reader for DTS_STAMP_BASENAME, exported because the caller that needs it
+ * is `distIsStale` in scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs — and it has to be THIS
+ * function over THIS hash, or the comparison means nothing (the same argument
+ * that keeps `--stamp` in this file rather than in a script of its own).
+ */
+export function inspectDeclarationStamp(root, pkgDir) {
+  return inspectStamp(root, pkgDir, DTS_STAMP_BASENAME);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Did a BUNDLE-emitting build produce THIS dist from THESE sources?
+ *
+ * The reader for STAMP_BASENAME, exported for `bundlesAreStale` in
+ * scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs, which measures `dist/**\/*.mjs` and `*.js`
+ * — a different artifact from the declarations, produced by a different pass.
+ *
+ * ## Why reading STAMP_BASENAME is sound HERE and stays rejected next door
+ *
+ * #7122 proposed answering the DECLARATION rule with this stamp, and that was
+ * measured wrong in the dangerous direction: `--stamp` writes this file under
+ * `OS_SKIP_DTS=1`, the one build flag that emits JS and leaves whatever `.d.ts`
+ * was there before — so it says fresh over stale declarations. That rejection
+ * is pinned (`packages/spec/scripts/dist-freshness.test.ts`) and unchanged.
+ *
+ * On the BUNDLE axis the same fact points the other way. `OS_SKIP_DTS=1` emits
+ * every bundle this stamp would then vouch for, so the case that ruled the file
+ * out for declarations is not a hole here at all — it is the ordinary case.
+ * What makes the vouching sound is the build script's ORDER, not the flag:
+ * `packages/spec`'s `build` runs the unconditional `tsup` (the JS pass) before
+ * `--stamp` in the same `&&` chain, so this file is never written by a run that
+ * did not emit bundles. The declaration pass that follows is the one that can be
+ * skipped, and skipping it cannot refresh this stamp because the stamp is
+ * written after both either way.
+ *
+ * The same one-way property still governs: it may only ever ACQUIT a tree the
+ * mtime rule has already accused, never accuse one it cleared. The digest still
+ * cannot see a hand-edited dist, a toolchain change or dependency drift — the
+ * mtime rule remains the only thing that convicts.
+ */
+export function inspectBuildStamp(root, pkgDir) {
+  return inspectStamp(root, pkgDir, STAMP_BASENAME);
+}
diff --git a/scripts/check-regen-pending.d.mts b/scripts/check-regen-pending.d.mts
index 3a1944d522..f6c976263b 100644
--- a/scripts/check-regen-pending.d.mts
+++ b/scripts/check-regen-pending.d.mts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 // guard exists to prevent — would type-check clean.
 //
 // Declared rather than inferred (no `allowJs`) because the module sits at the
-// repo root, outside the consuming program's `rootDir`. The surface is four
+// repo root, outside the consuming program's `rootDir`. The surface is five
 // functions with one optional argument; keep this file in step with them by
 // hand, and keep it small enough that doing so stays trivial.
 
@@ -61,3 +61,20 @@ export function schemaTreeIsStale(specDir?: string): boolean;
  * @param specDir Absolute path to the spec package; defaults to this repo's.
  */
 export function bundlesAreStale(specDir?: string): boolean;
+
+/**
+ * Did a bundle-emitting build produce `specDir/dist`'s `.mjs`/`.js` from the
+ * sources on disk right now? The bundle axis's counterpart to
+ * `declarationStamp`, reading the OTHER stamp file (`dist/.build-input-hash`,
+ * written by every build). `'match'` is the only verdict that clears an mtime
+ * accusation; `'unstamped'` is "no evidence". Read the function's own docblock
+ * before reusing it — the same file is deliberately NOT evidence about
+ * `dist/**\/*.d.ts`.
+ *
+ * @param specDir Absolute path to the spec package; defaults to this repo's.
+ */
+export function buildStamp(specDir?: string): {
+  state: 'match' | 'mismatch' | 'unstamped';
+  recorded: string | null;
+  actual: string | null;
+};
diff --git a/scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs b/scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs
index 992b5ff661..c413dc0fc3 100755
--- a/scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ import { dirname, join, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
 import { PENDING_MARKER, entryForPath, ownerDir, ownerOf, ownerRunCommand } from './regen-artifacts.mjs';
-import { inspectDeclarationStamp } from './build-input-hash.mjs';
+import { inspectBuildStamp, inspectDeclarationStamp } from './build-input-hash.mjs';
 import { isEntrypoint } from './invoked-as.mjs';
 import {
   EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET,
@@ -156,6 +156,24 @@ export function declarationStamp(specDir = SPEC_DIR) {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Did a BUNDLE-emitting build produce `specDir/dist`'s `.mjs`/`.js` from the
+ * sources on disk right now? Same three verdicts, same one-way meaning, same
+ * wrapping argument as `declarationStamp` above — the repo root is supplied
+ * here so no caller can hash against the wrong one.
+ *
+ * The OTHER stamp file: `dist/.build-input-hash`, which every build writes.
+ * `inspectBuildStamp`'s docblock is the authority on why that is the right
+ * evidence for THIS axis and remains the wrong evidence for the declarations.
+ */
+export function buildStamp(specDir = SPEC_DIR) {
+  try {
+    return inspectBuildStamp(REPO_ROOT, specDir);
+  } catch {
+    return { state: 'unstamped', recorded: null, actual: null };
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Is `packages/spec/dist` older than the sources it claims to describe? Missing
  * counts as stale. Deliberately conservative: a false "stale" costs a build, a
@@ -276,6 +294,42 @@ export function schemaTreeIsStale(specDir = SPEC_DIR) {
  * Missing counts as stale, and the direction is the same conservative one its
  * two siblings take: a false "stale" costs a build, a false "fresh" costs a
  * verdict nobody can trust.
+ *
+ * ## The mtime rule accuses; the BUILD stamp may acquit
+ *
+ * The blind spot `distIsStale` documents above is shared here, and was measured
+ * on this axis too: after a `git merge`, `git checkout` or `git worktree add`
+ * re-checks-out a source file with IDENTICAL bytes, the build that follows
+ * correctly does not run (turbo's cache hashes content, so it is a cache hit
+ * that rewrites nothing) and every `dist/` mtime stays put — so this rule
+ * refused `check:browser-reachable-entries` over bundles that were exactly
+ * current, and the only remedy on offer was a multi-minute rebuild under the
+ * shared verify lock.
+ *
+ * The evidence that answers it is `dist/.build-input-hash` — the file #7122
+ * proposed for the DECLARATION rule, where it was measured wrong and stays
+ * rejected. It is the right file HERE for a reason that is specific to this
+ * axis, not a relaxation of that ruling:
+ *
+ *   - #7122's hole is that `--stamp` writes this file under `OS_SKIP_DTS=1`,
+ *     which emits JS and skips the declarations. On this axis that flag emits
+ *     exactly the artifact being vouched for — `inspectBundleFreshness`'s own
+ *     refusal already tells the reader "OS_SKIP_DTS=1 is fine for THIS gate";
+ *   - what makes it sound is the build script's ORDER rather than the flag:
+ *     `packages/spec`'s `build` runs the unconditional `tsup` before `--stamp`
+ *     in one `&&` chain, so nothing writes this stamp without having emitted
+ *     bundles first. Only the declaration pass is conditional, and skipping it
+ *     cannot refresh a stamp written after both;
+ *   - the digest's input set is a strict SUPERSET of the source set measured
+ *     above — every file under `src/` (`.test.ts` included) plus
+ *     `tsup.config.ts` and the rest of `PACKAGE_BUILD_CONFIG` plus turbo's
+ *     `globalDependencies` — so a `match` implies every input this rule counts
+ *     is byte-identical to the one the bundles were emitted from. A superset
+ *     can only ever withhold an acquittal, never grant one it should not.
+ *
+ * And it may only ACQUIT. `unstamped` — absent, unreadable, not 64 hex
+ * characters, or a package whose build does not stamp — leaves the mtime
+ * verdict standing (#4690), so nothing that passes today can start failing.
  */
 export function bundlesAreStale(specDir = SPEC_DIR) {
   const bundles = newestMtime(
@@ -289,7 +343,8 @@ export function bundlesAreStale(specDir = SPEC_DIR) {
   );
   const configPath = join(specDir, 'tsup.config.ts');
   const config = existsSync(configPath) ? statSync(configPath).mtimeMs : 0;
-  return Math.max(src, config) > bundles;
+  if (Math.max(src, config) <= bundles) return false;
+  return buildStamp(specDir).state !== 'match';
 }
 
 /**