diff --git a/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.conformance.test.ts b/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.conformance.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2f6a6e7c77
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+++ b/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.conformance.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+/**
+ * Settings route-ledger conformance (#17062) — the guard every OTHER
+ * `*-route-ledger.ts` in the tree pairs with a `*-route-ledger.conformance.test.ts`,
+ * missing here since the ledger itself landed at #7526.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS SHAPE. `registerSettingsRoutes` (`settings-routes.ts`) is a
+ * standalone, synchronous, top-level function — `(http, service, opts) => void`
+ * — that calls `http.get/put/post` directly and touches neither argument
+ * before a request arrives. That is exactly the shape `storage-routes.ts` and
+ * `admin-routes.ts` (datasource) export, and their conformance tests already
+ * settled the right seam for it: drive the registrar against a capturing mock
+ * `IHttpServer` and read its recorded calls as the route set. It is NOT the
+ * i18n shape (`I18nServicePlugin.registerI18nRoutes` is a *private* method
+ * reached only by driving the plugin's `init`→`start`→`kernel:ready`
+ * lifecycle) — `registerSettingsRoutes` needs no lifecycle to reach because it
+ * is already the exported seam, and driving one it does not require would
+ * intercept nothing the direct call does not. It is also not a source-scan:
+ * that shape (cli/metadata/trigger-api's second limb) earns its keep when the
+ * mounting mechanism can't be driven behind a mock (a dispatcher table read at
+ * import time, a scan of static bindings); registration here is an ordinary
+ * function call.
+ *
+ * ⭐ THE DIRECTION THAT MATTERS (per the issue). The dogfood live-mount-parity
+ * gate (`packages/qa/dogfood/test/route-ledger-live-mount-parity.dogfood.test.ts`,
+ * #7526) already checks that every ledgered settings row resolves on a real
+ * boot — but only that direction. It says nothing about a route this package
+ * mounts with NO ledger row: a boot that mounts an extra, unledgered path
+ * still satisfies "every ledgered row resolves". This file's first `it` is the
+ * missing direction — a route `registerSettingsRoutes` mounts that the ledger
+ * does not know about fails HERE, by name, in a plain unit test that runs on
+ * every `pnpm test`, not only in the dogfood suite.
+ *
+ * The second direction (a ledger row the registrar no longer mounts) is
+ * already covered in spirit by the dogfood gate's direction 1 — reproduced
+ * here too, in the #3636 / #7744 pattern every sibling follows, so this
+ * package's ledger is guarded the same way regardless of which suite runs.
+ */
+
+import { describe, it, expect, vi } from 'vitest';
+import { registerSettingsRoutes } from './settings-routes.js';
+import { SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER } from './settings-route-ledger.js';
+
+/** Minimal IHttpServer mock that records registrations. */
+function createMockServer() {
+  return {
+    get: vi.fn(),
+    post: vi.fn(),
+    put: vi.fn(),
+    delete: vi.fn(),
+    patch: vi.fn(),
+    use: vi.fn(),
+    listen: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
+    close: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
+  };
+}
+
+/**
+ * `VERB /path` keys for every route the registrar mounts at the DEFAULT base.
+ *
+ * Registration only closes over `service`/`opts` — nothing on either is
+ * called until a request arrives (every read of `service` happens inside a
+ * handler body), so a bare stub for each enumerates the full surface exactly
+ * as the storage/datasource siblings' bare stubs do.
+ */
+function enumerateSettingsRoutes(): Set<string> {
+  const server = createMockServer();
+  registerSettingsRoutes(server as any, {} as any, {});
+  const keys = new Set<string>();
+  for (const verb of ['get', 'post', 'put', 'patch', 'delete'] as const) {
+    for (const call of server[verb].mock.calls) {
+      keys.add(`${verb.toUpperCase()} ${call[0]}`);
+    }
+  }
+  return keys;
+}
+
+const ledgerKeys = (): Set<string> => new Set(SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.map((e) => e.route));
+
+describe('settings route ledger ↔ registerSettingsRoutes enumeration', () => {
+  it('every mounted settings route has a ledger entry', () => {
+    const ledger = ledgerKeys();
+    const missing = [...enumerateSettingsRoutes()].filter((k) => !ledger.has(k));
+    expect(
+      missing,
+      `Settings routes with no settings-route-ledger entry: ${missing.join(', ')}. ` +
+        'A new route needs a reviewed disposition in settings-route-ledger.ts (#17062).',
+    ).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('every ledger entry is really mounted by the registrar', () => {
+    const live = enumerateSettingsRoutes();
+    const stale = [...ledgerKeys()].filter((k) => !live.has(k));
+    expect(
+      stale,
+      `settings-route-ledger entries the registrar no longer mounts: ${stale.join(', ')}. ` +
+        'Remove or reclassify them so the ledger stays truthful.',
+    ).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('no route is ledgered twice', () => {
+    const seen = new Set<string>();
+    const dupes = SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.map((e) => e.route).filter((r) => !seen.add(r));
+    expect(dupes, `duplicate settings-route-ledger rows: ${dupes.join(', ')}`).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('the ledger is compared against a real enumeration, not an empty one', () => {
+    // Absence must be loud (AGENTS.md, Route & surface ownership §3). Both
+    // set-difference assertions above pass vacuously if the registrar ever
+    // stops registering anything — a refactor that moves the mount elsewhere,
+    // or a mock whose recorded calls stop being readable — leaving this file
+    // green while guarding nothing. Assert the enumeration produced something,
+    // and that the two sides are the same size rather than merely non-conflicting.
+    const live = enumerateSettingsRoutes();
+    expect(live.size).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(live.size).toBe(ledgerKeys().size);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('settings route ledger hygiene', () => {
+  it('every `sdk` entry names its client method; every non-sdk entry carries a rationale', () => {
+    const sdkWithout = SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.filter((e) => e.disposition === 'sdk' && !e.client).map((e) => e.route);
+    expect(sdkWithout, 'sdk-disposition entries missing a client method name').toEqual([]);
+
+    const bareNonSdk = SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.filter((e) => e.disposition !== 'sdk' && !e.note).map((e) => e.route);
+    expect(bareNonSdk, 'non-sdk entries must say WHY they are not SDK surface').toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('gap and mismatch counts only shrink — update the ledger (and these numbers) when closing them', () => {
+    // Ratchet, not aspiration. The settings surface is four reviewed
+    // `server-only` rows (deployment configuration read/written by the
+    // Setup/admin UI over plain HTTP — see settings-route-ledger.ts's own
+    // header): `@objectstack/client` expresses no settings method, and
+    // nothing has ever asked the SDK for one, so `gap` is not the disposition.
+    // A new `gap` or `mismatch` row is a product decision that needs its own
+    // review, so these bounds stay 0.
+    const gaps = SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.filter((e) => e.disposition === 'gap').length;
+    expect(gaps).toBeLessThanOrEqual(0);
+
+    const mismatches = SETTINGS_ROUTE_LEDGER.filter((e) => e.disposition === 'mismatch').length;
+    expect(mismatches).toBeLessThanOrEqual(0);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.ts b/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.ts
index 5246f915ef..4689f4c34e 100644
--- a/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.ts
+++ b/packages/services/service-settings/src/settings-route-ledger.ts
@@ -14,12 +14,20 @@
  * asking which rows nobody claims (PENDING-GAPS §E; the gate is
  * `packages/qa/dogfood/test/route-ledger-live-mount-parity.dogfood.test.ts`).
  *
- * WHAT GUARDS IT. That parity gate, in both directions: a row here whose
- * route the plugin stops mounting fails it, and a fifth route mounted without
- * a row here fails it too. Deliberately NOT a fifth per-package conformance
- * test — the sibling ledgers each grew one because nothing else could see
- * their registrar, and the gate now can. A second guard over the same fact
- * would be the "two places to remember" shape this issue is about.
+ * WHAT GUARDS IT. Two layers, since #17062. The dogfood parity gate above
+ * checks both directions too — a row here whose route the plugin stops
+ * mounting fails it, and any live mount without a row in the union of the
+ * ledgers it reads fails it — but only as part of a full boot, in a
+ * different package's suite, gated on whatever plugins that specific boot
+ * composes. `settings-route-ledger.conformance.test.ts`, alongside this
+ * file, is the package-local guard every OTHER `*-route-ledger.ts` in the
+ * tree already pairs itself with: it drives `registerSettingsRoutes` against
+ * a capturing mock `IHttpServer` (the same seam `storage-routes.ts` and
+ * datasource's `admin-routes.ts` use — `registerSettingsRoutes` is an
+ * exported, synchronous, top-level function that touches neither argument
+ * before a request arrives, so a bare stub of each enumerates the real
+ * surface), runs on every `pnpm test` for this package alone, and fails by
+ * name in both directions without needing a boot.
  *
  * SCOPE & SHAPE. Rows carry full wire paths at the DEFAULT base
  * (`/api/settings` — note NOT under `/api/v1`; this surface predates the