diff --git a/e2e/live/ci/backend.env b/e2e/live/ci/backend.env
index 09f12d963a..db35d5ef13 100644
--- a/e2e/live/ci/backend.env
+++ b/e2e/live/ci/backend.env
@@ -7,11 +7,18 @@
 #   "this console x that published backend" as a matched pair. Testing a
 #   mismatched pair (backend rc.N vs console pinned rc.M) proves nothing —
 #   bump this in the same PR that bumps the console's @objectstack pins.
+#   Pinned by scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts, which reads this
+#   value and the version pnpm-lock.yaml resolves and requires them equal. It
+#   had drifted two minor versions (17.0.0-rc.2 against a 17.2.0 lockfile)
+#   before anything compared the two numbers — objectui#7689.
 #
 # OBJECTSTACK_REF — the objectstack-ai/objectstack commit the showcase app
 #   metadata is checked out from. Always the commit the release tag
 #   `@objectstack/cli@${OBJECTSTACK_VERSION}` points at, so the app source and
 #   the published packages it runs on come from the same tree. (Mirror image
 #   of the framework repo's `.objectui-sha` console pin.)
-OBJECTSTACK_VERSION=17.0.0-rc.2
-OBJECTSTACK_REF=89d2a4eb3f3b6b8f8c0fbc4cb3953cbe8218dc66
+#   NOT machine-checked, and deliberately so: resolving that tag needs the
+#   objectstack repository, which the unit lane cannot reach. Move this by
+#   hand whenever the version above moves, from the tag's own commit.
+OBJECTSTACK_VERSION=17.2.0
+OBJECTSTACK_REF=e7d2cc67fdef7fee9d2c6d65d7363fe1c78ce6a4
diff --git a/e2e/live/saved-view-filter.spec.ts b/e2e/live/saved-view-filter.spec.ts
index 6b69679d35..44375b7dc9 100644
--- a/e2e/live/saved-view-filter.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e/live/saved-view-filter.spec.ts
@@ -6,8 +6,15 @@ import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
  *
  * This is the empirical pin for the defect, run against the REAL stack because
  * only the server can answer the question the issue asked: does it accept a
- * rule array in `$filter`? It does not. Measured on
- * `@objectstack/*@17.0.0-rc.2` with the showcase app:
+ * rule array in `$filter`? It does not. Measured against the published backend
+ * pair this lane pins — `OBJECTSTACK_VERSION` and `OBJECTSTACK_REF` in
+ * `e2e/live/ci/backend.env`, which move together and are now held to the
+ * lockfile by `scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts` (objectui#7689).
+ * That pair has moved since this measurement was first taken, which is why it
+ * is named by FILE and not by value: a version literal written here goes stale
+ * behind the pin silently, and the whole point of objectui#7689 is that it did
+ * — for two minor versions, in the pin itself. The showcase app is the one that
+ * ref checks out:
  *
  *   GET /api/v1/data/showcase_task
  *     ?$filter=[{"field":"status","operator":"equals","value":"in_progress"}]
diff --git a/scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts b/scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts
index 85be60d9af..8ad51d2fc3 100644
--- a/scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts
+++ b/scripts/__tests__/ci-cd-pipeline-doc.test.ts
@@ -1263,3 +1263,174 @@ describe('ci-cd-pipeline.md — contexts that can never be required (#4170)', ()
     ).toEqual([]);
   });
 });
+
+/**
+ * objectui#7689 — the page's live-e2e section states a pin rule that nothing read.
+ *
+ * `content/docs/guide/ci-cd-pipeline.md` says the backend pins "must match the
+ * `@objectstack/spec` version in `pnpm-lock.yaml` — bump both in the same PR, or the
+ * run proves nothing", and `e2e/live/ci/backend.env` repeats the same MUST in its own
+ * header. Both were true statements about what a reader should do and false statements
+ * about what CI checked: `git grep -l backend.env scripts/ .github/ e2e/` reached only
+ * the workflow that caches on its hash and the script that sources it. Nothing compared
+ * the two numbers, so the pin sat at `17.0.0-rc.2` against a lockfile resolving `17.2.0`
+ * for two minor versions while `Live E2E (informational)` reported green.
+ *
+ * That is the shape this file exists for, and the worst instance of it yet. The size
+ * regime in #3197 advertised a guardrail CI did not have; here the lane's OWN contract
+ * says a mismatched pair "proves nothing", so every green run it produced over those two
+ * minors was a check whose documentation declared it meaningless. A stale constant is a
+ * chore; a green light its own spec disclaims is worse than a red one.
+ *
+ * ## What this asserts, and the one half it deliberately does not
+ *
+ * ASSERTED: `OBJECTSTACK_VERSION` equals the `@objectstack/spec` version the lockfile
+ * resolves, read two independent ways (the resolution keys under `packages:`/`snapshots:`
+ * and the `version:` line of every workspace importer) whose union must hold exactly one
+ * value. Two readings rather than one because "the resolved version" is only a
+ * well-formed question while the tree agrees with itself: a lockfile carrying two
+ * `@objectstack/spec` versions has no single number for the pin to match, and naming that
+ * is more useful than picking one of them and comparing to it.
+ *
+ * NOT asserted: the file's other pin, `OBJECTSTACK_REF`, whose stated rule is that it is
+ * the commit the `@objectstack/cli@${OBJECTSTACK_VERSION}` release tag points at. Reading
+ * that tag needs the objectstack repository over the network, which this lane has not got,
+ * so the pairing moves by hand and this file says so rather than implying coverage it has
+ * not got. What IS checked is the shape a hand move can still get wrong in a way the lane
+ * only discovers 300 seconds later: `start-backend.sh` fetches the ref with
+ * `git fetch --depth 1 origin "$OBJECTSTACK_REF"`, which needs a full object name.
+ *
+ * ## Anti-vacuity
+ *
+ * Each half is floored. The doc sentence is required to still be on the page, because
+ * this whole block is the enforcement of that sentence and a page that stopped making the
+ * claim should retire the pin deliberately rather than leave it running on prose nobody
+ * reads. The lockfile scan is required to have matched something, so a lockfile format
+ * change turns this red instead of green-with-an-empty-set — the failure mode #3451 keeps
+ * teaching this page.
+ */
+const backendEnvPath = path.join(repoRoot, 'e2e/live/ci/backend.env');
+const lockfilePath = path.join(repoRoot, 'pnpm-lock.yaml');
+const backendEnv = fs.readFileSync(backendEnvPath, 'utf8');
+
+/** The page's statement of the rule, whitespace-normalised because the source wraps it. */
+const PIN_RULE_SENTENCE =
+  /Backend pins live in `e2e\/live\/ci\/backend\.env` and must match the `@objectstack\/spec` version in `pnpm-lock\.yaml`/;
+
+const readEnvKey = (key: string): string | null =>
+  backendEnv.match(new RegExp('^' + key + '=(.+)$', 'm'))?.[1].trim() ?? null;
+
+/**
+ * Every `@objectstack/spec` version the lockfile resolves, from both spellings.
+ *
+ * The resolution keys carry the peer-suffixed identity (`17.2.0(ai@…)`) under
+ * `snapshots:` and the bare one under `packages:`; the importer entries carry the same
+ * value on their `version:` line. Each is truncated at the first `(` so the three
+ * spellings collapse to one comparable number.
+ */
+function resolvedSpecVersions(): string[] {
+  const lock = fs.readFileSync(lockfilePath, 'utf8');
+  const found = new Set<string>();
+
+  for (const m of lock.matchAll(/^\s{0,4}'?@objectstack\/spec@([0-9][^'(\s:]*)/gm)) {
+    found.add(m[1]);
+  }
+  for (const m of lock.matchAll(
+    /^\s*'@objectstack\/spec':\s*\n\s*specifier:.*\n\s*version:\s*([0-9][^\s(]*)/gm,
+  )) {
+    found.add(m[1]);
+  }
+  return [...found].sort();
+}
+
+describe('ci-cd-pipeline.md — live-e2e backend pin (#7689)', () => {
+  it('still carries the sentence this block enforces', () => {
+    expect(
+      PIN_RULE_SENTENCE.test(doc.replace(/\s+/g, ' ')),
+      'content/docs/guide/ci-cd-pipeline.md no longer states that the backend pins in ' +
+        '`e2e/live/ci/backend.env` must match the `@objectstack/spec` version in ' +
+        '`pnpm-lock.yaml`. Everything below is the enforcement of that sentence, so losing it ' +
+        'would leave these assertions running on a rule the page stopped teaching. If the rule ' +
+        'was retired, retire this describe with it; if the sentence merely moved or was ' +
+        'reworded, update PIN_RULE_SENTENCE.',
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('resolves exactly one @objectstack/spec version to compare against', () => {
+    const versions = resolvedSpecVersions();
+
+    expect(
+      versions.length,
+      `Nothing in ${path.relative(repoRoot, lockfilePath)} matched either reading of an ` +
+        '`@objectstack/spec` resolution. That is a green this test must never report: the ' +
+        'comparison below would run against an empty set and pass no matter what ' +
+        '`e2e/live/ci/backend.env` says. Either the dependency is genuinely gone — in which ' +
+        'case the live lane has nothing to pin and this block should go — or the lockfile ' +
+        'format moved and the two regexes above need updating.',
+    ).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+
+    expect(
+      versions,
+      'The lockfile resolves more than one `@objectstack/spec` version:\n' +
+        versions.map((v) => `  - ${v}`).join('\n') +
+        '\n\nThere is then no single "the resolved version" for `OBJECTSTACK_VERSION` to ' +
+        'match, so the live lane cannot be a matched pair against any of them. Resolve the ' +
+        'workspace onto one version first; this test deliberately names the split rather than ' +
+        'picking a winner.',
+    ).toHaveLength(1);
+  });
+
+  it('pins OBJECTSTACK_VERSION to the version the lockfile resolves', () => {
+    const versions = resolvedSpecVersions();
+    if (versions.length !== 1) return; // reported by the test above
+
+    const pinned = readEnvKey('OBJECTSTACK_VERSION');
+    expect(
+      pinned,
+      `${path.relative(repoRoot, backendEnvPath)} declares no OBJECTSTACK_VERSION. ` +
+        '`start-backend.sh` sources this file and installs published `@objectstack/*` at that ' +
+        'value, so an absent key is not a lighter failure than a wrong one.',
+    ).not.toBeNull();
+
+    expect(
+      pinned,
+      `The live-e2e lane is pinned to an unmatched pair:\n` +
+        `  ${path.relative(repoRoot, backendEnvPath)}  OBJECTSTACK_VERSION=${pinned}\n` +
+        `  ${path.relative(repoRoot, lockfilePath)}          @objectstack/spec  ${versions[0]}\n\n` +
+        'content/docs/guide/ci-cd-pipeline.md states the rule: "Backend pins live in ' +
+        '`e2e/live/ci/backend.env` and must match the `@objectstack/spec` version in ' +
+        '`pnpm-lock.yaml` — bump both in the same PR, or the run proves nothing." The header ' +
+        'of backend.env says the same thing in its own words. A run of `Live E2E ' +
+        '(informational)` against this pair therefore carries no information, green or red — ' +
+        'it exercises one published backend against a console built for another.\n\n' +
+        'Fix it in whichever direction the change came from: a lockfile bump must move ' +
+        'OBJECTSTACK_VERSION (and, by hand, OBJECTSTACK_REF to the commit the matching ' +
+        '`@objectstack/cli` release tag points at), and a pin bump must be a lockfile bump. ' +
+        '⛔ Do not resolve this by reverting the pin to whatever was green last: a failing ' +
+        'matched pair carries strictly more information than a green mismatched one ' +
+        '(objectui#7689).',
+    ).toBe(versions[0]);
+  });
+
+  it('keeps OBJECTSTACK_REF in the one shape start-backend.sh can fetch', () => {
+    const ref = readEnvKey('OBJECTSTACK_REF');
+    expect(
+      ref,
+      `${path.relative(repoRoot, backendEnvPath)} declares no OBJECTSTACK_REF, which ` +
+        '`start-backend.sh` needs to sparse-checkout the showcase app.',
+    ).not.toBeNull();
+
+    // Which COMMIT it should be is the half this file cannot read (see the header): that
+    // needs the objectstack release tag. The shape it must have is readable here, and it
+    // is the one a hand move gets wrong — `git fetch --depth 1 origin <ref>` wants a full
+    // object name, and an abbreviated one fails 300 seconds into the lane, in a log nobody
+    // reads until the job goes red.
+    expect(
+      ref,
+      `OBJECTSTACK_REF is ${JSON.stringify(ref)}. start-backend.sh fetches it with ` +
+        '`git fetch --depth 1 origin "$OBJECTSTACK_REF"`, which needs a full 40-character ' +
+        'commit sha — an abbreviated one, a branch name or a tag is refused by the remote and ' +
+        'the lane only says so once the backend fails to boot.',
+    ).toMatch(/^[0-9a-f]{40}$/);
+  });
+});