diff --git a/.github/workflows/changeset-release.yml b/.github/workflows/changeset-release.yml
index ca3f78a6d..023835833 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/changeset-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/changeset-release.yml
@@ -1082,16 +1082,28 @@ jobs:
       # union — `ci.yml` on the source, these steps on the version outputs — is
       # the whole post-version tree.
       #
-      #     pnpm quick-reference:check   QUICK_REFERENCE.md          ~1 s
-      #     pnpm check:control-bytes     the 40 generated CHANGELOGs  ~4 s
-      #     pnpm test scripts/__tests__  73 files / 1996 tests       ~50 s
+      #     pnpm quick-reference:check   QUICK_REFERENCE.md            ~1 s
+      #     pnpm check:control-bytes     the 40 generated CHANGELOGs   ~4 s
+      #     pnpm test scripts/__tests__  every test in that directory  ~50 s
       #
       # The tooling suite is named as a DIRECTORY rather than as a list of test
       # files, deliberately: every test in this repository that reads a
       # manifest version, `QUICK_REFERENCE.md` or a `CHANGELOG.md` lives in it
       # (measured — 7 of 7 matches), `doc-version-claims.test.ts` among them,
       # and a list would go stale the first time someone adds an eighth.
-      # Measured green on a real rendered tree: 1 s + 4 s + 50 s.
+      #
+      # ⭐ The middle column names that directory instead of counting it, for
+      # the same reason. It read "73 files / 1996 tests" until objectui#8122,
+      # by which time the directory held 121 files and 3618 tests -- a figure
+      # copied into a comment is true only on the day it is written, and this
+      # one was false even on 2026-08-25, the date this block measures from:
+      # `main` carried 81 test files there, not 73.
+      # The run prints its own `Test Files` / `Tests` line; that is the count.
+      #
+      # Measured green on a real rendered tree, 2026-08-25: 1 s + 4 s + 50 s.
+      # ⚠️ Those wall-clocks are THAT DAY's readings, kept because the scoping
+      # decision was made on their order of magnitude. The tooling suite has
+      # grown since, so re-measure before quoting them as today's.
       #
       # ⛔ WHAT IS DELIBERATELY NOT RUN, AND WHY IT IS NOT AN OMISSION.
       # `check:spec-floors` and `check:published-dist` read dependency RANGES
diff --git a/scripts/check-shell-escape-residue.mjs b/scripts/check-shell-escape-residue.mjs
index 57be819a9..b10230017 100644
--- a/scripts/check-shell-escape-residue.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-shell-escape-residue.mjs
@@ -228,12 +228,16 @@ const DOC_EXTENSIONS = ['.mdx', '.md'];
  * four arrived with zero residue, inside fences and outside them.
  *
  * ⛔ `minFiles: 3` for that row -- PER ROOT, never a whole-surface floor, which
- * is the shape that failed: on a day this four-file root reads ZERO the other
- * four roots still return 203 of today's 207 files, so any total floor is green
- * through the whole outage. Seeded the way the others were, under today's count
- * with room for ordinary movement, and still red for the shape that caused this
- * card -- the `objectui-contributor` tree leaving reads 1, the two guides alone
- * leaving reads 2.
+ * is the shape that failed: on a day this root reads ZERO the other four still
+ * return all but its handful of documents, so any total floor is green through
+ * the whole outage. The relation is the whole argument and it needs no figure:
+ * every run prints each root's own population through `summarise()` below, and
+ * that verdict line is where a reader takes today's counts. A count copied into
+ * this comment is true only on the day it is written -- this paragraph carried
+ * two that were not (objectui#8122). Seeded the way the others were, under the
+ * count at the time, with room for ordinary movement, and still red for the
+ * shape that caused this card -- the `objectui-contributor` tree leaving reads
+ * 1, the two guides alone leaving reads 2.
  *
  * ⚠️ The row is `.claude/skills`, not `.claude` -- and the difference is only
  * about files that do not exist yet. Every `.md`/`.mdx` under `.claude/` today