diff --git a/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md b/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
index 50a0a16e..fecc8d30 100644
--- a/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
+++ b/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
@@ -222,7 +222,12 @@ issue whether it is being fixed in between, after the delivery, or waits, and on
 
 1. **The reviewed tree is the tree that was tried**: every feature branch was brought up to the current trunk
    before its push and try (step 1). A try and a merge check each run on the merge with the trunk as it is then, so a
-   trunk that moves later is met by the forge's merge check, not by another merge here.
+   trunk that moves later is met by the forge's merge check, not by another merge here. Every verdict names the
+   trunk it merged onto ("pass <head> on <trunk>"), and the lead reads that trunk against the repository's main
+   at once: a trunk behind main means the source revision (source.main) lags, and every check and try in that
+   repository is judged on it until it moves, so the operator's Approve will merge nothing. Say it then, not at the
+   merge (issue 1726: on 2026-10-24 the gate dropped two merges it heard before it held its seat, and a
+   reviewed, approved pull request in each of the two repositories was refused at its Approve).
 2. **One reviewer reads every repository's local commits** together, against the context files and the
    decisions. **It is one agent, kept for the whole release** like the fixing agents: the lead continues it by
    its id for every later round, for the extra cycle after a failed check (step 3) and for its review record, so it