diff --git a/.claude/agents/mesh-code-reviewer.md b/.claude/agents/mesh-code-reviewer.md
index b3fa5180..5f75602b 100644
--- a/.claude/agents/mesh-code-reviewer.md
+++ b/.claude/agents/mesh-code-reviewer.md
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ against the records, never limits on what you check: a ruling that contradicts a
   differs between the change and the trunk), or with a manifest it refuses or holds: the merge check would fail
   on it only after a full build.
 
+**Prove it against the live mesh, never a re-creation.** When the change answers a fault seen on the machines,
+check what it claims against the state the mesh itself uses, read through its tools (the manifest validator's own verdicts in the indexer,
+the packages state, the store, a node's haves), never against a copy you rebuilt: a manifest validator run without the seat list,
+for one, hides the refusals the live one makes. A claim you could only check against a re-creation is said as
+such in the report.
+
 Anything else (hardening, a further case, a nicer form) is a note, never a round. Read only: no edits, no git
 write, no verb that writes, never ssh. Use a temporary directory under `/var/tmp`.