diff --git a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
index bf3d477..48f5890 100644
--- a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ async function settled(node: string, withinMs = 240_000): Promise<void> {
       wrong: { node: string; outcome: string; refused?: string;
                failed?: { id: string; error: string }[] }[];
       waiting: { node: string; never: boolean }[];
-      reported: { node: string; outcome: string; at?: string; sent?: string }[];
+      reported: { node: string; outcome: string; current: boolean }[];
     } | undefined;
     let said = "";
     try {
@@ -161,14 +161,12 @@ async function settled(node: string, withinMs = 240_000): Promise<void> {
         .filter(Boolean).join("\n  ");
       throw new Error(`${node} did not apply what it was sent (${bad.outcome}):\n  ${why}`);
     }
-    // Current is not caught up. The sent digest is recorded at send, so "not waiting" holds
-    // from the moment push returns, while the machine is still applying — this test asserted on
-    // containers the instant the declaration was current and found them not created yet. Caught
-    // up is the machine's own report being newer than what was sent to it: two timestamps the
-    // mesh recorded itself, compared.
+    // Caught up is an equality, not an ordering. This compared timestamps once — report newer
+    // than send — and lost the race it invited: the previous test's closing apply reported
+    // after this test's push, newer and still about the old declaration. The report now names
+    // the declaration it applied, and the mesh says whether that is the one it last sent.
     const word = state.reported.find((r) => r.node === node);
-    const acted = word?.outcome === "applied" && !!word.at && !!word.sent &&
-      Date.parse(word.at) > Date.parse(word.sent);
+    const acted = word?.outcome === "applied" && word.current;
     if (!state.waiting.some((w) => w.node === node) && acted) return;
     last = said;
     // Unhurried on purpose: each poll is an exec into a container on the machine that is busy