diff --git a/scripts/inventory-first-party-image-signatures.sh b/scripts/inventory-first-party-image-signatures.sh
index 19f9cdd426..c75cb18109 100755
--- a/scripts/inventory-first-party-image-signatures.sh
+++ b/scripts/inventory-first-party-image-signatures.sh
@@ -4,10 +4,16 @@
 #
 # WHY THIS EXISTS (#3334, under #3101)
 # Talos verifies first-party images itself, and an image that MATCHES a rule but fails verification
-# is refused at pull. Every such image is already cached on the fleet, so no rule-matching pull
-# happens today and the rules have never produced a decision. The moment one does, every latent
-# violation becomes a simultaneous ImagePullBackOff. That blast radius is measurable now, without
-# touching a node — and until it is measured, enabling the control is a guess.
+# is refused at pull. The rules DO produce decisions — containerd records each one per image as a
+# `talos.dev/verified` label, and every first-party image pulled here has PASSED. What has NOT been
+# observed is the REFUSAL: every such image is already cached on the fleet, so no rule-matching pull
+# of an unsigned first-party image happens today. Enforcement is per image and happens AT THE PULL,
+# so a violation surfaces only when that particular image is next pulled — on node replacement,
+# cache eviction or a tag bump — while every other cached image keeps running. The blast radius is
+# therefore scoped to the workloads that need that image pulled, not the whole fleet at once; a
+# single failing image can still stop several replicas or nodes together, since a tag bump rolls
+# them concurrently. It is measurable now, without touching a node — and until it is measured,
+# enabling the control is a guess.
 #
 # 🔴 THE ENUMERATION IS THE HARD HALF, AND A HAND-WRITTEN LIST CANNOT DO IT.
 # The apps that run here are not declared in this repository: they arrive as Flux OCIRepository
diff --git a/scripts/validate-image-verifier-liveness.sh b/scripts/validate-image-verifier-liveness.sh
index abba10d27a..38624d602b 100755
--- a/scripts/validate-image-verifier-liveness.sh
+++ b/scripts/validate-image-verifier-liveness.sh
@@ -21,12 +21,16 @@
 # re-create the exact blind spot it exists to close.
 #
 # WHAT THIS DOES NOT PROVE. That the controllers hold running rules and trust
-# material is necessary for enforcement, not sufficient: it does not establish
-# that a matched rule has ever produced a verification DECISION, because a
-# cached image is never re-pulled. That behavioural proof — a known-unsigned
-# image demonstrably refused at pull — is devantler-tech/platform#3336's job.
-# This check's value is that it needs no rollout and fails loudly when the
-# mechanism itself is not running.
+# material is necessary for enforcement, not sufficient. A matched rule DOES
+# produce a verification decision: containerd records one per image as a
+# `talos.dev/verified` label, and that label tracks rule MATCH rather than
+# signedness — measured 2026-08-26, 755 of 755 cached first-party images carry
+# it and 0 of 1299 cached images with a resolvable non-first-party repository
+# name do. What remains unproven is the REFUSAL: every first-party image pulled
+# here has PASSED, so a FAILING decision has never been observed to block a
+# pull. That behavioural proof — a known-unsigned image demonstrably refused at
+# pull — is devantler-tech/platform#3336's job. This check's value is that it
+# needs no rollout and fails loudly when the mechanism itself is not running.
 #
 # HISTORY, because it changes how a reader should read a green result: until
 # 2026-08-24 this script asserted a containerd `bin_dir`. No `bin_dir` is
diff --git a/talos/cluster/verify-first-party-images.yaml b/talos/cluster/verify-first-party-images.yaml
index ff553d4b8c..df0e32245c 100644
--- a/talos/cluster/verify-first-party-images.yaml
+++ b/talos/cluster/verify-first-party-images.yaml
@@ -8,23 +8,48 @@
 # every node, and `security.TUFTrustedRootController` maintains the Sigstore TUF
 # trust root that keyless verification needs.
 #
-# What is NOT established is that a matched rule has ever produced a
-# verification DECISION: every first-party image is already cached, so no
-# rule-matching pull occurs. Proving a refusal at pull is #3336. The original
-# finding is #2856.
+# A matched rule DOES produce a verification decision, and containerd records
+# it per image as a `talos.dev/verified` label. The label tracks rule MATCH,
+# not signedness: `ghcr.io/fluxcd/*` and `ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/*` are
+# cosign-signed upstream and never carry it, because no rule below names them.
+# Measured 2026-08-26 across all 7 nodes: 755 of 755 cached
+# `ghcr.io/devantler-tech/*` images carry the label, and 0 of 1299 cached
+# images with a resolvable non-first-party repository name do — no exceptions.
+#
+# What is NOT established is the REFUSAL. Every first-party image pulled here
+# has PASSED, so a FAILING decision has never been observed to block a pull.
+# Proving that refusal is #3336. The original finding is #2856.
 #
 # Check this, do not assume it. The repository cannot answer it — the rules read
 # as correct whether or not anything evaluates them:
 #     scripts/validate-image-verifier-liveness.sh
 # Measured 2026-08-24: 7 of 7 nodes hold running rules and a running trust root.
 #
-# BEFORE ACTIVATING (#3101): an image that matches a rule but fails
-# verification is refused, so any first-party image that is running yet
-# unsigned goes ImagePullBackOff the moment the verifier starts working.
+# BEFORE ACTIVATING (#3101): a matched image that fails verification is
+# EXPECTED to be refused, so any first-party image that is running yet unsigned
+# should enter ImagePullBackOff the moment it is next pulled. That refusal is
+# exactly what #3336 exists to prove and has not been observed here, so treat it
+# as the risk to design around rather than as a settled outcome.
 # Enumerate the running first-party digests and confirm each carries a cosign
 # signature — attestations alone do not satisfy the catch-all rule below — then
 # sign or scope the rule off any that do not.
 #
+# Enumerated 2026-08-26 — of the four first-party images running on the
+# cluster, ksail and provider-upjet-unifi verify against the exact keyless
+# identity their rules require. wedding-app and ascoachingogvaner are PRIVATE
+# packages: an unauthenticated cosign verify returns DENIED, which is an ACCESS
+# result and NOT evidence that a signature is absent. Settling those two needs
+# an AUTHENTICATED read, and this repository already stages one: the
+# `🔑 Stage the GHCR pull credential` step in
+# .github/workflows/validate-image-verifier-liveness.yaml decrypts the cluster's
+# own Flux GHCR pull credential into DOCKER_CONFIG before it runs
+# scripts/inventory-first-party-image-signatures.sh, so no ADDITIONAL
+# `read:packages` token has to be minted. What is missing is a recorded RUN of
+# that authenticated inventory against the fleet — the newest run of that
+# workflow (2026-08-11) executed only its unit-test job — so until one is on
+# record their signature state stays UNKNOWN, and they are the two images the
+# catch-all rule governs.
+#
 # Declares the cosign signatures required at the containerd PULL layer on
 # every node — a defense-in-depth complement to the GitOps-source
 # verification Flux already performs on OCI *manifest* artifacts (apps'