diff --git a/stacks/hrafn/ci/README.md b/stacks/hrafn/ci/README.md
index 8039793..6cca569 100644
--- a/stacks/hrafn/ci/README.md
+++ b/stacks/hrafn/ci/README.md
@@ -38,6 +38,15 @@ then `docker compose build && up`. Two problems, both fixed here.
 - **`.env` is never deployed.** It is host-owned, `0600`, and holds the
   bearer token. The playbook *refuses to run* if it is missing or not `0600`
   — a guard added because the file arrived at `0644` on handoff.
+- **The deploy converges, it does not accrete.** The first version unpacked
+  the tarball in place, which overwrote tracked files but never removed
+  anything — so leftovers from the pre-CI hand-rsync (`tests/`, `docs/`,
+  `ROADMAP.md`, `persistent-memory.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, `LICENSE`) survived the
+  first CI deploy and had to be cleaned off the host by hand. Now the
+  tarball unpacks to a staging dir and `rsync --delete` converges the compose
+  directory onto it, so a stray file cannot outlive the next deploy. The
+  consequence: **the tar list in the workflow is authoritative** — anything
+  omitted from it is deleted from the host, except `.env` and `.deployed`.
 
 ## Validation
 
diff --git a/stacks/hrafn/ci/gitea-workflows-deploy.yaml b/stacks/hrafn/ci/gitea-workflows-deploy.yaml
index 2e2020b..e7e87cc 100644
--- a/stacks/hrafn/ci/gitea-workflows-deploy.yaml
+++ b/stacks/hrafn/ci/gitea-workflows-deploy.yaml
@@ -67,14 +67,19 @@ jobs:
           chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
 
       - name: Build the deploy context
-        # Only what the Dockerfile actually consumes, plus compose.yaml.
-        # Deliberately excludes tests/, docs/, persistent-memory.md,
-        # ROADMAP.md, CLAUDE.md, LICENSE and .env — none of them belong
-        # in a production compose directory.
+        # Only what the Dockerfile actually consumes, plus compose.yaml
+        # and .env.example. Deliberately excludes tests/, docs/,
+        # persistent-memory.md, ROADMAP.md, CLAUDE.md, LICENSE and .env —
+        # none of them belong in a production compose directory.
+        #
+        # This list is AUTHORITATIVE: the playbook converges the host
+        # directory onto this tarball with rsync --delete, so anything
+        # omitted here is removed from the host on the next deploy
+        # (except the host-owned .env and .deployed).
         run: |
           mkdir -p dist
           tar czf dist/hrafn-context.tgz \
-            Dockerfile compose.yaml pyproject.toml README.md src
+            Dockerfile compose.yaml pyproject.toml README.md .env.example src
           echo "context contents:"
           tar tzf dist/hrafn-context.tgz
 
diff --git a/stacks/hrafn/ci/playbooks-deploy.yaml b/stacks/hrafn/ci/playbooks-deploy.yaml
index a8cbd2a..ef9f276 100644
--- a/stacks/hrafn/ci/playbooks-deploy.yaml
+++ b/stacks/hrafn/ci/playbooks-deploy.yaml
@@ -10,7 +10,11 @@
 # Requires a build-context tarball at dist/hrafn-context.tgz. The CI
 # workflow builds it; for a manual run, build it the same way:
 #   mkdir -p dist && tar czf dist/hrafn-context.tgz \
-#     Dockerfile compose.yaml pyproject.toml README.md src
+#     Dockerfile compose.yaml pyproject.toml README.md .env.example src
+#
+# The tarball must carry EVERYTHING that belongs in the compose dir: the
+# converge step below deletes anything on the host that is not in it,
+# except the host-owned .env and .deployed.
 #
 # DIFFERENCE 1 — tarball instead of per-file upload steps. nevermore
 # enumerates every source file as its own upload step. That is explicit,
@@ -59,10 +63,26 @@ steps:
       dest: "{{ compose_dir }}/.hrafn-context.tgz"
       mode: "0600"
 
-  - name: Unpack build context
-    # Overwrites tracked files in place; leaves .env and any host-only
-    # state alone because the archive does not contain them.
-    shell: tar xzf {{ compose_dir }}/.hrafn-context.tgz -C {{ compose_dir }} && rm -f {{ compose_dir }}/.hrafn-context.tgz
+  - name: Unpack build context into a staging dir
+    shell: |
+      rm -rf {{ compose_dir }}/.stage && mkdir -p {{ compose_dir }}/.stage
+      tar xzf {{ compose_dir }}/.hrafn-context.tgz -C {{ compose_dir }}/.stage
+      rm -f {{ compose_dir }}/.hrafn-context.tgz
+
+  - name: Converge the compose dir onto the build context
+    # The first version of this playbook unpacked in place, which
+    # ACCRETED: it overwrote tracked files but never removed anything,
+    # so leftovers from the pre-CI hand-rsync (tests/, docs/, ROADMAP.md,
+    # persistent-memory.md, CLAUDE.md, LICENSE) survived the first CI
+    # deploy and had to be cleaned off the host by hand. rsync --delete
+    # makes the directory CONVERGE on the build context, so a stray file
+    # — from an old deploy or a debugging session — cannot outlive the
+    # next deploy. Host-owned state is protected by name.
+    shell: |
+      rsync -a --delete \
+        --exclude '.env' --exclude '.deployed' \
+        {{ compose_dir }}/.stage/ {{ compose_dir }}/
+      rm -rf {{ compose_dir }}/.stage
 
   # ── build + start ───────────────────────────────────────────────────