diff --git a/docs/runbooks/althing-deploy.md b/docs/runbooks/althing-deploy.md
index 05d5fd0..3c3cb92 100644
--- a/docs/runbooks/althing-deploy.md
+++ b/docs/runbooks/althing-deploy.md
@@ -318,9 +318,24 @@ edited directly and was *ahead* of the tracked copy; a reflexive `cp` from the
 repo would have destroyed the better version. The tracked copy is intent, the
 live path is reality, and reality is sometimes right.
 
-Smoke test — Claude Code runs it in a **bare shell**, so unset the althing
-env vars or you will test your own session's identity instead of the resolution
-logic:
+Smoke test — **strip the althing env vars, or you will test your own session's
+identity instead of the resolution logic.** A hand-run inherits the exported
+`ALTHING_HANDLE` from the session you run it in, so the seat's own directory and
+a directory with no althing identity render identically and both look right.
+That false pass caught two agents within one hour on 2026-09-02.
+
+⚠ **Open question — whether Claude Code's own invocation inherits the
+environment is NOT established, and nothing here depends on it.** An earlier
+version of this page asserted a "bare shell"; that claim was never verified and
+the evidence points the other way. Measured 2026-09-02: this box's Claude Code
+process carries `ALTHING_HANDLE` and `ALTHING_POST_OFFICE` in its own `environ`
+(inherited from the `dev-launch` shell), and a spawned child would normally
+inherit both — observed independently on two seats. Whether Claude Code scrubs
+the environment before spawning the status-line command was not observed either
+way. **Write code that does not depend on the environment being present**, which
+`althing-statusline` already does: environment first, launch history second, and
+a seat started outside `dev-launch` has no handle in either place. Test with the
+variables stripped regardless, because that is the harder case:
 
     printf '{"workspace":{"current_dir":"/tmp"}}' \
       | env -u ALTHING_HANDLE -u ALTHING_POST_OFFICE bash scripts/claude-statusline-command.sh