@drakon-systems/shieldcortex-realtime 4.47.38 → 4.47.40

package/index.ts

@@ -2,26 +2,46 @@
  * ShieldCortex Real-time Scanning Plugin for OpenClaw v2026.3.22+
  *
  * Uses typed OpenClaw plugin hooks (`api.on`) for llm_input/llm_output
- * scanning and before_tool_call interception. `api.registerHook` registers
- * internal HOOK-style automation and does not participate in the agent-loop
- * block/approval semantics ShieldCortex needs.
- * All scanning operations are fire-and-forget.
+ * scanning and before_tool_call / before_agent_run interception.
+ * `api.registerHook` registers internal HOOK-style automation and does not
+ * participate in the agent-loop block/approval semantics ShieldCortex needs.
+ *
+ * NOT all scanning is fire-and-forget, and the distinction is the product:
+ *
+ *   llm_input        — OBSERVATION. Fire-and-forget; it has no blocking
+ *                      contract, so a detection here cannot stop the turn.
+ *   before_agent_run — THE GATE (#225). Awaited by the gateway; its return
+ *                      value decides whether the run proceeds. Bounded end to
+ *                      end (CONVERSATION_SCAN_MAX_MS for the scan,
+ *                      CONVERSATION_NOTIFY_MAX_MS for the alert) because the
+ *                      user's turn waits on it, and failing OPEN on every
+ *                      internal error — as an EXPLICIT `{ outcome: 'pass' }`
+ *                      (#226), never as void, and never by throwing: the host
+ *                      registers this hook fail-CLOSED. See `gatePass`.
+ *   before_tool_call — the Action Guard's gate, likewise awaited.
+ *
+ * Both conversation hooks honour `interceptor.conversation.posture`, including
+ * `off`, which is read before any scanner, audit write or cloud call.
  */
 
-import { createHash } from "node:crypto";
+import { createHash, randomUUID } from "node:crypto";
 import fs from "node:fs/promises";
-import { existsSync, readFileSync, realpathSync } from "node:fs";
+import { existsSync, readdirSync, readFileSync, realpathSync } from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
-import { homedir } from "node:os";
+import { homedir, hostname } from "node:os";
 import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
+import { createRequire } from "node:module";
 
 import { readConversationAccess, describeRegisteredHooks } from './conversation-access.js';
 import { createSessionTaintStore } from './session-taint.js';
 import { classifyConversationOrigin } from './conversation-trust.js';
+import type { ConversationTrustDecision } from './conversation-trust.js';
 import { createInterceptor, DEFAULT_CONFIG as DEFAULT_INTERCEPTOR_CONFIG } from './interceptor.js';
 import type { InterceptorConfig, BrokerRuntime } from './interceptor.js';
 import { syncInterceptEvent } from './intercept-ingest.js';
 import { cloudSync } from './cloud-sync.js';
+import { createGatewayNotifyChannel } from './gateway-notify-channel.js';
+import type { GatewayNotifyContext, NotifyChannelLike } from './gateway-notify-channel.js';
 
 // ==================== RESILIENT RUNTIME LOADER ====================
 // Resolves runtime.mjs from multiple locations so the plugin works both
@@ -46,6 +66,40 @@ type DefenceModule = {
     clean: boolean;
     injection: { clean: boolean; riskLevel: string; detections: unknown[] };
   };
+  /** #225 sink: the notify transport shared with the Action Guard (#143).
+   *  Every member is optional — an older installed dist won't have them, and
+   *  the guard must degrade to a loud log rather than fail. The field names
+   *  MIRROR `NotifyConfig` in src/defence/iron-dome/notify-config.ts exactly
+   *  (`webhookSecret`, not `secret`): a mirror that renames a field silently
+   *  drops it, and the field this one would have dropped is the HMAC key —
+   *  i.e. every POST would have gone out unsigned. */
+  normaliseNotifyConfig?: (raw: unknown) => {
+    enabled: boolean;
+    timeoutMs: number;
+    webhookUrl?: string;
+    webhookSecret?: string;
+    openclaw: boolean;
+  };
+  createWebhookNotifyChannel?: (opts: { url: string; secret?: string }) => NotifyChannelLike;
+  /** Builds the #225 notification. Used rather than an object literal so the
+   *  bounding/truncation rules live in ONE place (see the module doc on
+   *  operator-notify.ts) and a plugin cannot hand a channel a malformed shape. */
+  buildConversationThreatNotification?: (input: {
+    outcome: 'blocked' | 'observed' | 'unavailable';
+    posture: string;
+    summary: string;
+    reason: string;
+    sessionId?: string;
+    model?: string;
+    host?: string;
+    detectedAt: string;
+  }) => Record<string, unknown>;
+  /** The shared delivery core: bounded deadline, every failure normalised,
+   *  nothing but the delivered boolean read back from a channel. */
+  deliverOperatorNotification?: (
+    notification: unknown,
+    deps: { channels: NotifyChannelLike[]; timeoutMs?: number },
+  ) => Promise<{ deliveredVia: string | null; attempts: Array<{ channel: string; result: { delivered: boolean; reason?: string } }> }>;
 };
 
 let runtimePromise: Promise<OpenClawRuntime> | null = null;
@@ -67,44 +121,110 @@ function addAncestorCandidates(candidates: Set<string>, startPath: string) {
   }
 }
 
-function collectRuntimeCandidates(): string[] {
+/**
+ * Ask Node where the `shieldcortex` package actually is (#174).
+ *
+ * The plugin declares `shieldcortex` as a peer, so on ANY layout Node's own
+ * resolver can find it from here — no guessing at install prefixes. Resolving
+ * `shieldcortex/package.json` rather than the runtime file directly is
+ * deliberate: `./package.json` is the one subpath the main package's `exports`
+ * map always declares, whereas `hooks/openclaw/**` is in `files` but NOT in
+ * `exports`, so resolving it throws ERR_PACKAGE_PATH_NOT_EXPORTED.
+ *
+ * This is the strategy that fixes the reported `~/.local` host, and it works
+ * without widening the public `exports` surface.
+ */
+function addResolvedPeerCandidate(
+  candidates: Set<string>,
+  fromUrl: string,
+  resolve: (spec: string, from: string) => string = (spec, from) => createRequire(from).resolve(spec),
+): void {
+  try {
+    addRuntimeCandidate(candidates, path.dirname(resolve("shieldcortex/package.json", fromUrl)));
+  } catch { /* not resolvable from here — later strategies still apply */ }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Every place the runtime might live, in the order we should try them.
+ *
+ * `home` is injected because Jest sandboxes SHIELDCORTEX_CONFIG_DIR but never
+ * HOME, so a test that did not inject it would probe the developer's real
+ * install and pass for the wrong reason.
+ */
+function collectRuntimeCandidates(
+  home: string = homedir(),
+  resolveFrom: string = import.meta.url,
+): string[] {
   const candidates = new Set<string>();
 
-  // 1. Relative path (works when running from within npm package tree)
-  candidates.add(new URL("../../hooks/openclaw/cortex-memory/runtime.mjs", import.meta.url).href);
+  // 0. Operator escape hatch. `resolveOpenClawBinary` and the approval channel
+  //    already honour an env override for the same class of "we guessed your
+  //    install prefix wrong" problem; this list was the only copy without one,
+  //    which is why every new prefix (bun, volta, asdf, ~/.local) has needed a
+  //    code change. Accepts either the runtime file itself or a package root.
+  const envOverride = process.env.SHIELDCORTEX_RUNTIME_PATH?.trim();
+  if (envOverride) {
+    if (envOverride.endsWith(".mjs") && existsSync(envOverride)) {
+      candidates.add(pathToFileURL(envOverride).href);
+    } else {
+      addRuntimeCandidate(candidates, envOverride);
+    }
+  }
 
-  // 2. Config file override (reads path from ~/.shieldcortex/config.json instead of env var)
+  // 1. Ask Node. Works on every layout including the ~/.local one this fixes.
+  addResolvedPeerCandidate(candidates, resolveFrom);
+
+  // 2. Relative path — the repo/source-tree layout, where ../../hooks/… is real.
+  //    GUARDED, unlike before: on an installed layout this resolves to a
+  //    non-existent scoped path (`@drakon-systems/hooks/…`), and because it was
+  //    the only unguarded entry it became the SOLE list member and its
+  //    ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND became the operator-visible failure — the exact
+  //    message #174 reports. It is a real candidate in the source tree, so it
+  //    is kept and screened rather than deleted.
+  const relative = fileURLToPath(new URL("../../hooks/openclaw/cortex-memory/runtime.mjs", resolveFrom));
+  if (existsSync(relative)) candidates.add(pathToFileURL(relative).href);
+
+  // 3. Config file override. Honours SHIELDCORTEX_CONFIG_DIR like the rest of
+  //    the product — reading homedir() directly made this permanently blind on
+  //    a host that relocates its config.
   try {
-    const cfgPath = path.join(homedir(), ".shieldcortex", "config.json");
+    const configDir = process.env.SHIELDCORTEX_CONFIG_DIR?.trim() || path.join(home, ".shieldcortex");
+    const cfgPath = path.join(configDir, "config.json");
     if (existsSync(cfgPath)) {
       const cfg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(cfgPath, "utf-8"));
       if (cfg.installRoot) addRuntimeCandidate(candidates, cfg.installRoot);
     }
   } catch { /* no config */ }
 
-  // 3. Walk up from current file location
-  addAncestorCandidates(candidates, path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)));
+  // 4. Walk up from current file location
+  addAncestorCandidates(candidates, path.dirname(fileURLToPath(resolveFrom)));
 
-  // 4. Resolve via common bin symlink paths (no child_process needed)
-  for (const binDir of ["/usr/local/bin", "/opt/homebrew/bin", path.join(homedir(), ".npm-global", "bin")]) {
+  // 5. Resolve via common bin symlink paths (no child_process needed)
+  for (const binDir of [
+    "/usr/local/bin",
+    "/opt/homebrew/bin",
+    path.join(home, ".npm-global", "bin"),
+    path.join(home, ".local", "bin"),            // #174: pip-style / npm --prefix ~/.local
+  ]) {
     const binPath = path.join(binDir, "shieldcortex");
     try {
       if (existsSync(binPath)) addAncestorCandidates(candidates, realpathSync(binPath));
     } catch { /* broken symlink */ }
   }
 
-  // 5. Common global install paths (covers npm root -g results without spawning npm)
+  // 6. Common global install paths (covers npm root -g results without spawning npm)
   for (const root of [
     "/usr/lib/node_modules/shieldcortex",
     "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/shieldcortex",
     "/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/shieldcortex",
-    path.join(homedir(), ".npm-global", "lib", "node_modules", "shieldcortex"),
-    path.join(homedir(), ".nvm", "versions", "node"),  // nvm users
+    path.join(home, ".npm-global", "lib", "node_modules", "shieldcortex"),
+    path.join(home, ".local", "lib", "node_modules", "shieldcortex"),   // #174
+    path.join(home, ".nvm", "versions", "node"),  // nvm users
   ]) {
     if (root.includes(".nvm")) {
       // For nvm, check the current symlink
       try {
-        const currentNode = path.join(homedir(), ".nvm", "current", "lib", "node_modules", "shieldcortex");
+        const currentNode = path.join(home, ".nvm", "current", "lib", "node_modules", "shieldcortex");
         addRuntimeCandidate(candidates, currentNode);
       } catch { /* no nvm */ }
     } else {
@@ -137,6 +257,18 @@ async function getRuntime(): Promise<OpenClawRuntime> {
         }
       }
 
+      // #174: with every candidate screened by existsSync, "none found" is a
+      // real outcome and must not render as `Tried: . Last error: unknown
+      // error`. Name the escape hatch instead — this message is the only thing
+      // an operator on an unusual install prefix has to go on.
+      if (tried.length === 0) {
+        throw new Error(
+          "Could not load OpenClaw runtime: the shieldcortex package was not found from the plugin, " +
+          "and no known install prefix contained hooks/openclaw/cortex-memory/runtime.mjs. " +
+          "Point at it explicitly with SHIELDCORTEX_RUNTIME_PATH=/path/to/shieldcortex " +
+          "(or to the runtime.mjs itself), or reinstall so `shieldcortex` resolves as a peer of the plugin.",
+        );
+      }
       const detail = lastError instanceof Error ? lastError.message : String(lastError ?? "unknown error");
       throw new Error(`Could not load OpenClaw runtime. Tried: ${tried.join(", ")}. Last error: ${detail}`);
     })();
@@ -179,6 +311,13 @@ export function __getSessionTaintForTest(): typeof sessionTaint {
   return sessionTaint;
 }
 
+/** Test seam for #174 runtime resolution: `home` and the resolving module URL
+ *  are injectable because Jest sandboxes SHIELDCORTEX_CONFIG_DIR but never
+ *  HOME, so an un-injected probe would read the developer's real install. */
+export function __collectRuntimeCandidatesForTest(home?: string, from?: string): string[] {
+  return collectRuntimeCandidates(home, from);
+}
+
 export function __setDefenceModuleForTest(mod: DefenceModule | null | undefined): void {
   _defenceModOverride = mod;
   _defenceModPromise = null;
@@ -191,9 +330,16 @@ export function __resetConfigStateForTest(): void {
   _config = null;
   _configOverride = null;
   _lastShieldConfigRef = null;
+  // Re-arm the once-per-load config-failure warning (#226).
+  _shieldConfigLoadFailureLogged = false;
   _registered = false;
   _beforeToolCallRegistered = false;
   _registrationError = null;
+  _beforeAgentRunRequested = false;
+  _conversationAccessGranted = false;
+  _gatewayNotifyContext = null;
+  _hostRuntimeVersion = null;
+  __resetScanUnavailableAlertState();
 }
 
 type LlmInputEvent = {
@@ -263,6 +409,616 @@ interface InterceptorUserConfig {
     /** Reviewed-script allowlist (#189). Passed through RAW; validated
      *  entry-by-entry inside createReviewedScriptCheck. */
     reviewedScripts?: unknown[];
+    /** Operator-notify transport (#143), reused by the #225 conversation sink.
+     *  Passed through RAW for the same reason as `broker`: `normaliseNotifyConfig`
+     *  in the main package is the single boundary that knows which values arm a
+     *  channel, and splitting that judgement across two files is how one of the
+     *  halves ends up being the lenient one. Until #225 this key was silently
+     *  DROPPED here, so the plugin could not reach an operator at all even on a
+     *  box where the Claude Code hook could. */
+    notify?: Record<string, unknown>;
+  };
+  /** Conversation firewall posture (#225). See CONVERSATION_POSTURES. */
+  conversation?: { posture?: ConversationPosture };
+}
+
+/**
+ * What the conversation firewall is allowed to DO about a detection (#225).
+ *
+ * Before this existed, scanning ran on `llm_input` — an OpenClaw *observation*
+ * hook with no blocking contract — and a detection's entire effect was a
+ * console line. The product implied a firewall and shipped a logger. These
+ * three postures make the difference explicit and reportable:
+ *
+ *   off      — do not scan the conversation at all
+ *   observe  — scan, audit, notify the operator, NEVER block
+ *   enforce  — additionally block the run (via `before_agent_run`)
+ *
+ * Default is `observe`, deliberately. It is exactly the behaviour that shipped
+ * before — but named honestly instead of implied to be protection — and #182
+ * says the guard's false-positive rate is still unmeasured. An unmeasured
+ * blocker in front of every turn would be a worse incident than the one this
+ * fixes; `enforce` is opt-in until that number exists.
+ */
+export type ConversationPosture = 'off' | 'observe' | 'enforce';
+const CONVERSATION_POSTURES: readonly ConversationPosture[] = ['off', 'observe', 'enforce'];
+
+/** Resolve the configured posture. Anything unrecognised resolves DOWN to
+ *  `observe`, never up to `enforce`: a typo must not silently start blocking
+ *  every turn on an operator's box. */
+export function conversationPosture(raw: unknown): ConversationPosture {
+  if (!raw || typeof raw !== 'object') return 'observe';
+  const value = (raw as { posture?: unknown }).posture;
+  return typeof value === 'string' && (CONVERSATION_POSTURES as readonly string[]).includes(value)
+    ? (value as ConversationPosture)
+    : 'observe';
+}
+
+/**
+ * A scan outcome as the conversation guard sees it.
+ *
+ * `available: false` marks a scan that could not be RUN at all — no defence
+ * module, no MCP fallback, or a throw inside the scanner. It is deliberately a
+ * separate axis from `clean`, and `clean` is set FALSE alongside it, because
+ * the bug this replaces returned `{ clean: true, summary: 'scan unavailable' }`
+ * from the ordinary unavailable path: every caller that read only `clean` then
+ * treated an unscanned turn as a scanned-and-fine one, silently, forever.
+ *
+ * `errored` is kept as an alias of "not available" for the pure decision
+ * function's existing contract.
+ */
+export interface ConversationScanResult {
+  /** Only meaningful when `available` is true. False when unavailable, so a
+   *  caller that ignores `available` still cannot read "clean". */
+  clean: boolean;
+  summary: string;
+  /** The scan actually ran and produced a verdict. */
+  available: boolean;
+  /** Set when the scan could not be completed. Mirrors `!available`. */
+  errored?: boolean;
+  /** Failure detail, for the audit row and the operator alert. Never contains
+   *  scanned content. */
+  error?: string;
+}
+
+export interface ConversationDecision {
+  block: boolean;
+  notify: boolean;
+  audit: boolean;
+  reason: string | null;
+  /** What to tell a human happened to this turn — the same vocabulary the
+   *  notification carries, so the audit row and the alert cannot disagree. */
+  outcome: 'clean' | 'blocked' | 'observed' | 'unavailable' | 'not-scanned';
+}
+
+/**
+ * The whole decision, as a pure function — no I/O, no hooks, so the posture
+ * semantics are testable directly and cannot drift as the plumbing changes.
+ *
+ * The key line is `notify` on a non-blocking detection: logging is not a sink.
+ * The #225 finding was that a HIGH verdict reached a log file and nothing else,
+ * so a real threat on a real box was seen by nobody. Under `observe` we still
+ * do not stop the turn — but a human hears about it.
+ *
+ * `trust` is the second input because BLOCKING is a consequence, and #235's rule
+ * is that source trust gates consequences (see conversation-trust.ts). It is
+ * optional, and its absence means "origin not established", which resolves
+ * toward enforcement rather than away from it: a caller that does not know who
+ * spoke has not proved the owner did.
+ */
+export function evaluateConversationRun(
+  posture: ConversationPosture,
+  scan: ConversationScanResult,
+  trust?: ConversationTrustDecision,
+): ConversationDecision {
+  if (posture === 'off') {
+    return { block: false, notify: false, audit: false, reason: null, outcome: 'not-scanned' };
+  }
+
+  // Scanner failure fails OPEN — a broken scanner must not wedge every turn,
+  // which is the outcome ShieldCortex exists to prevent — but it is reported,
+  // because an unprotected turn must never read as a protected one. Note the
+  // condition: `available === false` OR the legacy `errored` flag, so a caller
+  // still constructing the old shape cannot route an unscanned turn into the
+  // clean branch.
+  if (scan.available === false || scan.errored) {
+    return {
+      block: false,
+      notify: true,
+      audit: true,
+      reason: `conversation scan unavailable (${scan.error ?? scan.summary}) — turn allowed UNSCANNED`,
+      outcome: 'unavailable',
+    };
+  }
+
+  if (scan.clean) {
+    return { block: false, notify: false, audit: false, reason: null, outcome: 'clean' };
+  }
+
+  // #235: the owner's own words are an instruction, so `enforce` does not act on
+  // them. This is the branch the whole trust module exists for — a block here
+  // does not warn the operator, it DESTROYS their message: OpenClaw keeps only
+  // the replacement text. Everything above still happened: the content was
+  // scanned, and `notify`/`audit` below are true whoever sent it. Only the
+  // consequence is withheld, and the reason says so on the row rather than
+  // leaving an enforce-posture host that did not block looking like a bug.
+  const trusted = trust !== undefined && !trust.mayTaint;
+  const block = posture === 'enforce' && !trusted;
+  return {
+    block,
+    notify: true,
+    audit: true,
+    reason:
+      posture === 'enforce' && trusted
+        ? `conversation threat: ${scan.summary} — NOT blocked: ${trust!.reason}`
+        : `conversation threat: ${scan.summary}`,
+    outcome: block ? 'blocked' : 'observed',
+  };
+}
+
+// ==================== CONVERSATION PLANE: HOST SUPPORT + CONSENT ============
+
+/**
+ * The first OpenClaw build whose plugin SDK declares the `before_agent_run`
+ * gate. Established by inspecting published npm artifacts, not by guessing:
+ *
+ *   2026.5.7        — `hook-types.d.ts` has no `before_agent_run` anywhere (0 hits);
+ *                     CONVERSATION_HOOK_NAMES = llm_input, llm_output,
+ *                     before_agent_finalize, agent_end
+ *   2026.5.9-beta.1 — FIRST published build declaring it: in `PLUGIN_HOOK_NAMES`,
+ *                     in `CONVERSATION_HOOK_NAMES`, in `PluginHookHandlerMap`, with
+ *                     `PluginHookBeforeAgentRunResult = InputGateDecision | void`
+ *   2026.5.12       — first STABLE (non-prerelease) build with it (2026.5.10 and
+ *                     2026.5.12 published betas in between; there is no plain
+ *                     2026.5.9 release)
+ *
+ * Below this floor `api.on('before_agent_run', …)` is accepted by the API and
+ * then DROPPED by the registry with an `unknown typed hook … ignored`
+ * diagnostic — it does not throw. So a version check is the only honest way to
+ * know, and claiming enforcement without one is exactly the class of false
+ * green #222 is about.
+ *
+ * ── ONE FLOOR, THREE FILES ────────────────────────────────────────────────
+ *
+ * The authoritative value is the STABLE release, and it is stated in three
+ * places that cannot import each other:
+ *
+ *   plugins/openclaw/index.ts                       — this constant
+ *   src/integrations/openclaw-conversation-capability.ts
+ *                                                   — CONVERSATION_ENFORCEMENT_MIN_OPENCLAW
+ *   plugins/openclaw/openclaw.plugin.json           — engines.conversationGate
+ *
+ * THE BOUNDARY IS REAL, not a preference. The plugin ships as its own dist,
+ * compiled by `tsconfig.openclaw-plugin.json` with `rootDir:
+ * ./plugins/openclaw` and an explicit `include` list; a `src/` import does not
+ * merely offend layering, it fails to emit — and the src module imports
+ * `semver`, which the plugin bundle does not carry (hence the hand-rolled
+ * `compareOpenClawVersions` below). The manifest is JSON read by the host and
+ * imports nothing at all.
+ *
+ * So the three are pinned EQUAL by test instead of shared by import:
+ * `src/__tests__/conversation-gate-floor-parity-226.test.ts` reads all three
+ * and fails on drift. Change one, that test tells you about the other two.
+ *
+ * `CONVERSATION_GATE_FIRST_PRERELEASE_OPENCLAW` is deliberately SUBORDINATE: it
+ * decides nothing an operator sees. Its only job is to mark the band where a
+ * version number alone cannot answer the question — see
+ * `hostSupportsConversationGate`.
+ */
+export const CONVERSATION_GATE_MIN_OPENCLAW = '2026.5.12';
+/**
+ * Documentation of when the hook first appeared, NOT a second floor.
+ *
+ * The previous cut used this as the support threshold, which made the plugin's
+ * operator-facing verdict disagree with the CLI's on any 2026.5.9-beta.1 →
+ * 2026.5.11 host: `shieldcortex doctor` said enforcement was unavailable while
+ * the plugin's own status line said supported. Two answers to one question is
+ * how the next false green gets built.
+ */
+export const CONVERSATION_GATE_FIRST_PRERELEASE_OPENCLAW = '2026.5.9-beta.1';
+
+/**
+ * Compare two OpenClaw CalVer strings (`2026.5.12`, `2026.5.9-beta.1`).
+ * Deliberately local and tiny: the plugin build cannot import semver, and the
+ * only question asked is "is this host at or above the floor".
+ * Returns null when either side cannot be parsed — "unknown", never "yes".
+ */
+export function compareOpenClawVersions(a: string, b: string): number | null {
+  const parse = (v: string): { nums: number[]; pre: string[] } | null => {
+    // Exactly three numeric parts, and only `-` introduces a prerelease. A
+    // trailing `.4` is NOT a prerelease tail — it is a version shape we do not
+    // understand, and the safe answer to that is "unknown".
+    const m = String(v ?? '').trim().match(/^(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(?:-([0-9A-Za-z.-]+))?$/);
+    if (!m) return null;
+    return { nums: [Number(m[1]), Number(m[2]), Number(m[3])], pre: m[4] ? m[4].split('.') : [] };
+  };
+  const pa = parse(a);
+  const pb = parse(b);
+  if (!pa || !pb) return null;
+  for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
+    if (pa.nums[i] !== pb.nums[i]) return pa.nums[i] < pb.nums[i] ? -1 : 1;
+  }
+  // A prerelease sorts BELOW the same numeric release (2026.5.9-beta.1 < 2026.5.9).
+  if (pa.pre.length === 0 && pb.pre.length === 0) return 0;
+  if (pa.pre.length === 0) return 1;
+  if (pb.pre.length === 0) return -1;
+  return comparePrerelease(pa.pre, pb.pre);
+}
+
+/** Semver prerelease precedence, restricted to what a CalVer tail can hold:
+ *  numeric identifiers compare numerically, a numeric identifier sorts below an
+ *  alphanumeric one, and a shorter identifier list sorts below an
+ *  otherwise-equal longer one (`beta` < `beta.1` < `beta.2` < `beta.10`).
+ *
+ *  The string compare this replaces put `beta.10` BELOW `beta.1`, so the tenth
+ *  beta of the gate build was classified as predating the first — an error in
+ *  the one direction this file must never make, since it demotes a host that
+ *  HAS the gate to 'unsupported'. */
+function comparePrerelease(a: string[], b: string[]): number {
+  const len = Math.max(a.length, b.length);
+  for (let i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+    const x = a[i];
+    const y = b[i];
+    if (x === undefined) return -1;
+    if (y === undefined) return 1;
+    const xNum = /^\d+$/.test(x);
+    const yNum = /^\d+$/.test(y);
+    if (xNum && yNum) {
+      const nx = Number(x);
+      const ny = Number(y);
+      if (nx !== ny) return nx < ny ? -1 : 1;
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (xNum !== yNum) return xNum ? -1 : 1;
+    if (x !== y) return x < y ? -1 : 1;
+  }
+  return 0;
+}
+
+/** What we could establish about the OpenClaw build we are running inside. */
+export interface HostOpenClawProbe {
+  /** The host runtime version, or null when it could not be established. */
+  version: string | null;
+  /**
+   * Where `version` came from, so a reader can weigh it.
+   *
+   *   'runtime'      — `api.runtime.version`, the host's own declared runtime
+   *                    version (`PluginRuntimeCore.version`). First choice: the
+   *                    gateway states it about itself.
+   *   'package.json' — the openclaw package.json found by walking up from the
+   *                    entry path. A fallback, and wrong on an install whose
+   *                    on-disk package and running process differ.
+   *   null           — no version evidence at all.
+   */
+  versionSource?: 'runtime' | 'package.json' | null;
+  /** The host package root, or null. */
+  root: string | null;
+  /**
+   * Whether THIS host's shipped hook declarations name `before_agent_run`.
+   * true/false when the declarations were found and read; null when they were
+   * not (an install without type declarations, an unusual layout).
+   *
+   * This is the primary evidence, ahead of the version string, because it is a
+   * property of the build actually on this box: a fork, a backport or a patched
+   * install answers correctly here and would be mis-classified by a version
+   * comparison. NOTE: the runtime `openclaw/plugin-sdk` entrypoint exports
+   * exactly ten symbols (ContextEngine helpers, onDiagnosticEvent, stringEnum,
+   * …) and none of them is the hook-name list — read off 2026.7.1's shipped
+   * `dist/plugin-sdk/index.js` — so importing the SDK and asking it directly is
+   * not available.
+   */
+  declaresGate: boolean | null;
+}
+
+/** Test seam: pins the host probe without touching disk. */
+let _hostProbeOverride: HostOpenClawProbe | null | undefined;
+export function __setHostOpenClawProbeForTest(p: HostOpenClawProbe | null | undefined): void {
+  _hostProbeOverride = p;
+  _hostProbeCache = undefined;
+}
+let _hostProbeCache: HostOpenClawProbe | undefined;
+
+/**
+ * The host runtime version the gateway told us about, captured at register().
+ *
+ * `api.runtime.version` is declared by the host SDK as
+ * `PluginRuntimeCore.version: string` — the version of the OpenClaw runtime
+ * this plugin is loaded into (verified against the installed host's
+ * `dist/plugin-sdk/src/plugins/runtime/types-core.d.ts`, and `api.runtime` is
+ * on `OpenClawPluginApi` in the same build). It is NOT `api.version`, which is
+ * the plugin's own version and would answer a completely different question:
+ * comparing OUR version against an OpenClaw floor would classify every host as
+ * unsupported.
+ *
+ * It is preferred over the filesystem walk because it is the running process
+ * describing itself, where the walk infers from whichever package.json happens
+ * to sit above the entry path. Null until a host actually supplies it — an
+ * older gateway, a CLI invocation or a test rig may not, and that is UNKNOWN.
+ */
+let _hostRuntimeVersion: string | null = null;
+
+/** Test seam for the runtime-supplied host version. */
+export function __setHostRuntimeVersionForTest(v: string | null): void {
+  _hostRuntimeVersion = v;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Record `api.runtime.version` if this host exposes it. Returns what was
+ * recorded (null when nothing usable was offered), and never throws: a host
+ * with an exotic `runtime` getter must not take the plugin's registration down.
+ */
+export function recordHostRuntimeVersion(api: unknown): string | null {
+  try {
+    const runtime = (api as { runtime?: { version?: unknown } } | null | undefined)?.runtime;
+    const version = runtime?.version;
+    _hostRuntimeVersion = typeof version === 'string' && version.trim() ? version.trim() : null;
+  } catch {
+    _hostRuntimeVersion = null;
+  }
+  return _hostRuntimeVersion;
+}
+
+/** Does this host's shipped SDK declare the gate? Bounded, best-effort, and
+ *  null on anything unexpected — an unreadable install is UNKNOWN, never
+ *  "supported". */
+function probeGateDeclaration(root: string): boolean | null {
+  const candidates: string[] = [];
+  // 2026.5.2-era layout: the declarations live under the plugin-sdk tree.
+  candidates.push(path.join(root, 'dist', 'plugin-sdk', 'src', 'plugins', 'hook-types.d.ts'));
+  // 2026.6+/2026.7 layout: a single hashed `hook-types-<hash>.d.ts` at dist root.
+  try {
+    const distDir = path.join(root, 'dist');
+    if (existsSync(distDir)) {
+      for (const name of readdirSync(distDir)) {
+        if (/^hook-types.*\.d\.ts$/.test(name)) candidates.push(path.join(distDir, name));
+      }
+    }
+  } catch { /* fall through to whatever candidates we have */ }
+
+  let sawAny = false;
+  for (const file of candidates) {
+    try {
+      if (!existsSync(file)) continue;
+      sawAny = true;
+      if (/\bbefore_agent_run\b/.test(readFileSync(file, 'utf-8'))) return true;
+    } catch { /* unreadable candidate — try the next */ }
+  }
+  return sawAny ? false : null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Everything we can learn about the host OpenClaw build from inside the plugin.
+ *
+ * Two independent sources, both read, neither invented:
+ *
+ *   - `api.runtime.version` — the running gateway's own statement of its
+ *     version, captured at register() (see `recordHostRuntimeVersion`). This is
+ *     the primary VERSION evidence when the host offers it. Note it is not
+ *     `api.version`, which is this plugin's version.
+ *   - the filesystem — walk up from the gateway's entry path to the package.json
+ *     that names openclaw, then read that install's own shipped hook
+ *     declarations. This is the version FALLBACK, and it is the only source of
+ *     `declaresGate`, which stays the strongest gate-support evidence of the two
+ *     (a backport or a fork answers it correctly where a version comparison
+ *     cannot — see `hostSupportsConversationGate`).
+ *
+ * No process is ever spawned. A null everywhere is a legitimate, frequently
+ * correct answer (a CLI invocation, an unusual install layout) and callers must
+ * treat it as UNKNOWN — never as "supported".
+ */
+export function detectHostOpenClaw(): HostOpenClawProbe {
+  const disk = detectHostOpenClawFromDisk();
+  // The runtime's own version outranks whatever package.json the walk landed
+  // on — but only for the version; `declaresGate` and `root` are disk facts and
+  // are carried through untouched.
+  if (_hostRuntimeVersion) return { ...disk, version: _hostRuntimeVersion, versionSource: 'runtime' };
+  return disk;
+}
+
+function detectHostOpenClawFromDisk(): HostOpenClawProbe {
+  if (_hostProbeOverride !== undefined) return _hostProbeOverride ?? { version: null, root: null, declaresGate: null };
+  if (_hostProbeCache !== undefined) return _hostProbeCache;
+  _hostProbeCache = (() => {
+    const empty: HostOpenClawProbe = { version: null, root: null, declaresGate: null, versionSource: null };
+    const entry = process.argv?.[1];
+    if (!entry || typeof entry !== 'string') return empty;
+    let current: string;
+    try {
+      current = path.dirname(realpathSync(entry));
+    } catch {
+      current = path.dirname(entry);
+    }
+    let previous = '';
+    for (let i = 0; i < 8 && current !== previous; i++) {
+      try {
+        const pkgPath = path.join(current, 'package.json');
+        if (existsSync(pkgPath)) {
+          const hostPkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(pkgPath, 'utf-8')) as { name?: unknown; version?: unknown };
+          if (hostPkg?.name === 'openclaw') {
+            const version = typeof hostPkg.version === 'string' ? hostPkg.version : null;
+            return {
+              version,
+              versionSource: version ? ('package.json' as const) : null,
+              root: current,
+              declaresGate: probeGateDeclaration(current),
+            };
+          }
+        }
+      } catch { /* keep walking up */ }
+      previous = current;
+      current = path.dirname(current);
+    }
+    return empty;
+  })();
+  return _hostProbeCache;
+}
+
+/** Convenience for callers that only want the version string. */
+export function detectHostOpenClawVersion(): string | null {
+  return detectHostOpenClaw().version;
+}
+
+export type GateSupport = 'supported' | 'unsupported' | 'unknown';
+
+/**
+ * Does this host have the `before_agent_run` gate at all?
+ *
+ * Order matters: what the installed build DECLARES outranks what its version
+ * number implies, and both outrank a guess. There is no branch here that
+ * returns 'supported' without evidence.
+ */
+export function hostSupportsConversationGate(probe: HostOpenClawProbe | string | null): GateSupport {
+  const resolved: HostOpenClawProbe =
+    typeof probe === 'string' || probe === null
+      ? { version: probe, root: null, declaresGate: null }
+      : probe;
+  if (resolved.declaresGate === true) return 'supported';
+  if (resolved.declaresGate === false) return 'unsupported';
+  if (!resolved.version) return 'unknown';
+  const cmp = compareOpenClawVersions(resolved.version, CONVERSATION_GATE_MIN_OPENCLAW);
+  if (cmp === null) return 'unknown';
+  if (cmp >= 0) return 'supported';
+
+  // Below the STABLE floor. One band inside that is not honestly 'unsupported':
+  // 2026.5.9-beta.1 → 2026.5.11 ship the hook as a prerelease, so calling them
+  // unsupported would tell an operator "no posture can block a turn on this
+  // host" about a host that blocks. The opposite claim is worse still, so
+  // neither is made: this is the absence of a measurement, and
+  // `describeConversationPlane` renders it as UNPROVEN and active:false.
+  //
+  // In practice a real prerelease install lands on `declaresGate` above and
+  // never reaches here — this branch is what happens when the declarations
+  // could not be read either, i.e. when we genuinely do not know.
+  const pre = compareOpenClawVersions(resolved.version, CONVERSATION_GATE_FIRST_PRERELEASE_OPENCLAW);
+  if (pre === null) return 'unknown';
+  return pre >= 0 ? 'unknown' : 'unsupported';
+}
+
+/**
+ * Read the operator's CONVERSATION-ACCESS consent for this plugin from the
+ * host config: `plugins.entries.<id>.hooks.allowConversationAccess === true`.
+ *
+ * OpenClaw refuses every conversation hook for a non-bundled plugin without
+ * this exact value (registry: `record.origin !== "bundled" &&
+ * explicitConversationAccess !== true`). `llm_input` and `llm_output` are on
+ * that list in every build; `before_agent_run` joins it in 2026.5.9-beta.1,
+ * the same build that first declares the gate at all — so from there on the
+ * grant governs the conversation firewall's enforcement point too.
+ * Strict `true` only, matching the host: `undefined` and `false` are the same
+ * refusal there, and reading them differently here would report protection the
+ * gateway is not providing.
+ *
+ * It is the operator's per-box CONSENT grant, and this plugin only ever READS
+ * it. Nothing on the plugin's own path — `register()`, a hook, a background
+ * refresh — may write it: a security product that silently grants itself the
+ * right to read every conversation is the behaviour this product exists to
+ * catch. The only thing that may set it is an explicit, operator-initiated
+ * install/repair that says so out loud (#225: "the installer must never set it
+ * silently"). Absence is therefore reported, loudly and by name, rather than
+ * fixed from in here.
+ */
+export function readConversationAccessGrant(rootConfig: unknown): boolean {
+  if (!rootConfig || typeof rootConfig !== 'object' || Array.isArray(rootConfig)) return false;
+  const entries = (rootConfig as {
+    plugins?: { entries?: Record<string, { hooks?: { allowConversationAccess?: unknown } } | undefined> };
+  }).plugins?.entries;
+  const entry = entries?.[PLUGIN_ID] ?? entries?.[PLUGIN_PACKAGE_NAME];
+  return entry?.hooks?.allowConversationAccess === true;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Everything we can HONESTLY say about the conversation plane on this host.
+ *
+ * Note what is not here: any claim that the gateway accepted the hook.
+ * `api.on()` returns void, never throws on an unknown hook name, and never
+ * throws on a refused conversation hook — it records a diagnostic and returns —
+ * so "the host accepted our registration" is not knowable from inside the
+ * plugin, and a flag asserting it would be decoration. What IS knowable is the
+ * two facts that decide the outcome: whether the host build has the gate, and
+ * whether the operator granted conversation access.
+ */
+export interface ConversationPlaneState {
+  posture: ConversationPosture;
+  /** We called `api.on('before_agent_run', …)` this session. */
+  hookRequested: boolean;
+  gateSupport: GateSupport;
+  hostOpenClawVersion: string | null;
+  consentGranted: boolean;
+  /** True only when the posture is on AND both preconditions hold. */
+  active: boolean;
+  /** One line, exact about the evidence, for status and doctor. */
+  summary: string;
+}
+
+export function describeConversationPlane(input: {
+  posture: ConversationPosture;
+  hookRequested: boolean;
+  gateSupport: GateSupport;
+  hostOpenClawVersion: string | null;
+  consentGranted: boolean;
+}): ConversationPlaneState {
+  const { posture, hookRequested, gateSupport, hostOpenClawVersion, consentGranted } = input;
+  const hostText = hostOpenClawVersion ? `OpenClaw ${hostOpenClawVersion}` : 'OpenClaw version undetermined';
+
+  if (posture === 'off') {
+    return {
+      ...input,
+      active: false,
+      summary: 'off — conversation scanning disabled by config (interceptor.conversation.posture=off)',
+    };
+  }
+  if (!consentGranted) {
+    return {
+      ...input,
+      active: false,
+      summary:
+        `INACTIVE: conversation access NOT granted on this host — set plugins.entries.${PLUGIN_ID}.hooks.allowConversationAccess=true ` +
+        'in openclaw.json (operator consent; the installer will never set it for you). Until then the gateway REFUSES llm_input and ' +
+        'llm_output for this plugin — and, on builds that have it, before_agent_run too: nothing on the conversation path is scanned or blocked',
+    };
+  }
+  if (gateSupport === 'unsupported') {
+    return {
+      ...input,
+      active: false,
+      summary:
+        `INACTIVE for enforcement: ${hostText} predates the before_agent_run gate ` +
+        `(floor ${CONVERSATION_GATE_MIN_OPENCLAW}; first seen as a prerelease in ${CONVERSATION_GATE_FIRST_PRERELEASE_OPENCLAW}) — ` +
+        'observation only; no posture can block a turn on this host',
+    };
+  }
+  if (!hookRequested) {
+    return { ...input, active: false, summary: 'INACTIVE: the before_agent_run hook was not registered this session' };
+  }
+  if (gateSupport === 'unknown') {
+    // UNPROVEN IS NOT ACTIVE. Every other branch above is a fact we read — the
+    // posture, the grant, the host build. This one is the absence of a
+    // measurement: we could not establish that this host has the gate at all,
+    // and `api.on` does not acknowledge a registration, so nothing here knows
+    // whether the hook exists. Reporting `active: true` with a caveat glued to
+    // the summary string — which is what this did — means every caller that
+    // reads the boolean instead of the prose (status renderers, doctor, any
+    // future check) claims a live firewall on evidence nobody has. Under
+    // `enforce` that is the worst version of it: the operator believes turns
+    // are being blocked on a host where the gate may be silently dropped.
+    return {
+      ...input,
+      active: false,
+      summary:
+        `UNPROVEN: could not verify that host ${hostText} provides the before_agent_run gate ` +
+        `(no runtime version, no readable hook declarations), and the plugin API does not acknowledge a registration. ` +
+        (posture === 'enforce'
+          ? 'The posture is enforce, so a dirty verdict WOULD block the run where the gate exists — but that it exists here is not established. Treat this host as observation-only until it is.'
+          : 'Detections are audited and sent to the operator where the hook runs at all; nothing is blocked in this posture regardless.'),
+    };
+  }
+  return {
+    ...input,
+    active: true,
+    summary:
+      posture === 'enforce'
+        ? 'enforce — a dirty verdict BLOCKS the run via before_agent_run'
+        : 'observe — detections are audited and sent to the operator; turns are NOT blocked',
   };
 }
 
@@ -276,6 +1032,20 @@ interface SCConfig {
   openclawAutoMemoryNoveltyThreshold?: number;
   openclawAutoMemoryMaxRecent?: number;
   interceptor?: InterceptorUserConfig;
+  /**
+   * Source trust for conversation content (see conversation-trust.ts).
+   *
+   * Declared and PARSED here, not read off an untyped cast. `normaliseConfig`
+   * is a strict allowlist — that is the whole point of #112/#115 — so a key it
+   * does not name is dropped on both config paths (~/.shieldcortex/config.json
+   * and the openclaw.json plugin entry). Landed as a cast against an SCConfig
+   * that had no such field, `conversationTrust.trustOwnerInput` was therefore
+   * read as `undefined` on every host, and the documented opt-out could not be
+   * turned on by anyone. It matters more now that trust also gates BLOCKING:
+   * an operator who wants owner input policed like everything else has to have
+   * a working way to say so.
+   */
+  conversationTrust?: { trustOwnerInput?: boolean };
 }
 
 const PLUGIN_ID = "shieldcortex-realtime";
@@ -330,6 +1100,21 @@ const PLUGIN_CONFIG_UI_HINTS = {
     label: "Enable Tool Call Interceptor",
     help: "Scan memory-write tool calls and gate suspicious content behind user approval.",
   },
+  // #226: these two exist in openclaw.plugin.json's uiHints and were missing
+  // here, so the host UI and the plugin's own declared hints described
+  // different sets of settings. The manifest parity test now pins the two key
+  // sets EQUAL in both directions, because a hint present on only one side is
+  // a setting one surface documents and the other silently omits.
+  "interceptor.severityActions.high": {
+    label: "High Severity Action",
+    help: "Action for high-severity threats: log, warn, or require_approval.",
+    advanced: true,
+  },
+  "interceptor.severityActions.critical": {
+    label: "Critical Severity Action",
+    help: "Action for critical-severity threats: log, warn, or require_approval.",
+    advanced: true,
+  },
   "interceptor.actionGuard.enabled": {
     label: "Action Guard",
     help: "Gate dangerous shell/file/network/git tool calls before they execute. Catastrophic operations are always blocked while enabled.",
@@ -358,6 +1143,39 @@ const PLUGIN_CONFIG_UI_HINTS = {
     help: "Off = every dangerous-tier action still waits for you; the broker can then only harden, never release.",
     advanced: true,
   },
+  // #225. The posture is the whole product claim on the conversation path, so
+  // it is NOT marked advanced: an operator must be able to see, in the UI that
+  // configures this plugin, whether the firewall in front of their prompts can
+  // stop anything.
+  "interceptor.conversation.posture": {
+    label: "Conversation Firewall",
+    help:
+      "What the conversation firewall does with a detection on the input path. " +
+      "off = do not scan; observe = scan, audit and alert the operator but never stop the turn (default); " +
+      "enforce = block the run via before_agent_run. Requires plugins.entries.shieldcortex-realtime.hooks.allowConversationAccess=true " +
+      "on this host — OpenClaw refuses conversation hooks without that operator grant, and ShieldCortex will never set it for you.",
+  },
+  "interceptor.actionGuard.notify.enabled": {
+    label: "Operator Notifications",
+    help: "Reach a human when the guard holds an action, or when the conversation firewall detects a threat. Off by default.",
+    advanced: true,
+  },
+  "interceptor.actionGuard.notify.webhookUrl": {
+    label: "Notify Webhook URL",
+    help: "http(s) endpoint the notification is POSTed to. Conversation-firewall alerts carry no approve/deny affordance — there is nothing to approve.",
+    advanced: true,
+  },
+  "interceptor.actionGuard.notify.webhookSecret": {
+    label: "Notify Webhook Secret",
+    help: "HMAC-SHA256 key for X-ShieldCortex-Signature, so the receiver can reject spoofed POSTs.",
+    sensitive: true,
+    advanced: true,
+  },
+  "interceptor.actionGuard.notify.openclaw": {
+    label: "Notify via OpenClaw",
+    help: "Deliver through the gateway's own channel where the runtime provides that seam.",
+    advanced: true,
+  },
 } as const;
 
 const SEVERITY_ACTION_SCHEMA = {
@@ -376,64 +1194,143 @@ const FAILURE_POLICY_SCHEMA = {
   ),
 };
 
-const INTERCEPTOR_JSON_SCHEMA = {
+/** #225. Mirrored verbatim into openclaw.plugin.json's configSchema — the host
+ *  validates the on-disk config against THAT file, so a posture accepted here
+ *  and absent there is a config an operator writes from our own docs and the
+ *  gateway rejects. */
+const CONVERSATION_JSON_SCHEMA = {
+  type: "object",
+  additionalProperties: false,
+  properties: {
+    posture: {
+      type: "string",
+      enum: [...CONVERSATION_POSTURES],
+      default: "observe",
+      description:
+        "off = do not scan the conversation; observe = scan, audit and alert but never block (default); " +
+        "enforce = block the run on a dirty verdict via before_agent_run.",
+    },
+  },
+};
+
+/** #235/#226. Mirrored verbatim into openclaw.plugin.json's configSchema, for
+ *  the same reason as the conversation posture above: the host validates the
+ *  on-disk config against THAT file, and a key our parser reads but neither
+ *  schema declares is one an operator cannot set at all. */
+const CONVERSATION_TRUST_JSON_SCHEMA = {
+  type: "object",
+  additionalProperties: false,
+  properties: {
+    trustOwnerInput: {
+      type: "boolean",
+      default: true,
+      description:
+        "Default true: a message the host attributes to the gateway OWNER is an instruction, so a detection in it " +
+        "is audited and alerted but never taints the session or blocks the turn. Set false on a host where the owner " +
+        "routinely pastes untrusted content and you would rather have the caution than the quiet. Content from " +
+        "anyone else — including another agent on a trusted channel — is data regardless of this setting.",
+    },
+  },
+};
+
+/**
+ * The Action Guard block, declared ONCE and mounted in BOTH places the parser
+ * accepts it (#226).
+ *
+ * `normaliseConfig` has read a TOP-LEVEL `actionGuard` since #209 — that is the
+ * canonical location, and `interceptor.actionGuard` is the deprecated alias
+ * kept for pre-#209 configs. The schemas said the opposite: only the nested
+ * alias was declared, under `additionalProperties: false`, so a config written
+ * from our own documentation — `actionGuard.notify` at the top level — was
+ * rejected as an unknown key by any host that validates against the schema.
+ * The parser would have kept it; the config never reached the parser. That is
+ * the shape behind the original `parsedNotify: null` reproduction.
+ *
+ * One constant, two mount points, so the two can never drift. Mirrored by hand
+ * into openclaw.plugin.json's configSchema (the host validates the on-disk
+ * config against THAT file) and pinned equal by manifest-config-schema-226.test.ts.
+ */
+const ACTION_GUARD_JSON_SCHEMA = {
   type: "object",
   additionalProperties: false,
   properties: {
     enabled: { type: "boolean" },
-    severityActions: SEVERITY_ACTION_SCHEMA,
-    failurePolicy: FAILURE_POLICY_SCHEMA,
-    actionGuard: {
+    enforce: { type: "boolean" },
+    autoApprove: { type: "array", items: { type: "string" } },
+    auditAllows: { type: "boolean" },
+    // #143. Mirrors normaliseBrokerConfig's allowlist; that function still
+    // has the last word, so a value that slips past the schema is still
+    // range-checked (and dropped) before the broker sees it.
+    broker: {
       type: "object",
       additionalProperties: false,
       properties: {
         enabled: { type: "boolean" },
-        enforce: { type: "boolean" },
-        autoApprove: { type: "array", items: { type: "string" } },
-        auditAllows: { type: "boolean" },
-        // #143. Mirrors normaliseBrokerConfig's allowlist; that function still
-        // has the last word, so a value that slips past the schema is still
-        // range-checked (and dropped) before the broker sees it.
-        broker: {
+        allowPreClear: { type: "boolean" },
+        preClearConfidence: { type: "number", minimum: 0.9, maximum: 1 },
+        judgeTimeoutMs: { type: "number", minimum: 500, maximum: 60000 },
+        approvalTimeoutMs: {
           type: "object",
           additionalProperties: false,
           properties: {
-            enabled: { type: "boolean" },
-            allowPreClear: { type: "boolean" },
-            preClearConfidence: { type: "number", minimum: 0.9, maximum: 1 },
-            judgeTimeoutMs: { type: "number", minimum: 500, maximum: 60000 },
-            approvalTimeoutMs: {
-              type: "object",
-              additionalProperties: false,
-              properties: {
-                sensitive: { type: "number", minimum: 1000, maximum: 3600000 },
-                dangerous: { type: "number", minimum: 1000, maximum: 3600000 },
-              },
-            },
-            model: { type: "string" },
+            sensitive: { type: "number", minimum: 1000, maximum: 3600000 },
+            dangerous: { type: "number", minimum: 1000, maximum: 3600000 },
           },
         },
-        // #189. Each entry pins one script by absolute path + content hash;
-        // createReviewedScriptCheck has the last word on every field.
-        reviewedScripts: {
-          type: "array",
-          items: {
-            type: "object",
-            additionalProperties: false,
-            properties: {
-              path: { type: "string" },
-              sha256: { type: "string" },
-              note: { type: "string" },
-              addedAt: { type: "number" },
-            },
-            required: ["path", "sha256"],
-          },
+        model: { type: "string" },
+      },
+    },
+    // #143/#225. Mirrors NotifyConfig in notify-config.ts, which still has
+    // the last word (strict-true booleans, http(s)-only URL, bounded
+    // timeout). Declared here because `additionalProperties: false` above
+    // means an undeclared key makes the WHOLE containing block invalid on
+    // a host that validates config against this schema — which is how the
+    // Action Guard's notify transport came to be unusable from inside the
+    // gateway plugin at all.
+    notify: {
+      type: "object",
+      additionalProperties: false,
+      properties: {
+        enabled: { type: "boolean" },
+        webhookUrl: { type: "string" },
+        webhookSecret: { type: "string" },
+        openclaw: { type: "boolean" },
+        timeoutMs: { type: "number", minimum: 500, maximum: 60000 },
+      },
+    },
+    // #189. Each entry pins one script by absolute path + content hash;
+    // createReviewedScriptCheck has the last word on every field.
+    reviewedScripts: {
+      type: "array",
+      items: {
+        type: "object",
+        additionalProperties: false,
+        properties: {
+          path: { type: "string" },
+          sha256: { type: "string" },
+          note: { type: "string" },
+          addedAt: { type: "number" },
         },
+        required: ["path", "sha256"],
       },
     },
   },
 };
 
+const INTERCEPTOR_JSON_SCHEMA = {
+  type: "object",
+  additionalProperties: false,
+  properties: {
+    enabled: { type: "boolean" },
+    severityActions: SEVERITY_ACTION_SCHEMA,
+    failurePolicy: FAILURE_POLICY_SCHEMA,
+    conversation: CONVERSATION_JSON_SCHEMA,
+    /** The DEPRECATED alias (#209). Still accepted, still parsed, still
+     *  gap-fills the canonical top-level block key by key. */
+    actionGuard: ACTION_GUARD_JSON_SCHEMA,
+  },
+};
+
 const PLUGIN_CONFIG_JSON_SCHEMA = {
   type: "object",
   additionalProperties: false,
@@ -456,6 +1353,15 @@ const PLUGIN_CONFIG_JSON_SCHEMA = {
     // #112: without this, `additionalProperties: false` declared the whole
     // interceptor block invalid — mirror openclaw.plugin.json's configSchema.
     interceptor: INTERCEPTOR_JSON_SCHEMA,
+    // #209/#226: the CANONICAL Action Guard location. normaliseConfig has read
+    // it here since #209 and folds it over the nested alias; the schema did not
+    // declare it, so `additionalProperties: false` rejected the documented
+    // config shape before the parser ever saw it.
+    actionGuard: ACTION_GUARD_JSON_SCHEMA,
+    // #235/#226: source trust. Same reason as `actionGuard` above — the parser
+    // reads it, so the schema must declare it or `additionalProperties: false`
+    // rejects the whole config an operator writes from our documentation.
+    conversationTrust: CONVERSATION_TRUST_JSON_SCHEMA,
   },
 };
 
@@ -494,6 +1400,17 @@ let _registered = false;
 // unattended Codex agents even a no-op registered hook changes how OpenClaw
 // resolves approvals).
 let _beforeToolCallRegistered = false;
+// #225: whether we CALLED api.on('before_agent_run', …) this session — nothing
+// more. It is deliberately not named "…Accepted": `api.on` returns void, never
+// throws on an unknown hook name, and never throws when the host refuses a
+// conversation hook (it records a diagnostic and returns), so acceptance is not
+// observable from in here. The two facts that decide whether the plane is live
+// — host build ≥ the gate's floor, and the operator's allowConversationAccess
+// grant — are read separately and reported by describeConversationPlane().
+let _beforeAgentRunRequested = false;
+// The operator's conversation-access grant as read from the host config at
+// register() time. Reported by /shieldcortex-status; never written by us.
+let _conversationAccessGranted = false;
 // #134 §2: register() wraps its whole body in try/catch so a plugin failure
 // never blocks channel startup — correct, but it used to report the failure
 // with a bare console.warn (bypasses the gateway's structured log, so the
@@ -549,6 +1466,20 @@ function normaliseConfig(raw: unknown, dropped?: string[]): SCConfig {
   const interceptor = normaliseInterceptorConfig(value.interceptor, dropped);
   if (interceptor) config.interceptor = interceptor;
 
+  // Source trust (#235, wired to the gate in #226). Booleans only, and the
+  // block is kept only when it holds a valid one: a `trustOwnerInput: "false"`
+  // typo — the exact shape of the #112 incident — must not read as the opt-out
+  // having been applied, because the operator who wrote it believes owner input
+  // is being policed and it would not be.
+  if (value.conversationTrust && typeof value.conversationTrust === "object" && !Array.isArray(value.conversationTrust)) {
+    const trustRaw = value.conversationTrust as Record<string, unknown>;
+    if (typeof trustRaw.trustOwnerInput === "boolean") {
+      config.conversationTrust = { trustOwnerInput: trustRaw.trustOwnerInput };
+    } else if (trustRaw.trustOwnerInput !== undefined) {
+      dropped?.push("conversationTrust.trustOwnerInput");
+    }
+  }
+
   // #209: single source of truth for the Action Guard. A top-level
   // `actionGuard` block governs every surface; `interceptor.actionGuard` is a
   // deprecated alias kept as per-key gap-fill so pre-#209 configs keep their
@@ -650,6 +1581,19 @@ function normaliseActionGuardBlock(
   if (Array.isArray(rawGuard.reviewedScripts)) {
     guard.reviewedScripts = [...rawGuard.reviewedScripts];
   }
+  // #143/#225: the notify transport. Same passthrough discipline again —
+  // normaliseNotifyConfig is the boundary. Shallow-copied rather than aliased
+  // (the #115 reason: a later in-place mutation of the host config object must
+  // not reach into the normalised one), and a non-object is DROPPED by name so
+  // the #115 warn log can say which key was ignored, rather than silently
+  // leaving the operator with a transport that never fires.
+  if (rawGuard.notify !== undefined) {
+    if (rawGuard.notify && typeof rawGuard.notify === 'object' && !Array.isArray(rawGuard.notify)) {
+      guard.notify = { ...(rawGuard.notify as Record<string, unknown>) };
+    } else {
+      dropped?.push(`${pathPrefix}.notify`);
+    }
+  }
   return Object.keys(guard).length > 0 ? guard : undefined;
 }
 
@@ -672,6 +1616,24 @@ function normaliseInterceptorConfig(raw: unknown, dropped?: string[]): Intercept
   const actionGuard = normaliseActionGuardBlock(value.actionGuard, dropped, "interceptor.actionGuard");
   if (actionGuard) out.actionGuard = actionGuard;
 
+  // #225: conversation posture. An invalid value is DROPPED (and named in the
+  // warn log) rather than coerced, so `conversationPosture()` falls back to
+  // `observe` — the safe direction. A typo must never start blocking turns.
+  if (value.conversation !== undefined) {
+    if (value.conversation && typeof value.conversation === "object" && !Array.isArray(value.conversation)) {
+      const posture = (value.conversation as { posture?: unknown }).posture;
+      if (posture !== undefined) {
+        if (typeof posture === "string" && (CONVERSATION_POSTURES as readonly string[]).includes(posture)) {
+          out.conversation = { posture: posture as ConversationPosture };
+        } else {
+          dropped?.push("interceptor.conversation.posture");
+        }
+      }
+    } else {
+      dropped?.push("interceptor.conversation");
+    }
+  }
+
   // #115: empty/all-invalid normalises to undefined, not {} — {} is truthy
   // and made applyPluginConfigOverride treat a no-op interceptor block as a
   // real override, inconsistent with normaliseSeverityMap's own contract.
@@ -684,6 +1646,19 @@ function normaliseInterceptorConfig(raw: unknown, dropped?: string[]): Intercept
  *  - `interceptor` deep-merges PER KEY — per severity entry, per guard flag —
  *    so an override that sets one nested key does not wholesale-discard the
  *    base's other interceptor settings.
+ *  - `actionGuard.notify` and `actionGuard.broker` deep-merge per key too
+ *    (#226). They are the two OBJECT-valued guard keys, and a shallow spread
+ *    replaced them wholesale: an openclaw.json entry that says only
+ *    `notify: { enabled: true }` — the shape the UI writes when an operator
+ *    ticks "Operator Notifications" — discarded the shield config's
+ *    `webhookUrl` and `webhookSecret`, leaving notify ARMED with no channel and
+ *    no signing key. Every alert then reported "enabled but no channel is
+ *    configured/buildable on this host", which is the #143 silent-no-sink
+ *    failure in a new place.
+ *  - ARRAY-valued keys (`autoApprove`, `reviewedScripts`) still REPLACE. They
+ *    are allowlists: merging two of them would union permissions an operator
+ *    removed back into the effective config, which is the wrong direction for a
+ *    security control.
  *  - Explicit values, including `false`, always win over base values; absent
  *    keys fall through to the base.
  *  - Defaults are NOT applied here: DEFAULT_INTERCEPTOR_CONFIG only fills the
@@ -692,6 +1667,13 @@ function normaliseInterceptorConfig(raw: unknown, dropped?: string[]): Intercept
  */
 function mergeConfigs(base: SCConfig, override: SCConfig): SCConfig {
   const merged: SCConfig = { ...base, ...override };
+  // Per-key, like every other nested block here. A plain spread would let an
+  // openclaw.json entry that mentions `conversationTrust` at all replace the
+  // shield-config block wholesale, silently reverting an opt-out set in the
+  // file the operator considers authoritative.
+  if (base.conversationTrust || override.conversationTrust) {
+    merged.conversationTrust = { ...base.conversationTrust, ...override.conversationTrust };
+  }
   if (base.interceptor || override.interceptor) {
     const b = base.interceptor ?? {};
     const o = override.interceptor ?? {};
@@ -703,7 +1685,12 @@ function mergeConfigs(base: SCConfig, override: SCConfig): SCConfig {
       merged.interceptor.failurePolicy = { ...b.failurePolicy, ...o.failurePolicy };
     }
     if (b.actionGuard || o.actionGuard) {
-      merged.interceptor.actionGuard = { ...b.actionGuard, ...o.actionGuard };
+      const bg = b.actionGuard ?? {};
+      const og = o.actionGuard ?? {};
+      const guard: NonNullable<InterceptorUserConfig['actionGuard']> = { ...bg, ...og };
+      if (bg.notify || og.notify) guard.notify = { ...bg.notify, ...og.notify };
+      if (bg.broker || og.broker) guard.broker = { ...bg.broker, ...og.broker };
+      merged.interceptor.actionGuard = guard;
     }
   }
   return merged;
@@ -750,8 +1737,60 @@ function applyPluginConfigOverride(api: PluginApi): void {
   _lastShieldConfigRef = null;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Load the effective config, DEGRADING rather than throwing (#226).
+ *
+ * `getRuntime()` resolves `shieldcortex/dist/…/runtime.mjs` by walking a list of
+ * install locations, and `loadShieldConfig()` then reads a file. Both can fail
+ * for ordinary reasons — the package was upgraded underneath a running gateway,
+ * a global install moved, `~/.shieldcortex/config.json` is half-written.
+ *
+ * This used to propagate, and the propagation went somewhere bad: every caller
+ * of `loadConfig` is a hook body, and in `handleBeforeAgentRun` the throw was
+ * caught by the OUTER catch — the one that fails open. So a host that could not
+ * load the runtime produced one console line per turn and NOTHING else: no
+ * posture, no scan, no audit row, no alert. Precisely the "unprotected turn that
+ * leaves no trace" the #225/#226 work exists to eliminate, reintroduced through
+ * the config read rather than through the scanner.
+ *
+ * Now it degrades to the plugin config from openclaw.json (already normalised by
+ * `applyPluginConfigOverride`), or to an empty config. The posture therefore
+ * still resolves, the scan still runs, `scanRealtimeContent` reports UNAVAILABLE
+ * on its own (the same runtime failure defeats the MCP fallback), and the gate
+ * writes its normal audit row and raises its normal alert.
+ *
+ * It does NOT cache the degraded result — a later successful load must take
+ * effect without a restart — and it never claims the shield config loaded: the
+ * warning says exactly what is missing, and is bounded, redacted, and emitted
+ * ONCE per plugin load (`__resetConfigStateForTest` re-arms it) so a per-turn
+ * failure cannot become per-turn log spam.
+ */
+let _shieldConfigLoadFailureLogged = false;
+
 async function loadConfig(): Promise<SCConfig> {
-  const shieldConfigRaw = await (await getRuntime()).loadShieldConfig();
+  let shieldConfigRaw: unknown;
+  try {
+    shieldConfigRaw = await (await getRuntime()).loadShieldConfig();
+  } catch (err) {
+    if (!_shieldConfigLoadFailureLogged) {
+      _shieldConfigLoadFailureLogged = true;
+      const detail = redactNotifyDetail(err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)).slice(0, 300);
+      console.warn(
+        '[shieldcortex] ⚠️ shield config could NOT be loaded — the ShieldCortex runtime did not resolve, ' +
+        `or it could not read ~/.shieldcortex/config.json (${detail}). Continuing with the openclaw.json ` +
+        'plugin config only; anything configured in the shield config file is NOT in effect, and ' +
+        'conversation scanning will report UNAVAILABLE until this is fixed. (Logged once per plugin load.)',
+      );
+    }
+    // A fresh object every time: `_configOverride` is module state and callers
+    // must not be handed something they could mutate.
+    return mergeConfigs({}, _configOverride ?? {});
+  }
+  // A load that succeeds after a failure re-arms the warning, so a SECOND
+  // outage is reported rather than swallowed by the first one's flag. Set
+  // before the cache check: a runtime that hands back the same object every
+  // call would otherwise take the early return and leave the flag latched.
+  _shieldConfigLoadFailureLogged = false;
   if (_config && shieldConfigRaw === _lastShieldConfigRef) return _config;
   _lastShieldConfigRef = shieldConfigRaw;
   // Plugin config (openclaw.json) deep-merges over the shield config file —
@@ -790,36 +1829,130 @@ function parseScanResponse(response: string): { clean: boolean; summary: string
   return { clean, summary };
 }
 
-export async function scanRealtimeContent(text: string): Promise<{ clean: boolean; summary: string }> {
+/**
+ * Scan one piece of conversation content.
+ *
+ * The contract changed in #225 and the change is the point: an unavailable
+ * scanner is now reported as `available: false, clean: false`, not as the old
+ * `{ clean: true, summary: 'scan unavailable' }`. That old return was the
+ * quietest bug in this file — the ORDINARY unavailable path (MCP fallback
+ * returns nothing, e.g. no shieldcortex binary on PATH) manufactured a clean
+ * verdict, so on any box where in-process defence failed to load, every message
+ * was reported scanned-and-fine while nothing had been looked at.
+ *
+ * Fails OPEN — callers must not block on `available: false` — but LOUDLY: the
+ * caller audits it, alerts on it, and doctor/status report the plane as
+ * unavailable rather than protected.
+ */
+export async function scanRealtimeContent(text: string): Promise<ConversationScanResult> {
   // PRIMARY: scan in-process via the shared shieldcortex/defence module. The
   // scan is pure (no DB handle required — scanToolResponse's audit write is
   // guarded by isDatabaseInitialized()), so it is safe in the long-lived
   // gateway and avoids booting a cold MCP server per message.
-  const defenceMod = await getDefenceModule();
+  let defenceMod: DefenceModule | null = null;
+  try {
+    defenceMod = await getDefenceModule();
+  } catch (err) {
+    defenceMod = null;
+    void err;
+  }
   if (defenceMod && typeof defenceMod.scanToolResponse === "function") {
-    const scan = defenceMod.scanToolResponse("openclaw-realtime", text, "advisory");
-    // Reproduce the historical summary contract exactly: risk level + detection
-    // count only when the injection scan flagged something.
-    const risk = scan.injection.clean ? "unknown" : scan.injection.riskLevel;
-    const summary = scan.injection.clean
-      ? risk
-      : `${risk} (${scan.injection.detections.length} detections)`;
-    return { clean: scan.clean, summary };
+    try {
+      const scan = defenceMod.scanToolResponse("openclaw-realtime", text, "advisory");
+      // Reproduce the historical summary contract exactly: risk level + detection
+      // count only when the injection scan flagged something.
+      const risk = scan.injection.clean ? "unknown" : scan.injection.riskLevel;
+      const summary = scan.injection.clean
+        ? risk
+        : `${risk} (${scan.injection.detections.length} detections)`;
+      return { clean: scan.clean, summary, available: true };
+    } catch (err) {
+      // A scanner that THROWS is not a clean verdict either. Same treatment as
+      // an absent one: unavailable, reported, never silently allowed to read as
+      // protected.
+      const detail = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+      return { clean: false, available: false, errored: true, error: `in-process scanner threw: ${detail}`, summary: "scan unavailable" };
+    }
   }
 
   // FALLBACK: in-process defence unavailable (older install, import failed) —
   // degrade to the MCP shell-out so scanning still happens rather than breaking.
-  const response = await callCortex("scan_tool_response", {
-    toolName: "openclaw-realtime",
-    content: text,
-    mode: "advisory",
-  });
+  let response: string | null = null;
+  try {
+    response = await callCortex("scan_tool_response", {
+      toolName: "openclaw-realtime",
+      content: text,
+      mode: "advisory",
+    });
+  } catch (err) {
+    const detail = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+    return { clean: false, available: false, errored: true, error: `scan fallback failed: ${detail}`, summary: "scan unavailable" };
+  }
 
   if (!response) {
-    return { clean: true, summary: "scan unavailable" };
+    return {
+      clean: false,
+      available: false,
+      errored: true,
+      error: 'no in-process defence module and the MCP fallback returned nothing',
+      summary: 'scan unavailable',
+    };
   }
 
-  return parseScanResponse(response);
+  const parsed = parseScanResponse(response);
+  return { ...parsed, available: true };
+}
+
+/**
+ * `scanRealtimeContent` with a hard deadline (#226).
+ *
+ * Used ONLY by the `before_agent_run` gate, which the gateway awaits: an
+ * unbounded scan there is an unbounded pause in front of the user's prompt. The
+ * MCP fallback boots a cold server through `npx` and has been measured at ~15s,
+ * so "it usually returns quickly" is not a bound.
+ *
+ * On expiry the result is an ordinary UNAVAILABLE verdict — fail open, audited,
+ * alerted — and the error string names the deadline and NOTHING ELSE. It must
+ * never quote the prompt: a timeout message is the one error a developer is
+ * most likely to paste into an issue.
+ *
+ * The losing promise is not abandoned silently: a `.catch` is attached before
+ * the race so a scan that rejects AFTER the deadline settles into a no-op
+ * instead of an unhandled rejection that could take the gateway down under
+ * `--unhandled-rejections=strict`.
+ */
+export async function scanWithDeadline(
+  text: string,
+  timeoutMs: number = CONVERSATION_SCAN_MAX_MS,
+): Promise<ConversationScanResult> {
+  const timedOut: ConversationScanResult = {
+    clean: false,
+    available: false,
+    errored: true,
+    error: `conversation scan exceeded its ${timeoutMs}ms deadline`,
+    summary: 'scan unavailable',
+  };
+
+  const scan = scanRealtimeContent(text);
+  // Attached BEFORE the race, so a late rejection can never be unhandled.
+  scan.catch(() => { /* the race already answered; nothing left to report */ });
+
+  let timer: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | undefined;
+  try {
+    return await Promise.race([
+      scan,
+      new Promise<ConversationScanResult>((resolve) => {
+        timer = setTimeout(() => resolve(timedOut), timeoutMs);
+        // Never hold the process open on the deadline timer alone.
+        (timer as { unref?: () => void }).unref?.();
+      }),
+    ]);
+  } catch (err) {
+    const detail = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+    return { clean: false, available: false, errored: true, error: detail, summary: 'scan unavailable' };
+  } finally {
+    if (timer) clearTimeout(timer);
+  }
 }
 
 // ==================== CONTENT PATTERNS ====================
@@ -869,20 +2002,56 @@ function extractUserContent(msgs: unknown[]): string[] {
   return out;
 }
 
-const AUDIT_DIR = path.join(homedir(), ".shieldcortex", "audit");
+/** Where the realtime audit jsonl lives.
+ *
+ *  Resolved PER CALL, and honouring `SHIELDCORTEX_AUDIT_DIR`, so a test can
+ *  exercise the hook end-to-end without appending fabricated "threat" rows to
+ *  a real box's security audit trail. Default is unchanged
+ *  (`~/.shieldcortex/audit`), so nothing moves for an install that does not set
+ *  the variable. */
+function auditDir(): string {
+  const override = process.env.SHIELDCORTEX_AUDIT_DIR;
+  if (override && override.trim()) return override.trim();
+  return path.join(homedir(), ".shieldcortex", "audit");
+}
 const NOVELTY_CACHE_FILE = path.join(homedir(), ".shieldcortex", "openclaw-memory-cache.json");
 const DEFAULT_NOVELTY_THRESHOLD = 0.88;
 const DEFAULT_MAX_RECENT = 300;
 const MIN_NOVELTY_CHARS = 40;
 
-async function auditLog(entry: Record<string, unknown>) {
+/**
+ * Append one row to the realtime audit jsonl. Returns WHETHER IT LANDED (#226).
+ *
+ * This used to swallow every failure and return void, so a caller could not
+ * distinguish "the evidence is on disk" from "the disk is full / the audit dir
+ * is not writable / it is a file where a directory should be". The
+ * `before_agent_run` gate then wrote a decision row, got nothing back, and
+ * proceeded to tell the operator — and the delivery row — that the decision was
+ * recorded. A security control claiming evidence it does not have is worse than
+ * one that admits the gap, because the gap is invisible in exactly the incident
+ * where the log matters.
+ *
+ * Still never throws: a broken audit sink must not become a broken turn.
+ */
+async function auditLog(entry: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<boolean> {
+  const dir = auditDir();
   try {
-    await fs.mkdir(AUDIT_DIR, { recursive: true });
+    await fs.mkdir(dir, { recursive: true });
     await fs.appendFile(
-      path.join(AUDIT_DIR, `realtime-${new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)}.jsonl`),
+      path.join(dir, `realtime-${new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)}.jsonl`),
       JSON.stringify(entry) + "\n",
     );
-  } catch {}
+    return true;
+  } catch (err) {
+    // LOUD. The detail is the failure and the directory — never the row, which
+    // may carry a verdict summary, and never a credential (nothing in this path
+    // holds one). Bounded so a pathological error message cannot flood stderr.
+    const detail = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+    console.error(
+      `[shieldcortex] ⚠️ AUDIT WRITE FAILED (${dir}) — this event is NOT on disk: ${detail.slice(0, 300)}`,
+    );
+    return false;
+  }
 }
 
 // `cloudSync` lives in ./cloud-sync.ts (no fs imports there) so the plugin
@@ -1052,6 +2221,17 @@ function isInternalContent(text: string): boolean {
 // itself stays non-blocking.
 export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promise<void> {
   try {
+    // #226: THE POSTURE GOVERNS THIS HOOK TOO. `off` means "do not scan the
+    // conversation at all", and this observation hook used to ignore it
+    // entirely: it scanned every prompt, wrote threat and scan_unavailable rows,
+    // and forwarded detections to the cloud on a box whose operator had
+    // explicitly turned conversation inspection OFF. The gate honoured the
+    // setting, so a reader of `handleBeforeAgentRun` would conclude the product
+    // did too. Read it FIRST, before any scanner, any audit row and any cloud
+    // call, so `off` costs exactly one config read.
+    const cfg = await loadConfig();
+    if (conversationPosture(cfg.interceptor?.conversation) === 'off') return;
+
     // Only scan user content, skip system/boot/heartbeat prompts
     // Trust is resolved per TURN, not per message: the host tells us who sent
     // this turn, but history messages carry no individual attribution, so there
@@ -1060,13 +2240,16 @@ export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promis
     // Resolved LAZILY, on first detection only. Computing it up front would put
     // a config read on every single turn to answer a question that only matters
     // when something is actually found.
-    let trustMemo: ReturnType<typeof classifyConversationOrigin> | null = null;
+    let trustMemo: ConversationTrustDecision | null = null;
     const resolveTrust = async () => {
       if (!trustMemo) {
+        // `cfg` is already in hand from the posture read above, so this costs
+        // no I/O. It also reads the PARSED field rather than casting the config
+        // object — the cast this replaces asserted a key that normaliseConfig
+        // drops, so it was always undefined. See SCConfig.conversationTrust.
         trustMemo = classifyConversationOrigin({
           senderIsOwner: event.senderIsOwner,
-          trustOwnerInput: (await loadConfig() as { conversationTrust?: { trustOwnerInput?: boolean } })
-            ?.conversationTrust?.trustOwnerInput,
+          trustOwnerInput: cfg.conversationTrust?.trustOwnerInput,
         });
       }
       return trustMemo;
@@ -1076,6 +2259,35 @@ export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promis
     for (const text of texts) {
       if (!text || text.length < 10) continue;
       const result = await scanRealtimeContent(text);
+      // #225: "we could not look" is its own outcome. Before this branch the
+      // unavailable path returned clean:true and this loop did nothing at all —
+      // an unscanned message was indistinguishable from a scanned one, on the
+      // observation hook as well as the gate.
+      if (!result.available) {
+        // #226: redacted on the CONSOLE too, not only in the row. The reason
+        // comes from a transport/scanner failure string, which can name the
+        // endpoint it failed to reach — and a gateway's stdout is routinely
+        // shipped to a log aggregator, so "ephemeral" is not a property the
+        // console actually has.
+        const detail = redactNotifyDetail(result.error ?? result.summary);
+        console.warn(
+          `[shieldcortex] ⚠️ conversation scan UNAVAILABLE (${detail}) — this message was NOT scanned`,
+        );
+        // AWAITED. The whole function is already fire-and-forget from
+        // `handleLlmInput`, so this blocks nothing the gateway is waiting on —
+        // and it means the row is on disk before the loop moves to the next
+        // message, and that `auditLog`'s new boolean (which logs loudly on
+        // failure) is actually reached rather than discarded into a floating
+        // promise.
+        await auditLog({
+          type: 'scan_unavailable', hook: 'llm_input', sessionId: event.sessionId,
+          model: event.model, reason: detail,
+          chars: text.length,
+          contentSha256: createHash('sha256').update(text).digest('hex').slice(0, 16),
+          ts: new Date().toISOString(),
+        });
+        continue;
+      }
       if (!result.clean) {
         const trust = await resolveTrust();
         console.warn(`[shieldcortex] ⚠️ Threat in LLM input: ${result.summary} [${trust.origin}]`);
@@ -1085,7 +2297,7 @@ export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promis
         // the Action Guard tighten by one notch for a bounded window.
         //
         // Source trust gates the CONSEQUENCE, never the detection: the warn and
-        // the audit row above happen whoever sent this. What trust decides is
+        // the audit row below happen whoever sent this. What trust decides is
         // whether it may tighten the guard. The operator typing "delete the old
         // logs" is an instruction, and treating it as an attack is the false
         // alarm that gets a control switched off. Everything the agent was
@@ -1093,17 +2305,28 @@ export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promis
         if (trust.mayTaint) {
           sessionTaint.mark(event.sessionId, { reason: `conversation scan: ${result.summary}` });
         }
+        // #226: NO `preview`. This row carried the first 100 characters of the
+        // prompt — the exact text that tripped an injection detector, i.e.
+        // hostile by assumption — into an append-only file that syncs. The gate
+        // on the very next hook has recorded only `chars` + `contentSha256`
+        // since #225 and says in its own comment that the prompt is never
+        // persisted; the observation hook quietly did the opposite, so the
+        // claim was false on the path that runs on every single turn. Length
+        // plus digest keeps the row correlatable with the gate's row for the
+        // same text without storing the text.
         const entry = {
           type: "threat", hook: "llm_input", sessionId: event.sessionId,
           model: event.model, reason: result.summary,
-          preview: text.slice(0, 100), ts: new Date().toISOString(),
+          chars: text.length,
+          contentSha256: createHash('sha256').update(text).digest('hex').slice(0, 16),
+          ts: new Date().toISOString(),
         };
-        auditLog(entry);
+        await auditLog(entry);
         loadConfig()
           // Pass the local entry as-is; cloudSync rebuilds a canonical metadata-only
-          // entry from named fields and never reads preview/content. No raw LLM input
+          // entry from named fields and never reads content. No raw LLM input
           // leaves here.
-          .then(cfg => cloudSync(entry, cfg))
+          .then(cfg2 => cloudSync(entry, cfg2))
           .catch(() => {});
       }
     }
@@ -1113,10 +2336,749 @@ export async function scanLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, _ctx: AgentCtx): Promis
 }
 
 function handleLlmInput(event: LlmInputEvent, ctx: AgentCtx): void {
-  // Fire and forget
+  // Fire and forget — OBSERVATION ONLY. This hook cannot block (#225); the
+  // enforcement point is handleBeforeAgentRun below.
   void scanLlmInput(event, ctx);
 }
 
+/**
+ * Route a conversation-threat detection to a HUMAN (#225).
+ *
+ * This is the "sink" the issue is named for. Before it existed, a HIGH verdict
+ * produced a console line and an audit row, and a real detection on a live box
+ * was seen by nobody. It reuses the Action Guard's notify transport (#143)
+ * rather than inventing a second one — two notification paths would drift, and
+ * the operator would learn which one to ignore.
+ *
+ * Returns whether a human was actually reached, so callers (and doctor) can
+ * report "detected but undeliverable" instead of implying someone was told.
+ * Never throws: a failed notification must not become a failed turn.
+ */
+/** The longest the conversation gate will wait for an operator alert to be
+ *  handed to a transport. See the call site: the user's turn is blocked on this
+ *  hook, so the alert's deadline has to be a fraction of the hook's. */
+const CONVERSATION_NOTIFY_MAX_MS = 5_000;
+
+/**
+ * The longest the conversation gate will wait for a SCAN (#226).
+ *
+ * `before_agent_run` is awaited by the gateway — the user's turn is stopped
+ * dead until this handler returns — and the scan's fallback path is an MCP
+ * shell-out that boots a cold server via `npx`, which can take upwards of 15s.
+ * That is half the hook's entire 30s budget before an alert and two audit
+ * writes are added behind it, and it happens on exactly the hosts where the
+ * in-process defence module failed to load: the ones already degraded.
+ *
+ * Past this deadline the scan is treated as UNAVAILABLE, which fails OPEN (the
+ * turn proceeds) and is audited and alerted like any other unavailable scan. A
+ * security control that silently adds fifteen seconds to every prompt is one an
+ * operator uninstalls.
+ */
+export const CONVERSATION_SCAN_MAX_MS = 5_000;
+
+/**
+ * Repeat-alert suppression for the scan-unavailable path (#226).
+ *
+ * An unavailable scanner is not a transient event: it is usually a missing
+ * install, a broken defence build or an absent binary, and it recurs on EVERY
+ * turn. Alerting per turn turns the operator's phone into a metronome and the
+ * alert into something they mute — which is the same outcome as never sending
+ * one, reached by a more expensive route. First occurrence goes immediately;
+ * after that, at most one alert per window, with the suppressed count carried
+ * on the next alert that does go out so nothing is lost.
+ *
+ * THE WINDOW IS PER SESSION, not per process — see `noteScanUnavailable`. A
+ * gateway runs many sessions at once, and "we already told you about session A"
+ * is not a reason to stay silent about session B.
+ *
+ * AUDITING IS NOT RATE LIMITED. Every occurrence still writes its row, and the
+ * row records whether an alert was suppressed and how many have been seen —
+ * the evidence trail must be complete even when the notification stream is not.
+ */
+export const SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_ALERT_WINDOW_MS = 5 * 60_000;
+
+interface ScanUnavailableAlertState {
+  /** Total occurrences this session, across suppressed and alerted. */
+  count: number;
+  /** `Date.now()` of the last alert we actually sent, null until the first. */
+  lastAlertAtMs: number | null;
+  /** Occurrences suppressed since that alert. */
+  suppressedSinceAlert: number;
+  /** Last time this session touched the state — eviction key only, never
+   *  reported. */
+  lastSeenAtMs: number;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The bucket used when the host hands us no session identity at all.
+ *
+ * `before_agent_run`'s context declares `sessionId` and `sessionKey` as
+ * OPTIONAL, so both can be absent. Keying such an occurrence under a fixed
+ * fallback keeps rate limiting working exactly as it did on a single-session
+ * host, and — critically — keeps a nameless occurrence from sharing a bucket
+ * with a NAMED one, which is what a `String(undefined)` key would have done.
+ */
+const SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_FALLBACK_SESSION = '__unkeyed-session__';
+
+/**
+ * Cap on distinct sessions tracked at once.
+ *
+ * `session_end` is what normally frees an entry, and it is not guaranteed: an
+ * older host may not emit it, and a crashed session never will. This map is
+ * therefore bounded and evicts least-recently-seen first. Overshooting the cap
+ * costs at most one extra alert for the evicted session — the safe direction,
+ * since the failure mode of eviction is "tell the operator again", not "stay
+ * quiet". Each entry is four numbers and a short key, so 512 of them is a few
+ * kilobytes in a process that already holds a scanner.
+ */
+export const SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_MAX_SESSIONS = 512;
+
+const _scanUnavailable = new Map<string, ScanUnavailableAlertState>();
+
+export interface ScanUnavailableAlertDecision {
+  alert: boolean;
+  /** How many occurrences this session, including this one. */
+  count: number;
+  /** Occurrences suppressed since the last alert. On an ALERT this is the
+   *  backlog being reported and then cleared; on a suppression it is the
+   *  running total. */
+  suppressedSinceLastAlert: number;
+}
+
+/** Normalise whatever the host gave us into a map key. */
+function scanUnavailableSessionKey(sessionKey?: string | null): string {
+  const trimmed = typeof sessionKey === 'string' ? sessionKey.trim() : '';
+  return trimmed === '' ? SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_FALLBACK_SESSION : trimmed;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Should this scan-unavailable occurrence raise an operator alert?
+ *
+ * PER SESSION (#226). The first cut kept one module-global counter, which on a
+ * gateway — a process that multiplexes every channel and every concurrent
+ * agent — meant one session's broken scanner silenced the FIRST failure of
+ * every other session for the next five minutes. That is the same class of bug
+ * the rate limit exists to avoid, inverted: instead of too many alerts, a real
+ * new failure is never reported at all. Suppression is a property of one
+ * session's repeating failure, so the state is keyed by one session.
+ *
+ * Pure apart from the per-session counter it advances, and driven by an
+ * injectable `now` so the window is testable without sleeping. Exported for the
+ * regression test; not part of the plugin's host-facing surface.
+ *
+ * The key is a session id, never logged: it reaches this function only to index
+ * the map. The audit rows that carry `sessionId` are the deliberate place that
+ * fact is recorded.
+ */
+export function noteScanUnavailable(
+  sessionKey?: string | null,
+  nowMs: number = Date.now(),
+): ScanUnavailableAlertDecision {
+  const key = scanUnavailableSessionKey(sessionKey);
+  let state = _scanUnavailable.get(key);
+  if (!state) {
+    evictScanUnavailableOverflow(nowMs);
+    state = { count: 0, lastAlertAtMs: null, suppressedSinceAlert: 0, lastSeenAtMs: nowMs };
+    _scanUnavailable.set(key, state);
+  }
+  state.count += 1;
+  state.lastSeenAtMs = nowMs;
+  const last = state.lastAlertAtMs;
+  // A clock that jumped BACKWARDS (NTP step, suspend/resume) must not be able
+  // to wedge alerting off forever: treat a negative elapsed as "window over".
+  const elapsed = last === null ? Infinity : nowMs - last;
+  if (last === null || elapsed >= SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_ALERT_WINDOW_MS || elapsed < 0) {
+    const suppressed = state.suppressedSinceAlert;
+    state.lastAlertAtMs = nowMs;
+    state.suppressedSinceAlert = 0;
+    return { alert: true, count: state.count, suppressedSinceLastAlert: suppressed };
+  }
+  state.suppressedSinceAlert += 1;
+  return {
+    alert: false,
+    count: state.count,
+    suppressedSinceLastAlert: state.suppressedSinceAlert,
+  };
+}
+
+/** Keep the session map bounded when `session_end` never arrives. Evicts the
+ *  least-recently-seen entries; an evicted session simply alerts once more. */
+function evictScanUnavailableOverflow(nowMs: number): void {
+  if (_scanUnavailable.size < SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_MAX_SESSIONS) return;
+  const oldestFirst = [..._scanUnavailable.entries()].sort(
+    (a, b) => (a[1].lastSeenAtMs ?? nowMs) - (b[1].lastSeenAtMs ?? nowMs),
+  );
+  const drop = _scanUnavailable.size - SCAN_UNAVAILABLE_MAX_SESSIONS + 1;
+  for (const [key] of oldestFirst.slice(0, drop)) _scanUnavailable.delete(key);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Forget ONE session's suppression window. Called from `session_end`, so a
+ * long-lived gateway does not carry a finished session's suppression into a
+ * reused id — and, just as importantly, does not clear anyone ELSE's.
+ *
+ * A `session_end` that names no session clears the fallback bucket only: on a
+ * host that supplies no session identity every occurrence lands there, so that
+ * is precisely the state that ended.
+ */
+export function resetScanUnavailableAlertState(sessionKey?: string | null): void {
+  _scanUnavailable.delete(scanUnavailableSessionKey(sessionKey));
+}
+
+/** Test/reset seam: forget EVERY session. Production never wants this — one
+ *  session ending must not re-arm alerting for the others — so it is reachable
+ *  only from `__resetConfigStateForTest`. */
+export function __resetScanUnavailableAlertState(): void {
+  _scanUnavailable.clear();
+}
+
+/** What actually happened to an alert, so callers can report it truthfully.
+ *  `configured: false` is the honest "nobody opted in" case and is NOT a
+ *  failure — it is the #143 default-off contract. */
+export interface NotifyOutcome {
+  configured: boolean;
+  delivered: boolean;
+  via: string | null;
+  detail: string;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Make a failure detail safe to PERSIST, SEND or PRINT (#226).
+ *
+ * The detail is assembled from channel names, scanner errors and whatever a
+ * transport said went wrong. Node's fetch failures do not name the URL, but a
+ * transport is free to put one in its reason — and a notify webhook URL
+ * routinely carries a token in its path or query
+ * (`https://hooks.example/services/T0/B0/XXXXXXXX`). So any http(s) URL is
+ * reduced to its origin: enough to tell WHICH endpoint failed, not enough to
+ * replay a request to it. Bounded too, so a transport that returns a page of
+ * HTML cannot bloat the log.
+ *
+ * EVERY sink gets the redacted string — not just the ones that obviously
+ * outlive the process. The audit row is append-only and syncs; the notification
+ * leaves the box; and the console is NOT the ephemeral thing an earlier version
+ * of this comment claimed it was, because a gateway's stdout is routinely
+ * shipped to a log aggregator and kept longer than the audit file. Redacting
+ * for the row and not for the other two protected the least exposed of the
+ * three.
+ */
+export function redactNotifyDetail(detail: string): string {
+  const withoutUrls = String(detail ?? '').replace(
+    /https?:\/\/[^\s'"]+/gi,
+    (url) => {
+      try {
+        return `${new URL(url).origin}/…`;
+      } catch {
+        return '<url>';
+      }
+    },
+  );
+  return withoutUrls.length > 500 ? `${withoutUrls.slice(0, 499)}…` : withoutUrls;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The seam a gateway MIGHT offer for sending an operator a message, captured at
+ * register() time if the API exposes it.
+ *
+ * No OpenClaw build we have inspected exposes it — neither 2026.5.2 nor
+ * 2026.7.1 has a `notifyOperator` anywhere in its plugin API — so in practice
+ * the webhook is the load-bearing channel and this stays null. It is read
+ * structurally rather than removed because #143's design intent was that on
+ * OpenClaw the transport should use the gateway's own message capability, and
+ * that only becomes true if the code is ready for the day it appears. Nothing
+ * here should be read as "ShieldCortex delivers natively on OpenClaw today".
+ */
+let _gatewayNotifyContext: GatewayNotifyContext | null = null;
+export function __setGatewayNotifyContextForTest(ctx: GatewayNotifyContext | null): void {
+  _gatewayNotifyContext = ctx;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Route a conversation-firewall detection to a HUMAN (#225).
+ *
+ * This is the "sink" the issue is named for: before it existed, a HIGH verdict
+ * produced a console line and an audit row, and a real detection on a live box
+ * was seen by nobody.
+ *
+ * It reuses the Action Guard's #143 transport rather than inventing a second
+ * one — but *correctly*, which the first cut did not:
+ *
+ *   - the notification is built by the main package's
+ *     `buildConversationThreatNotification`, so it is a real, bounded
+ *     notification with its own event discriminator, NOT an ad-hoc
+ *     `{kind, severity, …}` literal cast through `NotifyChannel.send`. A
+ *     conversation alert therefore cannot render Approve/Deny controls or a
+ *     hash that does not exist — the fields simply are not on the type.
+ *   - delivery goes through `deliverOperatorNotification`, the same core the
+ *     approval path uses, so the deadline, the malformed-result handling and
+ *     the "nothing but the boolean is read back" rule are shared, not copied.
+ *   - the webhook secret is read from `webhookSecret` — the field
+ *     `normaliseNotifyConfig` actually returns. Mirroring it as `secret`
+ *     silently produced UNSIGNED POSTs.
+ *   - both channels are offered where the runtime provides them: the gateway's
+ *     own message seam first WHERE IT EXISTS (no build we have inspected
+ *     exposes one — see `_gatewayNotifyContext`), then the configured webhook,
+ *     which is what actually carries an alert off the box today.
+ *
+ * Returns what happened, and NEVER throws: a failed notification must not
+ * become a failed turn.
+ */
+export async function notifyOperatorOfConversationThreat(input: {
+  outcome: 'blocked' | 'observed' | 'unavailable';
+  posture: ConversationPosture;
+  summary: string;
+  reason: string;
+  sessionId?: string;
+  model?: string;
+}): Promise<NotifyOutcome> {
+  try {
+    const mod = await getDefenceModule();
+    const cfg = await loadConfig();
+    const raw = cfg.interceptor?.actionGuard?.notify;
+    if (!raw) return { configured: false, delivered: false, via: null, detail: 'no notify config' };
+    if (typeof mod?.normaliseNotifyConfig !== 'function') {
+      return { configured: true, delivered: false, via: null, detail: 'installed shieldcortex build has no notify transport' };
+    }
+    const notify = mod.normaliseNotifyConfig(raw);
+    if (!notify.enabled) return { configured: false, delivered: false, via: null, detail: 'notify disabled' };
+
+    const channels: NotifyChannelLike[] = [];
+    // The gateway's own message seam, WHERE the runtime provides one. It would
+    // go first, because it would reach the operator on a channel they already
+    // read — but `_gatewayNotifyContext` is null on every build we have
+    // inspected, so in practice this list starts at the webhook below.
+    if (notify.openclaw === true && _gatewayNotifyContext) {
+      const gatewayChannel = createGatewayNotifyChannel(_gatewayNotifyContext);
+      if (gatewayChannel) channels.push(gatewayChannel);
+    }
+    if (notify.webhookUrl && typeof mod.createWebhookNotifyChannel === 'function') {
+      channels.push(
+        mod.createWebhookNotifyChannel({
+          url: notify.webhookUrl,
+          // The signing key. Passed straight through and never logged — see
+          // notify-config.ts, which is the only place this value is parsed.
+          secret: notify.webhookSecret,
+        }),
+      );
+    }
+    if (channels.length === 0) {
+      return { configured: true, delivered: false, via: null, detail: 'notify enabled but no channel is configured/buildable on this host' };
+    }
+
+    const notification =
+      typeof mod.buildConversationThreatNotification === 'function'
+        ? mod.buildConversationThreatNotification({
+          outcome: input.outcome,
+          posture: input.posture,
+          summary: input.summary,
+          reason: input.reason,
+          sessionId: input.sessionId,
+          model: input.model,
+          host: hostname(),
+          detectedAt: new Date().toISOString(),
+        })
+        : null;
+    if (!notification) {
+      // An older dist has the transport but not this event. Sending the
+      // approval-shaped payload instead would put an Approve button on an alert
+      // with nothing behind it — refuse, and say why.
+      return {
+        configured: true,
+        delivered: false,
+        via: null,
+        detail: 'installed shieldcortex build predates the conversation-threat notification — refusing to send an approval-shaped alert',
+      };
+    }
+
+    if (typeof mod.deliverOperatorNotification !== 'function') {
+      return { configured: true, delivered: false, via: null, detail: 'installed shieldcortex build has no notification delivery core' };
+    }
+    const result = await mod.deliverOperatorNotification(notification, {
+      channels,
+      // Bounded HARDER than the transport's own configured deadline, because
+      // this call sits inside a gate the gateway awaits: the user's turn is
+      // waiting on it. The hook is registered with a 30s timeout, and a gate
+      // that exceeds its own timeout is a security control that fails in a way
+      // nobody has reasoned about. The alert is already in the log and the
+      // audit row by this point, so what a longer wait buys is one extra retry
+      // window on a transport that is, by then, visibly unhealthy.
+      timeoutMs: Math.min(notify.timeoutMs ?? CONVERSATION_NOTIFY_MAX_MS, CONVERSATION_NOTIFY_MAX_MS),
+    });
+    const failures = result.attempts
+      .filter((a) => !a.result.delivered)
+      .map((a) => `${a.channel}: ${a.result.reason ?? 'failed'}`)
+      .join('; ');
+    return {
+      configured: true,
+      delivered: result.deliveredVia !== null,
+      via: result.deliveredVia,
+      detail: result.deliveredVia ? `delivered via ${result.deliveredVia}` : `undeliverable — ${failures || 'no channel accepted it'}`,
+    };
+  } catch (err) {
+    return {
+      configured: true,
+      delivered: false,
+      via: null,
+      detail: `notify error: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)}`,
+    };
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * The event payload OpenClaw hands `before_agent_run`, as declared by the host
+ * SDK (`PluginHookBeforeAgentRunEvent`, hook-types.d.ts). Note what is NOT on
+ * it: `sessionId` and `model` live on the CONTEXT, not the event — reading them
+ * off the event, as the first cut did, produced `undefined` in every audit row
+ * and every alert.
+ */
+type BeforeAgentRunEvent = {
+  prompt?: string;
+  messages?: unknown[];
+  systemPrompt?: string;
+  accountId?: string;
+  channelId?: string;
+  senderId?: string;
+  senderIsOwner?: boolean;
+};
+
+/**
+ * The gate's return contract, verbatim from the host SDK:
+ *
+ *   type HookDecisionPass  = { outcome: "pass" }
+ *   type HookDecisionBlock = { outcome: "block"; reason: string; message?: string;
+ *                              category?: string; metadata?: Record<string, unknown> }
+ *   type PluginHookBeforeAgentRunResult = InputGateDecision | void
+ *
+ * `{ block: true }` — what the first cut returned — is the `before_tool_call`
+ * shape, and this gate does not understand it: it is neither "pass" nor
+ * "block", so the run would have proceeded while our audit row said BLOCKED.
+ * A firewall whose block is a no-op is worse than no firewall, because the
+ * evidence says it worked.
+ *
+ * `reason` is documented as INTERNAL ("core must not log, persist, broadcast,
+ * or expose it verbatim"); `message` is the user-facing half. We keep the
+ * verdict summary in both — it names the risk level and the detection count,
+ * never the offending text.
+ *
+ * SHAPE IS EXACT, and the host enforces it structurally (`isHookDecision`,
+ * hook-runner-global, 2026.7.1-2): a pass must be `{ outcome: 'pass' }` and
+ * NOTHING else — the guard is `keys.length === 1`. Adding so much as a
+ * `metadata` field to the pass branch for debugging would make it "not a hook
+ * decision", and the runner's answer to that is not to ignore it: it is
+ * `{ outcome: 'block', reason: 'before_agent_run returned an invalid
+ * decision' }`. The failure mode of a malformed ALLOW here is a BLOCKED turn.
+ */
+export type InputGateDecision =
+  | { outcome: 'pass' }
+  | { outcome: 'block'; reason: string; message?: string; category?: string; metadata?: Record<string, unknown> };
+
+/**
+ * The gate's allow answer, stated explicitly (#226).
+ *
+ * A fresh literal per call, not a shared constant: the runner passes whatever
+ * we return into its own merge/normalise chain, and a frozen singleton handed
+ * to a host that decides to annotate it would fail in a way this plugin cannot
+ * see. It costs one object per turn.
+ *
+ * WHY EXPLICIT, when the SDK types the result `InputGateDecision | void` and
+ * this handler previously returned `undefined` on every allow path:
+ *
+ * The 2026.7.1-2 runner contradicts itself about void, one guard deep.
+ * `runBeforeAgentRun`'s doc comment says "Handlers that return void are treated
+ * as pass", and its `mergeResults` body opens with
+ *
+ *     if (next === void 0 || next === null) → { outcome: "block",
+ *                                               reason: "…invalid decision" }
+ *
+ * i.e. the merge is written to BLOCK on void. What saves an `undefined` return
+ * today is only that `runModifyingHook` never calls the merge for it —
+ * `if (handlerResult !== void 0 && (handlerResult !== null || mergeNullResults))`
+ * — so the void branch inside the merge is unreachable dead code, while `null`,
+ * the sibling value that same line treats identically, reaches it and DOES
+ * block. Verified by executing the real 2026.7.1-2 runner: `undefined` → pass,
+ * `null` → block/invalid, `{outcome:'pass'}` → pass.
+ *
+ * So void is not broken here — it is correct by one guard, against a merge
+ * function whose stated intent is to reject it. `{ outcome: 'pass' }` is
+ * correct under BOTH readings, and is the shape the host validates rather than
+ * the shape it happens to skip. That is the difference worth having in front of
+ * every user turn.
+ */
+function gatePass(): InputGateDecision {
+  return { outcome: 'pass' };
+}
+
+/**
+ * The conversation firewall's enforcement point (#225).
+ *
+ * Unlike `llm_input`, this hook is awaited by the gateway and its return value
+ * decides whether the run proceeds. It scans the prompt, applies the configured
+ * posture, and — critically — routes a detection to a HUMAN rather than only to
+ * a log file. The finding this fixes was that a HIGH verdict on a live box was
+ * seen by nobody.
+ *
+ * Fails OPEN on any internal error: a security plugin that bricks the gateway
+ * has caused a worse outage than the one it prevents. Every failure is reported.
+ *
+ * EVERY path returns a decision — `gatePass()` to allow, `{ outcome: 'block' }`
+ * only for a dirty verdict under `enforce`. Nothing returns `undefined`; see
+ * `gatePass` for the host-contract reason. "Fails open" therefore now means an
+ * explicit pass, which is a stronger statement than the absence of an answer:
+ * it is the same word said in the vocabulary the host validates.
+ */
+export async function handleBeforeAgentRun(
+  event: BeforeAgentRunEvent,
+  ctx: AgentCtx,
+): Promise<InputGateDecision> {
+  let posture: ConversationPosture = 'observe';
+  try {
+    const cfg = await loadConfig();
+    posture = conversationPosture(cfg.interceptor?.conversation);
+    if (posture === 'off') return gatePass();
+
+    const text = String(event?.prompt ?? '');
+    if (!text || text.length < 10 || isInternalContent(text)) return gatePass();
+
+    // sessionId/model come off the hook CONTEXT (PluginHookAgentContext); the
+    // event carries neither. Both are optional there too, so both may be absent.
+    const sessionId = ctx?.sessionId ?? ctx?.sessionKey;
+    const model = (ctx as { modelId?: string } | undefined)?.modelId;
+
+    // scanRealtimeContent no longer throws on the paths that used to (it
+    // reports `available:false` instead), but a defensive catch stays: this
+    // function's contract is that nothing here can stop a turn by accident.
+    // #226: BOUNDED. The gateway awaits this hook, so an unbounded scan is an
+    // unbounded pause in front of the user's prompt — see scanWithDeadline.
+    let scan: ConversationScanResult;
+    try {
+      scan = await scanWithDeadline(text);
+    } catch (err) {
+      const detail = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+      scan = { clean: false, available: false, errored: true, error: detail, summary: 'scan unavailable' };
+    }
+
+    // #235: WHO sent this turn, resolved before the verdict is applied.
+    // `senderIsOwner` was declared on the event and read by nothing, so the
+    // enforce path could block the operator's own paste and destroy it. The
+    // config is already loaded, so this is a pure call — no second read.
+    const trust = classifyConversationOrigin({
+      senderIsOwner: event?.senderIsOwner,
+      trustOwnerInput: cfg.conversationTrust?.trustOwnerInput,
+    });
+
+    const decision = evaluateConversationRun(posture, scan, trust);
+
+    // #226: REDACT ONCE, then use the redacted string everywhere the reason
+    // goes — the persisted decision row, the outbound notification, the block
+    // reason, the console line. On the unavailable path `decision.reason`
+    // embeds the scanner's own failure string verbatim
+    // (`conversation scan unavailable (${scan.error})`), and that string is
+    // assembled from a transport error: a cold MCP start, a fetch, a defence
+    // build download. Any of those can name the endpoint it failed to reach,
+    // and such a URL routinely carries a credential in its path
+    // (`https://hooks.example/services/T0/B0/XXXX`). The console line was
+    // already redacted while the row and the alert — the two that PERSIST and
+    // LEAVE THE BOX — were not, which had the guarantee exactly backwards.
+    const safeReason = decision.reason === null ? null : redactNotifyDetail(decision.reason);
+
+    // #226: repeated unavailability alerts at most once per window. Called here
+    // rather than at the notify site so the COUNTERS advance on every
+    // occurrence, and the decision row can record what was suppressed even when
+    // no alert goes out.
+    // Keyed by SESSION: a broken scanner in one session must not silence the
+    // first report of a broken scanner in another. `sessionId` may be absent —
+    // noteScanUnavailable buckets that case separately rather than letting one
+    // nameless session stand in for all of them.
+    const unavailable = decision.outcome === 'unavailable';
+    const alertGate = unavailable ? noteScanUnavailable(sessionId) : null;
+    const suppressAlert = alertGate !== null && !alertGate.alert;
+
+    // ── EVIDENCE FIRST, SIDE EFFECT SECOND ────────────────────────────────
+    //
+    // The decision row is a LOCAL append and it goes to disk before anything
+    // leaves this box. The previous order awaited an external notification and
+    // then wrote the row — under a comment claiming the row already existed —
+    // so every way that call can end badly took the evidence with it: a
+    // notification channel that hangs until the gateway's 30s hook timeout
+    // fires, a transport that throws past its own catch, an operator restarting
+    // the gateway mid-alert, the process dying. In each case the block or the
+    // detection HAPPENED and there is no record that it did. That inverts the
+    // whole point: a security control's own log must not be contingent on an
+    // unrelated network round trip succeeding.
+    //
+    // The row carries a stable `eventId`, so the delivery row appended after
+    // the attempt below can be joined to it without either row having to
+    // predict the other's outcome.
+    const eventId = randomUUID();
+    // #226: whether the decision row ACTUALLY LANDED. `auditLog` used to
+    // swallow its failures and return void, so the code below could not tell an
+    // append from a silent no-op and every downstream statement — the operator
+    // alert, the delivery row, this function's own comments — asserted that
+    // evidence existed. Now the boolean is carried, said out loud on stderr,
+    // and attached to the alert as a bounded, secret-free fact.
+    let decisionRowPersisted = true;
+    if (decision.audit) {
+      // AWAITED: the row that says what was decided must exist before the
+      // decision is handed back, and its success or failure must be READ. The
+      // write is a bounded local append wrapped in its own try/catch.
+      decisionRowPersisted = await auditLog({
+        type: decision.outcome === 'unavailable' ? 'scan_unavailable' : 'threat',
+        hook: 'before_agent_run',
+        eventId,
+        sessionId,
+        model,
+        // The REDACTED reason. This row is appended to a file that syncs.
+        reason: safeReason,
+        posture,
+        outcome: decision.outcome,
+        // #235: the origin, on every conversation decision row. Without it an
+        // operator auditing an `enforce` host cannot tell a turn that was not
+        // blocked because it was clean from one that was not blocked because
+        // the owner sent it — and "why did this not block?" is the question
+        // this row exists to answer. A label ('owner'/'non-owner'/'unknown'),
+        // never a sender id: the row syncs.
+        origin: trust.origin,
+        // The verdict summary, never the prompt. The input that trips an
+        // injection detector is hostile text by assumption; copying it into an
+        // audit row that syncs to the dashboard/cloud would carry the payload
+        // one hop further. A length + digest keeps rows correlatable without
+        // storing the content.
+        verdict: scan.summary,
+        chars: text.length,
+        contentSha256: createHash('sha256').update(text).digest('hex').slice(0, 16),
+        // Deliberately NOT `notified: false`. Nothing has been attempted yet,
+        // and a false here would read as "we tried and failed". The attempt's
+        // result is its own row, keyed by this eventId.
+        notifyPending: decision.notify && !suppressAlert,
+        // #226: the unavailability run-length, on EVERY occurrence. Alerting is
+        // rate limited; auditing is not, so the row is where the true count
+        // lives — and it says explicitly when an alert was withheld, so a gap in
+        // the alert stream can never be mistaken for a gap in the failures.
+        ...(alertGate
+          ? {
+            unavailableCount: alertGate.count,
+            alertSuppressed: suppressAlert,
+            alertSuppressedSinceLastAlert: alertGate.suppressedSinceLastAlert,
+          }
+          : {}),
+        ts: new Date().toISOString(),
+      });
+      if (!decisionRowPersisted) {
+        console.error(
+          `[shieldcortex] ⚠️ conversation ${decision.outcome} decision could NOT be written to the audit log — ` +
+          'the decision itself still stands, but there is no local record of it. Check the audit directory ' +
+          '(SHIELDCORTEX_AUDIT_DIR or ~/.shieldcortex/audit) for permissions or disk space.',
+        );
+      }
+    }
+
+    // The sink. Awaited — the first cut fired this off with `void` and threw
+    // the delivery boolean away, so the code could not tell "a human was told"
+    // from "nothing left this box". It is bounded (CONVERSATION_NOTIFY_MAX_MS,
+    // well under the hook's own 30s timeout) and never throws.
+    let notifyResult: NotifyOutcome | null = null;
+    if (decision.notify) {
+      const label = decision.outcome === 'unavailable' ? 'unavailable' : decision.block ? 'blocked' : 'observed';
+      // The same redacted string the row got. A gateway's stdout is routinely
+      // shipped to a log aggregator, so "ephemeral" is not a property the
+      // console actually has either.
+      console.warn(
+        `[shieldcortex] ⚠️ ${safeReason ?? 'conversation threat'} — posture=${posture}, outcome=${label}` +
+        (suppressAlert
+          ? ` (operator alert SUPPRESSED — ${alertGate?.suppressedSinceLastAlert} since the last one; ${alertGate?.count} this session)`
+          : ''),
+      );
+      // Audited above, not alerted. Nothing further is written for a suppressed
+      // occurrence: no attempt was made, and a delivery row saying
+      // `delivered: false` would read as a transport failure that never
+      // happened. The decision itself is unaffected — suppression governs who
+      // is TOLD, never what is DECIDED.
+      if (!suppressAlert) {
+        // The audit-persistence fact rides ALONG with the alert when the local
+        // record failed: bounded, no secrets, and it tells the operator that
+        // this notification is the only trace of the event. Appended to the
+        // reason rather than added as a field so it survives an older installed
+        // dist whose notification builder does not know about it.
+        const auditNote = decisionRowPersisted ? '' : ' [auditPersistence=failed: no local audit row for this event]';
+        const suppressedNote =
+          alertGate && alertGate.suppressedSinceLastAlert > 0
+            ? ` [${alertGate.suppressedSinceLastAlert} further scan-unavailable event(s) suppressed since the last alert; ${alertGate.count} this session]`
+            : '';
+        notifyResult = await notifyOperatorOfConversationThreat({
+          outcome: label,
+          posture,
+          summary: scan.summary,
+          // REDACTED. This one leaves the box entirely — to a webhook, an
+          // aggregator, a phone — so it is the last place a tokenised endpoint
+          // URL lifted out of a scanner error may appear.
+          reason: `${safeReason ?? 'conversation threat'}${suppressedNote}${auditNote}`,
+          sessionId,
+          model,
+        });
+        // Truthful reporting: never imply a human was reached unless a
+        // transport said so. "Not configured" is not a failure — it is the #143
+        // default.
+        if (notifyResult.configured && !notifyResult.delivered) {
+          // #226: redacted HERE too, not only on the row below. The same detail
+          // string reaches both, and a gateway's stdout is routinely shipped
+          // somewhere it outlives the process.
+          console.warn(`[shieldcortex] ⚠️ conversation alert UNDELIVERED — ${redactNotifyDetail(notifyResult.detail)}`);
+        }
+        // Guarded on `audit` because `eventId` has to point at something:
+        // `evaluateConversationRun` never sets notify without audit, and if that
+        // ever changed, a delivery row keyed to a decision row that was never
+        // written would be a dangling reference rather than evidence.
+        if (decision.audit) {
+          // A SECOND row, not a rewrite of the first. The audit sink is an
+          // append-only JSONL file, so "what was decided" and "who was told" are
+          // separate facts recorded when each became true, joined by eventId.
+          // `via` is the channel NAME ('webhook', 'openclaw-gateway'), never a
+          // URL; the detail is redacted before it is persisted.
+          await auditLog({
+            type: 'notification_delivery',
+            hook: 'before_agent_run',
+            eventId,
+            sessionId,
+            configured: notifyResult.configured,
+            delivered: notifyResult.delivered,
+            via: notifyResult.via,
+            detail: redactNotifyDetail(notifyResult.detail),
+            // The eventId this row joins on may point at a row that was never
+            // written. Say so here rather than leave a dangling reference that
+            // reads as a missing file rather than a failed write.
+            ...(decisionRowPersisted ? {} : { auditPersistence: 'failed' }),
+            ts: new Date().toISOString(),
+          });
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Clean, observed-not-blocked, and scan-unavailable all land here. The
+    // audit row and the operator alert above have already recorded what
+    // happened; the run itself proceeds, and says so.
+    if (!decision.block) return gatePass();
+    return {
+      outcome: 'block',
+      // Redacted for the same reason as the row above: the host SDK documents
+      // `reason` as internal, but "internal" is a policy, not a guarantee.
+      reason: safeReason ?? 'conversation threat',
+      message: `ShieldCortex blocked this turn: ${scan.summary}. The prompt was not sent to the model.`,
+      category: 'prompt_injection',
+    };
+  } catch (e) {
+    // Fail open, loudly. Never let the guard's own failure stop the agent.
+    //
+    // This catch is also why the handler must not be allowed to THROW: the host
+    // registers `before_agent_run` as fail-CLOSED
+    // (`failurePolicyByHook: { before_agent_run: 'fail-closed' }`), so an
+    // exception escaping here does not fail open at all — the gateway catches it
+    // and blocks the run with "before_agent_run hook failed". An explicit pass
+    // is the only way this function actually keeps its fail-open promise.
+    console.error('[shieldcortex] before_agent_run error (failing open):', e instanceof Error ? e.message : String(e));
+    return gatePass();
+  }
+}
+
 // Skip text blocks that are ShieldCortex/OpenClaw tool-result pass-throughs
 function isToolResultContent(text: string): boolean {
   // ShieldCortex recall returns "Found N memories:" header
@@ -1314,6 +3276,13 @@ export default {
     if (_registered) return;
     _registered = true;
 
+    // #226: the host runtime's own version, before anything can throw. It is
+    // the primary version evidence for the conversation-gate check — the
+    // gateway stating its own version beats inferring one from whichever
+    // package.json sits above the entry path. Absent on a host that does not
+    // expose it, which stays UNKNOWN rather than becoming a guess.
+    recordHostRuntimeVersion(api);
+
     // --- Interceptor (lazy init) ---
     let interceptorReady: ReturnType<typeof createInterceptor> | null = null;
     let interceptorInitAttempted = false;
@@ -1362,12 +3331,44 @@ export default {
               : `${guardCfg.enforce ? "enforce" : "warn"}${autoApproved > 0 ? ` (${autoApproved} auto-approved)` : ""}${interceptorReady ? "" : " — not yet initialised this session"}`;
           const hooksLine = _beforeToolCallRegistered
             ? "llm_input (scan), llm_output (memory), before_tool_call (action guard), session_end (cache reset)"
-            : "llm_input (scan), llm_output (memory)";
+            // #226: session_end is registered even with the interceptor off —
+            // the conversation gate keeps per-session state that needs freeing.
+            : "llm_input (scan), llm_output (memory), session_end (cache reset)";
+          // #225: the conversation plane, stated as evidence rather than as a
+          // tick. Every clause below is something this process actually knows:
+          // the configured posture, that we asked for the hook, the host build,
+          // and the operator's grant. Nothing here claims the gateway accepted
+          // the registration, because the plugin API never says so.
+          const hostProbe = detectHostOpenClaw();
+          const plane = describeConversationPlane({
+            posture: conversationPosture(cfg.interceptor?.conversation),
+            hookRequested: _beforeAgentRunRequested,
+            gateSupport: hostSupportsConversationGate(hostProbe),
+            hostOpenClawVersion: hostProbe.version,
+            consentGranted: _conversationAccessGranted,
+          });
+          const notifyRaw = cfg.interceptor?.actionGuard?.notify;
+          const notifyState = notifyRaw && (notifyRaw as { enabled?: unknown }).enabled === true
+            ? 'configured'
+            : 'not configured — detections reach the audit log and this box only';
           return {
             text:
               `ShieldCortex v${_version}\n` +
-              `  Hooks: ${hooksLine}\n` +
+              `  Hooks: ${hooksLine}${_beforeAgentRunRequested ? ', before_agent_run (conversation gate, requested)' : ''}\n` +
               `  Action guard: ${guardState}\n` +
+              `  Conversation firewall: ${plane.summary}\n` +
+              // #226: state the PROVENANCE, not just the value. This flag is a
+              // SNAPSHOT taken once, when the plugin loaded — the host reads
+              // the grant at hook-registration time and this process never
+              // re-reads it. So an operator who has just edited openclaw.json
+              // and re-run the command sees the old answer, correctly, and
+              // would otherwise conclude the grant does not work. Nothing here
+              // is live: changing it requires a gateway restart before either
+              // the gateway or this line reflects it.
+              `  Conversation access grant: ${_conversationAccessGranted ? 'granted' : 'NOT granted'} (plugins.entries.${PLUGIN_ID}.hooks.allowConversationAccess)\n` +
+              '    — read from openclaw.json when this plugin LOADED; it is a snapshot, not a live read.\n' +
+              '      Editing that key takes effect only after a gateway restart, for the gateway and for this line.\n' +
+              `  Operator notify: ${notifyState}\n` +
               `  Auto memory: ${autoMemory} | Dedupe: ${dedupe}\n` +
               `  Cloud sync: ${cloud}`,
           };
@@ -1471,42 +3472,153 @@ export default {
         return handleTypedBeforeToolCall(event, interceptor, api.logger, ctx?.sessionId);
       }, { priority: 80, timeoutMs: 30_000 });
       _beforeToolCallRegistered = true;
-
-      // Try to register session_end for cache cleanup (only meaningful while
-      // an interceptor can exist)
-      try {
-        api.on('session_end', (ev?: { sessionId?: string }) => {
-          interceptorReady?.resetSession();
-          // #233: a taint must not outlive the conversation that earned it.
-          if (ev?.sessionId) sessionTaint.clear(ev.sessionId);
-        });
-      } catch {
-        // session_end may not be a supported hook — TTL safety net handles this
-      }
+      // NOTE: session_end is NOT registered here — it moved out of this guard
+      // in #226 and is registered unconditionally below.
     } else {
       api.logger?.info?.('[shieldcortex] interceptor.enabled:false in plugin config — before_tool_call hook not registered');
     }
 
-    // These two are CONVERSATION hooks: OpenClaw drops them at registration
-    // for a non-bundled plugin unless the host grants
-    // plugins.entries.<id>.hooks.allowConversationAccess = true. We still
-    // attempt registration (the host decides, and the grant can be added
-    // without a code change), but we must not CLAIM them afterwards — see the
-    // honesty note on the log line below (#225).
+    // session_end — registered UNCONDITIONALLY (#226).
+    //
+    // It used to live inside the `interceptorDisabledInHostConfig` guard above,
+    // on the reasoning that it exists for the interceptor's session cache. That
+    // stopped being true when `before_agent_run` landed: the gate is registered
+    // regardless of `interceptor.enabled` (its posture, not the interceptor
+    // flag, decides what it does), and it accumulates per-session
+    // scan-unavailable suppression state. With the cleanup hook skipped, a host
+    // that disabled the interceptor kept every session's window alive for the
+    // life of the gateway process.
+    //
+    // Registering it does NOT reintroduce #112. That incident was specific to
+    // `before_tool_call`: a registered approval hook changes how OpenClaw
+    // resolves tool-call approvals for unattended Codex agents, so an
+    // unattended turn waited 120s on a decision nobody could give. `session_end`
+    // is a notification — it cannot block, approve, or delay anything — and its
+    // handler here only frees local state.
+    try {
+      api.on('session_end', (event?: { sessionId?: string; sessionKey?: string }, ctx?: AgentCtx) => {
+        interceptorReady?.resetSession();
+        const endedSession = ctx?.sessionId ?? ctx?.sessionKey ?? event?.sessionId ?? event?.sessionKey ?? null;
+        // #226: the scan-unavailable alert window is session state too, and it
+        // is keyed per session — so clear THIS session's window and nobody
+        // else's. Clearing them all would re-arm alerting for every live
+        // session every time any one of them ended.
+        resetScanUnavailableAlertState(endedSession);
+        // #233: a taint must not outlive the conversation that earned it. Same
+        // per-session rule, for the same reason.
+        if (endedSession) sessionTaint.clear(endedSession);
+      });
+    } catch {
+      // session_end may not be a supported hook — TTL safety net handles this
+    }
+
+    // llm_input/llm_output are CONVERSATION hooks: OpenClaw drops them at
+    // registration for a non-bundled plugin unless the host grants
+    // plugins.entries.<id>.hooks.allowConversationAccess = true. Registration is
+    // still attempted (the host decides, and the grant can be added without a
+    // code change), but they must not be CLAIMED afterwards — see the startup
+    // line below (#225/#230).
     api.on("llm_input", handleLlmInput, { timeoutMs: 30_000 });
     api.on("llm_output", handleLlmOutput, { timeoutMs: 30_000 });
 
-    // #225: this line used to announce `llm_input + llm_output` unconditionally.
-    // On any host without the conversation-access grant the gateway logged, on
-    // the very next two lines, that it had dropped both — so ShieldCortex was
-    // claiming conversation protection it did not have, in the one place an
-    // operator looks to confirm startup. Report only what is actually live, and
-    // name the missing grant when it is the reason.
-    const conversationAccess = readConversationAccess(homedir(), PLUGIN_ID);
+    // #225: the conversation firewall's ENFORCEMENT point. `llm_input` above is
+    // an OpenClaw *observation* hook — it cannot stop anything, which is why a
+    // detected injection reached the model regardless and the only trace was a
+    // console line. `before_agent_run` is the documented hook that can block a
+    // run, so the verdict lands here where it can actually act.
+    //
+    // Registration is attempted unconditionally: the posture
+    // (off/observe/enforce) decides what happens, and it is read per-call so a
+    // config change takes effect without a restart. Registering conditionally
+    // would make "is the guard wired?" depend on config read at boot — the
+    // exact class of silent gap that #214/#222 were.
+    //
+    // The try/catch is for a host whose `api.on` throws on an unknown name. On
+    // the hosts we have inspected it does NOT throw — an unsupported name is
+    // dropped with a diagnostic, and a conversation hook without the operator's
+    // grant is refused the same way — so a successful call proves only that we
+    // ASKED. That is exactly what the flag is named after, and the honest
+    // reporting comes from the version + consent evidence below.
+    try {
+      api.on("before_agent_run", handleBeforeAgentRun, { timeoutMs: 30_000 });
+      _beforeAgentRunRequested = true;
+    } catch (err) {
+      _beforeAgentRunRequested = false;
+      (api.logger as any)?.warn?.(
+        `[shieldcortex] before_agent_run could not be registered on this host (${err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)}) — the conversation firewall cannot block on this gateway`,
+      );
+    }
+
+    // The gateway's own message seam, WHERE a host provides one (#143's design
+    // intent: "on OpenClaw the transport should use the gateway's own message
+    // capability"). Probed structurally, never required. No build we have
+    // inspected exposes it — `notifyOperator` appears nowhere in the plugin API
+    // of 2026.5.2 or 2026.7.1 — so on today's hosts this stays null and
+    // conversation alerts go to the webhook.
+    const notifyCtx = (api as { runtime?: { notifyOperator?: unknown }; notifyOperator?: unknown });
+    if (typeof notifyCtx.notifyOperator === 'function') {
+      _gatewayNotifyContext = notifyCtx as GatewayNotifyContext;
+    } else if (typeof notifyCtx.runtime?.notifyOperator === 'function') {
+      _gatewayNotifyContext = notifyCtx.runtime as GatewayNotifyContext;
+    }
+
+    // The operator's conversation-access grant. Read, never written: OpenClaw
+    // refuses every conversation hook for a non-bundled plugin without it, so a
+    // box missing it runs with NO conversation plane at all — and on four of
+    // five fleet hosts surveyed in #222 that was the normal outcome of a
+    // documented install. Report it at boot rather than let the operator infer
+    // protection from a registration line that only states intent.
+    // The host's own in-memory config is the better source (it is what the
+    // loader consulted), so it is preferred; the file the host reads is the
+    // fallback for a runtime that does not expose it. `readConversationAccess`
+    // is #225's shared reader — it also tells us whether the config could be
+    // read at all, which is what keeps "not granted" apart from "cannot tell"
+    // on the startup line below.
+    const diskAccess = readConversationAccess(homedir(), PLUGIN_ID);
+    let rootConfigSeen = false;
+    try {
+      const runtimeConfigApi = (api as PluginApi).runtime?.config;
+      const rootConfig = typeof runtimeConfigApi?.current === 'function'
+        ? runtimeConfigApi.current()
+        : typeof runtimeConfigApi?.loadConfig === 'function'
+          ? runtimeConfigApi.loadConfig()
+          : (api as PluginApi).config;
+      rootConfigSeen = Boolean(rootConfig) && typeof rootConfig === 'object';
+      _conversationAccessGranted = rootConfigSeen
+        ? readConversationAccessGrant(rootConfig)
+        : diskAccess.granted;
+    } catch {
+      _conversationAccessGranted = diskAccess.granted;
+    }
+    if (!_conversationAccessGranted) {
+      (api.logger as any)?.warn?.(
+        `[shieldcortex] conversation firewall INACTIVE: plugins.entries.${PLUGIN_ID}.hooks.allowConversationAccess is not true in openclaw.json — ` +
+        'the gateway will refuse llm_input, llm_output and before_agent_run for this plugin. Nothing on the conversation path is scanned or blocked. ' +
+        'This is an operator consent grant and ShieldCortex will never set it for you.',
+      );
+    }
+
+    // #225/#230: this line used to announce `llm_input + llm_output`
+    // unconditionally. On any host without the conversation-access grant the
+    // gateway logged, on the very next two lines, that it had dropped both — so
+    // ShieldCortex was claiming conversation protection it did not have, in the
+    // one place an operator looks to confirm startup. Report only what is
+    // actually live, and name the missing grant when it is the reason.
+    //
+    // `before_agent_run` (#226) is on the same list from 2026.5.9-beta.1, so it
+    // is claimed only when the grant is present AND registration was attempted
+    // this session.
     api.logger.info(
       `[shieldcortex] v${_version} registered (${describeRegisteredHooks({
-        access: conversationAccess,
+        access: {
+          granted: _conversationAccessGranted,
+          // We could read SOMETHING (the host's config or the file) ⇒ the
+          // ungranted state is a fact, not a failed measurement.
+          readable: rootConfigSeen || diskAccess.readable,
+          entryPresent: diskAccess.entryPresent,
+        },
         beforeToolCallRegistered: _beforeToolCallRegistered,
+        beforeAgentRunRequested: _beforeAgentRunRequested,
       })})`,
     );
     } catch (err) {