diff --git a/.github/cursor-review/build-ledger.py b/.github/cursor-review/build-ledger.py
index 5d74f3c..03953a0 100644
--- a/.github/cursor-review/build-ledger.py
+++ b/.github/cursor-review/build-ledger.py
@@ -104,6 +104,37 @@ def _load_gate_unresolved():
 # post-review.py renders every inline finding as "<emoji> **<Label>** — <body>".
 # Recovering the severity from that badge is reading back our own structured
 # rendering, not inferring a disposition from author prose.
+#
+# The vocabulary and the badge's shape are re-typed here as literals, NOT shared with
+# post-review.py's SEVERITY_LABEL/SEVERITY_EMOJI. `^\S*` swallows ANY leading run of
+# non-whitespace — today's emoji, one this version has never seen, or none at all — so
+# the ledger keeps parsing bodies written by an OLDER post-review.py still live on a
+# pinned caller ref; sharing the strict formatter would lose that. The tolerance is not
+# a check: a forged `<anything>**Critical** — ` prefix strips just as happily. What the
+# one caller actually enforces on the bodies it feeds here is _consolidated_reviews'
+# gate — author type Bot, PLUS a marker that this public repo puts within anyone's
+# reach — so the guarantee is "some Bot wrote it", not "this workflow wrote it". That
+# is enough only because clearing that gate already hands the forger the entry's whole
+# prose, badge or no badge. Narrow the prefix before pointing _strip_badge at imported
+# PR text, where the author is not gated at all.
+#
+# The literals pin the LABELS and the dash CHARACTER only; the `\s*` runs absorb any
+# spacing change. The duplication is pinned by test, not shared: test_build_ledger.py
+# drives post-review.py's real renderer through this pattern for every key of
+# SEVERITY_EMOJI — the table `normalize_severity` actually gates the renderable
+# vocabulary on — so adding a severity, renaming a label or changing the dash fails
+# there rather than silently stopping the strip.
+#
+# Two editing rules that red test cannot state for you:
+#   * ADD, never replace. On a label rename, keep the old label in the alternation
+#     beside the new one — rounds already posted by a caller pinned to an older ref
+#     still carry it. The dash has the IDENTICAL old-ref exposure, so a dash change
+#     means widening `—` to a character class holding both, not swapping it: replace
+#     it and those rounds stop stripping silently, with nothing left to fail.
+#   * A new label's lowercase MUST equal its severity key. _strip_badge derives the
+#     ledger's severity from `match.group(1).lower()`, so a label-only rename (`Nit`
+#     -> `Nitpick`, key still `nit`) files entries under a severity string none of
+#     post-review.py's tables use. Rename both, or map label -> key here.
 _BADGE_RE = re.compile(r"^\S*\s*\*\*(Critical|High|Medium|Low|Nit)\*\*\s*—\s*", re.UNICODE)
 
 # Every character that STARTS A NEW LINE for `str.splitlines()` — and so, plausibly,
diff --git a/.github/cursor-review/tests/test_build_ledger.py b/.github/cursor-review/tests/test_build_ledger.py
index 6715596..a11c1d2 100644
--- a/.github/cursor-review/tests/test_build_ledger.py
+++ b/.github/cursor-review/tests/test_build_ledger.py
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ def _load(name, filename):
 
 bl = _load("build_ledger", "build-ledger.py")
 pr = _load("post_review", "post-review.py")
+mcp = _load("review_output_mcp", "review-output-mcp.py")
 
 MARKER = bl.CONSOLIDATED_MARKER
 
@@ -1410,5 +1411,93 @@ def test_the_prose_fallback_marker_still_matches_what_post_review_renders(self):
         )
 
 
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# The severity badge is WRITTEN in post-review.py and READ BACK by _BADGE_RE    #
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+
+
+class TestSeverityBadgeContract(unittest.TestCase):
+    """`_BADGE_RE` re-types post-review.py's severity vocabulary as a literal
+    alternation, and its `**Label** — ` shape as a literal too. post-review.py's own
+    `strip_severity_badge` avoids that by rebuilding the badge from the tables that
+    printed it; the ledger deliberately does not, because its tolerant `^\\S*\\s*`
+    prefix has to keep parsing bodies written by an OLDER post-review.py still live on
+    a pinned caller ref. So pin the two here instead: adding a severity or renaming a
+    label would leave post-review.py working while the ledger silently stopped
+    stripping, carrying badge-prefixed bodies into the prior-review context and
+    degrading the repeat matching the ledger exists for.
+
+    Scope of the pin, so nobody expects more of it than it gives: the LABELS and the
+    dash CHARACTER are pinned; `_BADGE_RE`'s `\\s*` runs absorb any spacing change
+    around the dash, so a spacing-only edit stays green here and strips fine.
+
+    The badge under test comes from `normalize_comments` — the real renderer — not
+    from a format string re-typed here, which would drift with it. The loop runs over
+    `SEVERITY_EMOJI`, not `SEVERITY_ORDER`: `normalize_severity` gates the renderable
+    vocabulary on `SEVERITY_EMOJI` membership, so that table — not the sort order — is
+    what decides which badges can ever reach the ledger.
+    """
+
+    PROSE = "the finding's own prose"
+
+    def _rendered_body(self, severity: str) -> str:
+        comments = pr.normalize_comments(
+            [{"file": "app.py", "line": 12, "severity": severity, "body": self.PROSE}]
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(len(comments), 1)
+        return comments[0]["comment"]["body"]
+
+    def test_every_copy_of_the_severity_vocabulary_carries_the_same_keys(self):
+        """Guards the loop below, which would pass vacuously over an emptied table —
+        and catches a severity added to EMOJI/LABEL (so post-review.py renders it)
+        but left out of ORDER, which the sort-order loop would never have exercised.
+
+        `review-output-mcp.py`'s SEVERITIES is in here as the fourth copy: it is the
+        ingress schema deciding what a model may submit at all, so a severity added to
+        post-review.py's tables and to `_BADGE_RE` but not to it is rejected at
+        submission and never reaches either end of the badge contract.
+        """
+        self.assertTrue(pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI)
+        self.assertEqual(set(pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI), set(pr.SEVERITY_LABEL))
+        self.assertEqual(set(pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI), set(pr.SEVERITY_ORDER))
+        self.assertEqual(set(pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI), set(mcp.SEVERITIES))
+
+    def test_the_default_severity_is_one_post_review_can_render(self):
+        """The one relationship here whose breach CRASHES rather than degrades.
+
+        `normalize_severity` maps every unknown/missing severity to DEFAULT_SEVERITY
+        and `normalize_comments` then indexes `SEVERITY_EMOJI[severity]` unguarded, so
+        a severity key renamed consistently across all three tables leaves the equality
+        above green while the first model-supplied unknown severity raises KeyError —
+        killing the consolidate job after the whole panel and the judge have run.
+        """
+        self.assertIn(pr.DEFAULT_SEVERITY, pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            bl._strip_badge(self._rendered_body("not-a-severity")),
+            (pr.DEFAULT_SEVERITY, self.PROSE),
+        )
+
+    def test_every_severity_post_review_renders_is_stripped_by_the_ledger(self):
+        for severity in pr.SEVERITY_EMOJI:
+            with self.subTest(severity=severity):
+                body = self._rendered_body(severity)
+                self.assertEqual(bl._strip_badge(body), (severity, self.PROSE))
+
+    def test_the_ledger_recovers_the_severity_of_an_older_or_emojiless_badge(self):
+        """The tolerant prefix is the point of not sharing the formatter — hold it.
+
+        The spaceless entry is not padding: `^\\S*` is greedy, so on `🔴**Critical** — `
+        it first swallows the label too and only backtracks to the emoji. That is the
+        behaviour the comment in build-ledger.py leans on, and no other case here
+        exercises it — every other prefix ends in the whitespace `\\s*` consumes.
+        """
+        for prefix in ("", "🔴 ", "🆕 ", "🔴"):
+            with self.subTest(prefix=prefix):
+                self.assertEqual(
+                    bl._strip_badge(f"{prefix}**Critical** — {self.PROSE}"),
+                    ("critical", self.PROSE),
+                )
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()
