diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a4da8ed..a3e2361 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+## 2026-10-25 (evening, attended) — the `published` gate follows D50 = A: the newest 5 plus the pinned MinAgent and day-0 agent (R-1290; no binary change)
+
+- **D50 = A** (operator, 2026-10-25): the registry keeps the newest 5 released agent versions, the hub's MinAgent floor and
+  the day-0 manifest's agent. `scripts/retention-policy.json`: `generic_versions_kept` 10 → 5, new `pinned`
+  (`hub_min_agent` 0.158.1, `day0_agent` 0.165.0 — copies of hub state, because CI holds no hub secret; the session that
+  records a vouch or a new MinAgent updates them in the same commit). `check-published-versions.py` asserts the window
+  plus every pin; a pin with no tag FAILS. CI was red since the operator's hand prune of 0.159.0–0.160.0 (job 2334).
+- **Decoys** (`test_gate_decoys.py`, via `FELHOM_RETENTION_POLICY`, test only): a pinned version older than the window is
+  asserted; its 404 convicts; a pin with no tag convicts. Seen failing on the old gate (two LIVE HOLES): felhom.eu
+  `documentation/audits/night-2026-10-25/redproof-d50.txt`.
+
 ## v0.165.0 (2026-10-25) — D43 = A: BYO hosts keep their own SSH settings (R-1257); the line test for a box that seeds all day (R-1250) — released in the attended release run; **VOUCHED by the operator 2026-10-25 18:38:49 CET** (binary `e9d04a47…`, bundle `8dea1f34…`)
 
 **Found at the release (felhom.eu R-1285, P4):** on a BYO host upgraded from 0.164.0 the drop-in is removed only on the bundle run AFTER the one that installs this wrapper — the first run is planned by the old wrapper. Proven on a BYO test host (VM 9371 on demo-hp): the second `agent_config_update` logged `BUNDLE REMOVED … (ours, on a BYO host — D43)`.
diff --git a/scripts/check-published-versions.py b/scripts/check-published-versions.py
index 12402bb..b20888c 100644
--- a/scripts/check-published-versions.py
+++ b/scripts/check-published-versions.py
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ TAG_RE = re.compile(r"^v(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)$")
 # THE retention number, read from the one file that owns it. A check and the policy it enforces
 # must read the same number from the same place, or they drift and the drift looks like a defect
 # in something else — which is exactly what happened on 2026-08-08/09 (R-287).
-RETENTION_FILE = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "retention-policy.json")
+RETENTION_FILE = os.environ.get("FELHOM_RETENTION_POLICY") or \
+    os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "retention-policy.json")  # the env: decoy tests only
 
 
 def retention_kept():
@@ -114,6 +115,21 @@ def retention_kept():
         raise ValueError("generic_versions_kept must be a positive int, got %r" % (n,))
     return n
 
+
+def retention_pinned():
+    """D50 = A: the versions kept besides the newest N — the hub's MinAgent floor and the day-0 agent. Copies of hub
+    state the vouching session writes into the policy file (CI holds no hub secret). Missing key = no pins."""
+    with open(RETENTION_FILE, encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+        pins = json.load(fh).get("pinned") or {}
+    if not isinstance(pins, dict):
+        raise ValueError("pinned must be an object, got %r" % (pins,))
+    out = {}
+    for name, v in pins.items():
+        if not isinstance(v, str) or not re.match(r"^\d+\.\d+\.\d+$", v):
+            raise ValueError("pinned %s must be X.Y.Z, got %r" % (name, v))
+        out[name] = v
+    return out
+
 tried = []
 
 
@@ -211,6 +227,7 @@ def main():
     all_versions = versions
     try:
         keep = retention_kept()
+        pins = retention_pinned()
     except Exception as e:
         inconclusive("cannot read the retention policy (%s): %s" % (RETENTION_FILE, e))
 
@@ -218,10 +235,15 @@ def main():
     # lexically: "0.9.0" > "0.10.0" as strings, and that would silently drop the wrong end.
     def _key(v):
         return tuple(int(x) for x in v.split("."))
-    versions = sorted(all_versions, key=_key)[-keep:]
+    window = sorted(all_versions, key=_key)[-keep:]
+    # D50 = A: the pinned versions are asserted wherever they sit. A pin with no tag cannot be installed at all —
+    # a failure, never a skip.
+    unpinned_tags = sorted(("%s=%s" % (k, v)) for k, v in pins.items() if v not in all_versions)
+    versions = sorted(set(window) | set(v for v in pins.values() if v in all_versions), key=_key)
     dropped = [v for v in all_versions if v not in versions]
 
-    print("  %d released version(s); retention policy keeps the newest %d" % (len(all_versions), keep))
+    print("  %d released version(s); retention policy keeps the newest %d plus the pinned %s" % (
+        len(all_versions), keep, ", ".join("%s=%s" % kv for kv in sorted(pins.items())) or "(none)"))
     print("  verifying: %s" % ", ".join(versions))
     if dropped:
         # NEVER silent. A bounded check that does not say what it stopped covering is how a
@@ -232,6 +254,9 @@ def main():
         print("    their configs resolve; what is no longer asserted is the BINARY's presence.")
 
     bad = []
+    for pin in unpinned_tags:
+        bad.append((pin, ["the pinned version has NO git tag — nothing can install it (D50 = A)"]))
+        print("  FAIL pinned %s: no git tag v%s" % (pin, pin.split("=")[1]))
     for v in versions:
         pkg_url = "%s/api/packages/%s/generic/%s/%s/%s" % (GITEA_BASE, OWNER, PKG, v, PKG)
         raw_url = "%s/%s/%s/raw/tag/v%s/%s" % (GITEA_BASE, OWNER, REPO, v, PROBE_CONFIG)
diff --git a/scripts/retention-policy.json b/scripts/retention-policy.json
index f15c515..e1b0d17 100644
--- a/scripts/retention-policy.json
+++ b/scripts/retention-policy.json
@@ -1,41 +1,33 @@
 {
   "_comment": [
-    "THE retention number for published agent artifacts. One file, read by everything that",
-    "depends on it, because a check and the policy it enforces must read the same number from the",
-    "same place or they drift — and the drift looks like a defect in something else.",
+    "THE retention rule for published agent artifacts. One file, read by everything that depends on it, because a check",
+    "and the policy it enforces must read the same rule from the same place or they drift — and the drift looks like a",
+    "defect in something else (R-287, 2026-08-08/09; again R-1290, 2026-10-25).",
     "",
-    "WHAT WENT WRONG WITHOUT IT (2026-08-08/09). The registry stopped serving felhom-agent",
-    "0.120.0 and older, while scripts/check-published-versions.py demanded that EVERY git tag",
-    "still be downloadable. Both rules are individually sensible; together they are impossible.",
-    "CI went red at a commit whose own run had been green the day before, on a true finding that",
-    "no one could act on. The red will return at the next publish unless the two read one number.",
+    "D50 = A (operator ruling 2026-10-25, felhom.eu `09` §3 decision 262): the registry keeps the NEWEST 5 released agent",
+    "versions, PLUS the hub's MinAgent floor, PLUS the version the hub's day-0 artifact manifest names. The operator prunes",
+    "by hand to that rule (on 2026-10-25 he removed 0.159.0–0.160.0 and kept 0.158.1, the floor). CI asserts exactly these",
+    "and never more. Before D50 the number was 10 (the R-267 newest-10 prune, R-287/R-291).",
     "",
-    "HOW THE NUMBER WAS ARRIVED AT. generic_versions_kept is 10 because that is what the registry",
-    "keeps: the deleter was ESTABLISHED on 2026-08-10 (R-287) — the newest-10 prune of generic packages",
-    "run under R-267 (felhom-agent and felhom-golden generic held exactly 10 afterwards). Until then this",
-    "file called the 10 an observed state with no located ruling; that is superseded (corrected",
-    "2026-10-05, R-291). Container packages are not pruned by that rule.",
+    "THE PINS ARE COPIES OF HUB STATE, because CI cannot read the hub without a secret it must not hold. The session that",
+    "records an agent vouch (day0_agent) or declares a new MinAgent with a floor (hub_min_agent) updates `pinned` in the",
+    "same commit (felhom-build-deploy skill, agent release). A pin that names a version with no tag is a FAILURE, never a",
+    "skip — a pin nobody can install is the defect the pin exists to catch.",
     "",
-    "SO THIS FILE IS A FLOOR, NOT A LICENCE. It says: CI may assume nothing older than the newest",
-    "N generic versions is still downloadable. It does NOT authorise deleting anything, and the",
-    "operator should confirm or replace the number — at which point this file changes and both",
-    "readers follow it in the same commit.",
+    "SO THIS FILE IS A FLOOR, NOT A LICENCE: it says what CI may assume is still downloadable. It does not authorise",
+    "deleting anything else.",
     "",
-    "THE DEEPER BOUND, recorded so a future session does not have to re-derive it: the principled",
-    "limit is the hub's vouched min_agent floor (0.127.0 on 2026-08-09). Nothing can install an",
-    "agent below it — the hub refuses to vouch one and boxes update to the floor — so a released",
-    "version below the floor being un-downloadable costs nothing real. Bounding on the floor would",
-    "be better than bounding on a count, and it needs the gate to read the hub, which is network",
-    "the gate does not have today. Filed as the follow-up in R-287.",
-    "",
-    "NEVER retire a git TAG to satisfy this. felhom-host-install.sh fetches an agent's config",
-    "files from raw/tag/v<version>/configs/, so deleting a tag retires the ability to install that",
-    "version at all — a strictly worse act than an un-downloadable binary."
+    "NEVER retire a git TAG to satisfy this. felhom-host-install.sh fetches an agent's config files from",
+    "raw/tag/v<version>/configs/, so deleting a tag retires the ability to install that version at all."
   ],
-  "generic_versions_kept": 10,
+  "generic_versions_kept": 5,
   "readers": [
-    "scripts/check-published-versions.py — bounds its assertion to the newest N versions"
+    "scripts/check-published-versions.py — asserts the newest N versions plus every pinned version"
   ],
-  "recorded": "2026-08-09",
-  "recorded_by": "CC 2026-08-09; the number's source (the R-267 newest-10 prune, established 2026-08-10 by R-287) recorded 2026-10-05 (R-291)"
+  "recorded": "2026-10-25",
+  "recorded_by": "CC 2026-10-25, D50 = A (operator); earlier history: R-287 (2026-08-09), R-291 (2026-10-05)",
+  "pinned": {
+    "hub_min_agent": "0.158.1",
+    "day0_agent": "0.165.0"
+  }
 }
diff --git a/scripts/test_gate_decoys.py b/scripts/test_gate_decoys.py
index df65df7..166a408 100644
--- a/scripts/test_gate_decoys.py
+++ b/scripts/test_gate_decoys.py
@@ -179,13 +179,24 @@ def published_cases(base):
     TAGS = ["v0.150.%d" % i for i in range(3)]          # inside any retention window >= 3
     VERS = [t[1:] for t in TAGS]
 
+    # D50 = A: the gate also asserts the PINNED versions. The decoys run against their own policy file (the real pins
+    # name versions the fake Gitea does not hold); PINS is what each case writes there.
+    pol_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix="retention-decoy-")
+    pol = os.path.join(pol_dir, "retention-policy.json")
+    PINS = {}
+
     def case(name, setup, expect_rc, must=()):
         FAKE.reset()
         FAKE.tags = list(TAGS)
         FAKE.packages = set(VERS)
         FAKE.raw = set(VERS)
+        PINS.clear()
         setup()
-        rc, out = run([sys.executable, gate], ROOT, child_env(base))
+        with io.open(pol, "w", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+            json.dump({"generic_versions_kept": keep, "pinned": dict(PINS)}, fh)
+        env = child_env(base)
+        env["FELHOM_RETENTION_POLICY"] = pol
+        rc, out = run([sys.executable, gate], ROOT, env)
         if not FAKE.hits:
             fails.append("published/%s: the gate never asked the fake Gitea - the seam is not wired" % name)
         report("published: " + name, rc, out, expect_rc, must)
@@ -220,6 +231,25 @@ def published_cases(base):
     case("BY DESIGN: a version older than the retention window is not asserted", retired, 0,
          ("NOT ASSERTED", "0.9.0"))
 
+    def pinned_old_ok():
+        FAKE.tags = ["v0.8.0"] + ["v0.10.%d" % i for i in range(keep)]
+        FAKE.packages = set(t[1:] for t in FAKE.tags)
+        FAKE.raw = set(t[1:] for t in FAKE.tags)
+        PINS["hub_min_agent"] = "0.8.0"
+    case("GENUINE (D50): a pinned version older than the window is asserted and downloads", pinned_old_ok, 0,
+         ("verifying: 0.8.0", "ALL RELEASED VERSIONS INSTALLABLE"))
+
+    def pinned_old_gone():
+        pinned_old_ok()
+        FAKE.packages.discard("0.8.0")
+    case("FACT (D50): a pinned version older than the window whose package 404s", pinned_old_gone, 1,
+         ("FAIL v0.8.0", "binary NOT downloadable"))
+
+    def pinned_no_tag():
+        PINS["day0_agent"] = "0.150.9"
+    case("FACT (D50): a pin that names a version with no tag", pinned_no_tag, 1,
+         ("FAIL pinned day0_agent=0.150.9", "no git tag"))
+
     def five_hundred():
         FAKE.tags_status = 500
     case("INCONCLUSIVE: the tags api answers 500", five_hundred, 2, ("INCONCLUSIVE",))