diff --git a/docs/testing/master-test-plan/00-strategy-and-governance.md b/docs/testing/master-test-plan/00-strategy-and-governance.md
index aa9144827..b289cdb8e 100644
--- a/docs/testing/master-test-plan/00-strategy-and-governance.md
+++ b/docs/testing/master-test-plan/00-strategy-and-governance.md
@@ -642,14 +642,20 @@ repo, and two classes of valid citation are deliberately not readable from it. A
 does not know this will flag sound evidence as broken, and a reviewer who does not know it will read
 "absent" as "does not exist":
 
-- **BACKLOG items above #231.** The committed [`docs/BACKLOG.md`](../../BACKLOG.md) is a **published
-  baseline that stops at `## 231.`**; the programme continued past it. The file says so itself at
-  [`docs/BACKLOG.md:6041`](../../BACKLOG.md) — *"the file you are reading ends at #231, while #242–#246
-  and their successors do not appear in it at all … their absence here is a publishing boundary, not
-  evidence of completion."* Citations above the baseline (e.g. #233, #275, #310) are **sound
-  evidence**; the resolver treats them as valid and never disclaims them. Where a reader may be
-  helped, the only permitted annotation is neutral — *"(above the published #231 baseline)"* — used
-  sparingly.
+- **BACKLOG items above #231.** **THE #231 BOUNDARY DESCRIBED HERE NO LONGER EXISTS, AND THE
+  SUPPORTING QUOTATION IS NOT IN THE FILE IT CITES (BACKLOG #1100).** Measured against the committed
+  [`docs/BACKLOG.md`](../../BACKLOG.md): **373 item headings, numbered #3 to #1372, of which 320 are
+  above #231.** The sentence this passage quoted — *"the file you are reading ends at #231 … their
+  absence here is a publishing boundary, not evidence of completion"* — returns **zero** occurrences
+  in that file (control: an unrelated phrase in the same file returns one, so the search is not
+  blind). It now lives under **#185** in
+  [`docs/archive/backlog/BACKLOG-CLOSED.md`](../../archive/backlog/BACKLOG-CLOSED.md). The former
+  line anchor resolved to unrelated text and has been dropped; cite by item, never by line number.
+  **What survives is only the general caution**: absence of an item from a file you can read is a
+  publishing boundary rather than evidence of completion, so do not read "absent" as "does not
+  exist". **No replacement NUMBER is asserted here on purpose.** `PUBLIC_BACKLOG_FLOOR = 1000` in
+  `scripts/hooks/ledger_check.py` governs which numbers may be ALLOCATED, not which are readable, so
+  substituting it for #231 would swap one false bound for another.
 - **`docs/security/`, `docs/reviews/`, `docs/marketing/`** are **gitignored post-cutover**
   (`.gitignore:144-146`) — ~32 files of posture, assessment, risk-register and runbook detail withheld
   because published in full they are an attacker roadmap. A document such as
diff --git a/docs/testing/master-test-plan/19-execution-phasing-and-sign-off.md b/docs/testing/master-test-plan/19-execution-phasing-and-sign-off.md
index bb621228a..88e94d93c 100644
--- a/docs/testing/master-test-plan/19-execution-phasing-and-sign-off.md
+++ b/docs/testing/master-test-plan/19-execution-phasing-and-sign-off.md
@@ -685,11 +685,17 @@ five WIN2025 repetitions, `aad_bind` in ADR 0019 vs `settings.py`, the `SECURITY
 
 Two scoping notes on B6, both about not manufacturing false drift:
 
-- A `BACKLOG` citation is drift **only at or below the published #231 baseline**. `docs/BACKLOG.md` in
-  this repo is a *published baseline* that stops at `## 231.` and says so itself
-  (`docs/BACKLOG.md:6041`); numbers **above** it are valid evidence from the fuller ledger, not dangling
-  references. A drift-pinning test must therefore bound its check at #231, or it will fail on sound
-  citations.
+- **THE #231 BOUND THIS NOTE PRESCRIBED IS VOID. DO NOT BUILD A TEST TO IT (BACKLOG #1100).** It read:
+  a `BACKLOG` citation is drift only at or below a published #231 baseline, because `docs/BACKLOG.md`
+  stops at `## 231.` and "says so itself". **Both halves are false as measured:** that file carries
+  **373 item headings, #3 to #1372, with 320 above #231**, and the quoted sentence returns **zero**
+  occurrences in it — it lives under **#185** in the closed-backlog archive. The line anchor pointed
+  at unrelated text. **This mattered more here than in a narrative chapter, because it was an
+  INSTRUCTION**: a drift-pinning test built to it would have bounded at a number with nothing behind
+  it and reported confidently on the wrong population. **No replacement bound is given here on
+  purpose** — `PUBLIC_BACKLOG_FLOOR = 1000` (`scripts/hooks/ledger_check.py`) constrains ALLOCATION
+  rather than readability, so adopting it as the bound is a decision this correction does not make.
+  Anyone writing that test must settle the bound first and record why.
 - A document under `docs/security/`, `docs/reviews/` or `docs/marketing/` is **withheld from the public
   repo**, not missing (`.gitignore:144-146`). A pinning test cannot assert on a file it cannot read, and
   its unreadability is never itself a B6 item.