diff --git a/docs/PORTAL_INTEGRATION_FINDINGS.md b/docs/PORTAL_INTEGRATION_FINDINGS.md
index 127cdbcd..c5d1064e 100644
--- a/docs/PORTAL_INTEGRATION_FINDINGS.md
+++ b/docs/PORTAL_INTEGRATION_FINDINGS.md
@@ -445,3 +445,64 @@ in page copy is not a control: decoy or non-actionable text carrying the same wo
 suppress a real `View Summary` step and strand a target whose PDF was reachable.
 
 **Not yet established.** Which periods render which shape, and whether a page can offer both.
+
+## The portal declines to produce an artifact, in its own words (2026-09-10)
+
+Two captures, live and authenticated, source-surfaces build. Neither is a failure to reach the
+portal; both are the portal stating that the artifact does not exist for that period. One concerns
+a filed return, GSTR-1; the other concerns the auto-drafted GSTR-2B statement, which the portal
+drafts rather than the taxpayer filing it.
+
+**Filed GSTR-1, e-invoice details workbook.** Clicking the Excel control raises a modal:
+
+```
+Information
+No details available for download (This is relevant only if you have reported e-invoices).
+                            [ OK ]
+```
+
+The portal returns this when the period has no e-invoice records to export, which its own advisory
+states: the file "would be blank in case taxpayer is not e-invoicing". That is the portal's rule,
+quoted from its own copy. Whether it applies to a given return is a fact about that return, and not
+one this file records. Pack treats the modal as the artifact being unavailable and records it as
+such.
+
+**GSTR-2B summary.** The summary route renders an error panel:
+
+```
+Error!
+GSTR-2B could not be generated by the System. ...
+Attention: System will not generate GSTR 2B for the current return period in any one of the
+following circumstances:
+  i.   There are no records to generate GSTR 2B for the current return period
+  ii.  GSTR 3B of last return period is not filed till GSTR 2B generation date of current return period
+  iii. You are a QRMP taxpayer and current return period is not a quarter ending month
+```
+
+**Why both mattered.** Retrying cannot change either within a run, yet Pack offered retry as the
+remedy and stopped the fiscal-year run. The GSTR-1 case had a recogniser and a ledger path for
+recording the absence; nothing sent the message between them, so it never ran. The GSTR-2B case had
+no recogniser at all.
+
+**Matched on the statement, not the causes.** The GSTR-2B panel's numbered conditions are advisory
+text and can be reworded independently of the outcome; the outcome sentence is what Pack keys on.
+
+**Not yet established.** Whether the GSTR-1 modal text varies for a taxpayer who does report
+e-invoices but has none in a period, and whether GSTR-2B uses this same panel for a QRMP taxpayer
+mid-quarter or a different one. One capture of each.
+
+### The refusal panel outlives the period it was loaded for (2026-09-10)
+
+Captured live during a full-fiscal-year run. The GSTR-2B summary route does not change per period
+(`/gstr2b/auth/gstr2b/summary`), and after the portal renders the "could not be generated" panel it
+keeps rendering that panel -- and the header block naming the period it belongs to -- until a new
+dashboard search settles. A run that read the panel without also reading the header therefore got a
+confident answer for every later period without navigating to any of them: a full-year run reported
+twelve periods processed after a single navigation, while the header still named the first period
+of that run.
+
+The header is what makes the correct reading possible. Even with the download controls replaced by
+the error panel, the portal still renders `GSTIN`, `Financial Year`, `Return Period` and
+`Generation date` (the last one empty, which is itself the signal that nothing was drafted). So the
+refusal is bindable to a period, and must be bound to one before it is recorded. An unreadable
+header is "could not determine", not "matches" -- Pack navigates instead of answering.
diff --git a/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year-summary.ts b/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year-summary.ts
index b65c41b3..4165624d 100644
--- a/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year-summary.ts
+++ b/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year-summary.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { filedReturnsTargetOutcome } from "./filed-returns-full-fiscal-year-summary";
 import type {
   FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearFlowSummary,
   FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetEvidence,
@@ -275,16 +276,15 @@ function targetOutcome(
   target: FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTarget,
   zipDelivered: boolean,
 ): FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetEvidence["outcome"] {
-  if (target.status === "not-filed") return "not-filed";
-  if (target.status === "downloaded") {
-    if (!zipDelivered) return "captured";
-    return target.safeSignals.some((signal) =>
-      signal.startsWith("filed-return-artifact-unavailable:"),
-    )
-      ? "partly-saved"
-      : "saved";
-  }
-  if (target.status === "pending") return "pending";
-  if (target.status === "running") return "running";
-  return "needs-review";
+  // The same exhaustive mapping the single-return fiscal-year path uses. Two hand-written copies
+  // stood here, each ending in a `needs-review` default that silently absorbed any status they had
+  // not been told about -- so a period the portal declined to generate was reported to the user as
+  // needing review, in the one run type where it could not be. The shared record fails to compile
+  // instead, which is the only reason the single-return path was already right.
+  return filedReturnsTargetOutcome(
+    target.status,
+    zipDelivered,
+    false,
+    target.safeSignals.some((signal) => signal.startsWith("filed-return-artifact-unavailable:")),
+  );
 }
diff --git a/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year.ts b/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year.ts
index 3813a534..de4f54b1 100644
--- a/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year.ts
+++ b/src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { filedReturnsTargetOutcome } from "./filed-returns-full-fiscal-year-summary";
 import type {
   FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearFlowSummary,
   FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearRequest,
@@ -745,18 +746,17 @@ function targetOutcome(
   target: FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTarget,
   zipDelivered: boolean,
 ): FiledReturnsAllSupportedFullFiscalYearFlowSummary["targetEvidence"][number]["outcome"] {
-  if (target.status === "not-filed") return "not-filed";
-  if (target.status === "downloaded") {
-    if (!zipDelivered) return "captured";
-    return target.safeSignals.some((signal) =>
-      signal.startsWith("filed-return-artifact-unavailable:"),
-    )
-      ? "partly-saved"
-      : "saved";
-  }
-  if (target.status === "pending") return "pending";
-  if (target.status === "running") return "running";
-  return "needs-review";
+  // The same exhaustive mapping the single-return fiscal-year path uses. Two hand-written copies
+  // stood here, each ending in a `needs-review` default that silently absorbed any status they had
+  // not been told about -- so a period the portal declined to generate was reported to the user as
+  // needing review, in the one run type where it could not be. The shared record fails to compile
+  // instead, which is the only reason the single-return path was already right.
+  return filedReturnsTargetOutcome(
+    target.status,
+    zipDelivered,
+    false,
+    target.safeSignals.some((signal) => signal.startsWith("filed-return-artifact-unavailable:")),
+  );
 }
 
 function scopeForTarget(
diff --git a/src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.ts b/src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.ts
index da1521c0..17170921 100644
--- a/src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.ts
+++ b/src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.ts
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ function detectGstr2bNotGenerated(
   //
   // A target is a scope with an action id, so the same guard the observation path uses applies
   // unchanged here. It fails closed: an unreadable header is "could not determine".
-  if (verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(documentRef, normalised, target)) return null;
+  if (verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(documentRef, normalised, target, true)) return null;
 
   return {
     connectorId: "gst",
diff --git a/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-flow.ts b/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-flow.ts
index 21b96a47..960f3be0 100644
--- a/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-flow.ts
+++ b/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-flow.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import {
   hasGstr2bLoginEvidence,
   isGstr2bAuthRoute,
   isGstr2bSummaryPage,
+  isGstr2bSummaryRoute,
   readDocumentText,
   returnFromMismatchedGstr2bSummary,
   verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod,
@@ -32,6 +33,43 @@ import {
   isReturnDashboardStillRendering,
   selectGstr2bReturnDashboardFiltersAndSearch,
 } from "./gstr2b-dashboard-filters";
+import {
+  GSTR2B_NOT_GENERATED_SAFE_MESSAGE,
+  isGstr2bNotGeneratedText,
+} from "./filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state";
+
+/**
+ * `null` when the visible page is the requested period, otherwise the step that leaves it.
+ *
+ * The summary route renders whichever period it last loaded, so both callers must confirm the
+ * header before trusting anything on the page -- one to record a refusal, the other to click a
+ * download. Failing closed is the point: an unreadable header is "could not determine".
+ *
+ * `requireVisibleEvidence` is the difference between them, and it is the refusal that sets it:
+ * see `verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod`.
+ */
+function leaveUnlessVisiblePeriodMatches(
+  documentRef: Document,
+  normalisedText: string,
+  scope: FiledReturnsDownloadScope,
+  scopeId: string,
+  safeSignals: readonly string[],
+  requireVisibleEvidence = false,
+): PortalFlowStepResult | null {
+  const periodGuard = verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(
+    documentRef,
+    normalisedText,
+    scope,
+    requireVisibleEvidence,
+  );
+  if (!periodGuard) return null;
+  return (
+    returnFromMismatchedGstr2bSummary(documentRef, scopeId, [
+      ...safeSignals,
+      ...periodGuard.safeSignals,
+    ]) ?? periodGuard
+  );
+}
 
 const FILED_RETURNS_ROUTE = /\/returns\/auth\/efiledReturns\/?$/i;
 
@@ -73,6 +111,45 @@ export async function runGstr2bDownloadStep(
     };
   }
 
+  // Recognised here, during observation, rather than after a click. The portal renders this panel
+  // instead of the download control, so the flow would otherwise wait out its whole step budget
+  // for a control that is never coming, then stop the fiscal-year run on a period that cannot
+  // produce an artifact. A blocked step ends the wait and lets the period be recorded as absent.
+  //
+  // Bound to the visible period, because this panel keeps rendering the period it was last loaded
+  // for. Unbound, one period's refusal answered for every later period in a fiscal-year run, which
+  // recorded eleven months the run never navigated to. The guard fails closed: an unreadable
+  // period is "could not determine", never "matches".
+  if (isGstr2bSummaryRoute(documentRef) && isGstr2bNotGeneratedText(normalised)) {
+    const leaving = leaveUnlessVisiblePeriodMatches(
+      documentRef,
+      normalised,
+      scope,
+      scopeId,
+      safeSignals,
+      true,
+    );
+    if (leaving) return leaving;
+    return {
+      connectorId: "gst",
+      scopeId,
+      state: "blocked",
+      safeSignals: [
+        ...safeSignals,
+        "gstr2b-summary-route",
+        "gstr2b-visible-period-verified",
+        "filed-gstr2b-not-generated",
+      ],
+      safeMessage: GSTR2B_NOT_GENERATED_SAFE_MESSAGE,
+      userAction: {
+        type: "RETRY_PORTAL_GENERATION",
+        message:
+          "Check the GST Portal's stated reason for this period. Retry only once the portal generates a GSTR-2B for it.",
+        canResume: true,
+      },
+    };
+  }
+
   const mismatchedReturnNavigation = returnFromMismatchedReturnPage(
     documentRef,
     scope,
@@ -81,15 +158,14 @@ export async function runGstr2bDownloadStep(
   if (mismatchedReturnNavigation) return mismatchedReturnNavigation;
 
   if (isGstr2bSummaryPage(documentRef, normalised)) {
-    const periodGuard = verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(documentRef, normalised, scope);
-    if (periodGuard) {
-      const recovery = returnFromMismatchedGstr2bSummary(documentRef, scopeId, [
-        ...safeSignals,
-        ...periodGuard.safeSignals,
-      ]);
-      if (recovery) return recovery;
-      return periodGuard;
-    }
+    const leaving = leaveUnlessVisiblePeriodMatches(
+      documentRef,
+      normalised,
+      scope,
+      scopeId,
+      safeSignals,
+    );
+    if (leaving) return leaving;
     return {
       connectorId: "gst",
       scopeId,
diff --git a/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-summary.ts b/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-summary.ts
index 8f4fb9e7..035aedfd 100644
--- a/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-summary.ts
+++ b/src/connectors/gst/gstr2b-summary.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ import { filedReturnScopeId } from "./filed-returns-return-descriptors";
 const GSTR2B_SUMMARY_ROUTE = /\/gstr2b\/auth\/gstr2b\/summary\/?$/i;
 const GSTR2B_AUTH_ROUTE = /\/gstr2b\/auth(?:\/|$)/i;
 
+// The summary route alone. `isGstr2bSummaryPage` additionally requires the download controls, so
+// it cannot identify the variant of this page where the portal renders a refusal in their place.
+export function isGstr2bSummaryRoute(documentRef: Document): boolean {
+  return GSTR2B_SUMMARY_ROUTE.test(documentRef.defaultView?.location.pathname ?? "");
+}
+
 export function isGstr2bSummaryPage(documentRef: Document, normalisedText: string): boolean {
   const pathname = documentRef.defaultView?.location.pathname ?? "";
   return (
@@ -53,10 +59,19 @@ export function verifyVisibleGstr2bSummaryScope(
   return verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(documentRef, normalised, scope);
 }
 
+/**
+ * `null` when this page is the requested period, otherwise the mismatch that rejects it.
+ *
+ * `requireVisibleEvidence` decides whether the page's own inline configuration may stand in for
+ * the identity a reader can see. A download click may rely on it, because the file that follows
+ * is correlated to this target before the target counts as complete. A refusal may not: it
+ * resolves the target outright, so the visible header is the only evidence there will ever be.
+ */
 export function verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(
   documentRef: Document,
   normalisedText: string,
   scope: FiledReturnsDownloadScope,
+  requireVisibleEvidence = false,
 ): PortalDownloadTriggerResult | null {
   const serverScope = extractGstr2bServerScope(documentRef);
   const visiblePeriod = extractGstr2bLabelValue(normalisedText, "return period");
@@ -80,16 +95,13 @@ export function verifyVisibleGstr2bPeriod(
     return gstr2bPeriodMismatch(serverScope ? ["gstr2b-server-visible-period-conflict"] : []);
   }
 
-  if (hasCompleteLabelledEvidence) return null;
+  // Whole-page month/year matches are not target evidence: generated-on text and table content
+  // can mention another period. Only labels or the portal statement heading qualify as visible.
+  if (hasCompleteLabelledEvidence || statementScope) return null;
 
-  if (serverScope) return null;
+  if (serverScope && !requireVisibleEvidence) return null;
 
-  if (!statementScope) {
-    // Whole-page month/year matches are not target evidence: generated-on text and table
-    // content can mention another period. Only labels or the portal statement heading qualify.
-    return gstr2bPeriodMismatch(["gstr2b-labelled-period-evidence-missing"]);
-  }
-  return null;
+  return gstr2bPeriodMismatch(["gstr2b-labelled-period-evidence-missing"]);
 
   function gstr2bPeriodMismatch(extraSignals: string[]): PortalDownloadTriggerResult {
     return {
diff --git a/src/entrypoints/panel/panel-surface.tsx b/src/entrypoints/panel/panel-surface.tsx
index 308284bc..f967e98c 100644
--- a/src/entrypoints/panel/panel-surface.tsx
+++ b/src/entrypoints/panel/panel-surface.tsx
@@ -241,8 +241,12 @@ export function PanelSurface({ pack }: { pack: PackPanelController }) {
               </>
             )}
             {allSupportedNeedsRecovery ? (
+              // Named for its own run. Both blocks can render at once, and unlabelled they read as
+              // one contradictory statement: a live run showed "could not start a full fiscal year
+              // run" -- the all-year plan's reason -- directly above a single-return run that had
+              // plainly started and processed twelve periods.
               <p className="panel-recovery-reason">
-                Why Pack paused: {allSupportedSummary?.flowStep.safeMessage}
+                Why the all-returns year plan paused: {allSupportedSummary?.flowStep.safeMessage}
               </p>
             ) : null}
             {hasRecoveryActions(summary ?? null) ? (
diff --git a/tests/background/all-supported-full-fiscal-year-ledger.test.ts b/tests/background/all-supported-full-fiscal-year-ledger.test.ts
index 90f31f2b..32300dd5 100644
--- a/tests/background/all-supported-full-fiscal-year-ledger.test.ts
+++ b/tests/background/all-supported-full-fiscal-year-ledger.test.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import { canonicalDurableTargetStatus } from "../../src/connectors/gst/filed-ret
 import {
   allSupportedExplicitRetryTarget,
   createAllSupportedFullFiscalYearLedger,
+  markAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetRunning,
+  markAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetTerminal,
   createAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetPlan,
 } from "../../src/background/filed-returns-all-supported-full-fiscal-year-ledger";
 import {
@@ -610,3 +612,37 @@ describe("all-supported full-fiscal-year ledger", () => {
     );
   });
 });
+
+describe("a period the portal declined to generate, in an all-returns year", () => {
+  // The single-return fiscal-year path reported this correctly from the day the status existed,
+  // because its status-to-outcome mapping is an exhaustive record that fails to compile when a
+  // status is missing. The all-returns path kept two hand-written copies ending in a
+  // `needs-review` default, so the same period read as needing a person in one run type and as
+  // resolved in the other -- and a run of everything stopped on periods that could never change.
+  it("reports it as not generated, not as needing review", () => {
+    let ledger = createLedger();
+    const target = ledger.targets.find((candidate) => candidate.returnType === "GSTR-2B");
+    if (!target) throw new Error("expected a GSTR-2B target in the all-returns plan");
+
+    ledger = markAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetRunning(ledger, target.targetId, NOW);
+    ledger = markAllSupportedFullFiscalYearTargetTerminal(
+      ledger,
+      target.targetId,
+      "not-generated",
+      {
+        connectorId: "gst",
+        scopeId: "gst-gstr2b-private-v0",
+        state: "blocked",
+        safeSignals: ["gstr2b-summary-route", "filed-gstr2b-not-generated"],
+        safeMessage: "x",
+      } as never,
+      NOW,
+    );
+
+    const summary = toAllSupportedFullFiscalYearSummary(ledger);
+    const evidence = summary.targetEvidence.find((row) => row.targetId === target.targetId);
+
+    expect(evidence?.outcome).toBe("not-generated");
+    expect(evidence?.outcome).not.toBe("needs-review");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/connectors/filed-returns-flow-gstr2b-not-generated.test.ts b/tests/connectors/filed-returns-flow-gstr2b-not-generated.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1717fe95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/connectors/filed-returns-flow-gstr2b-not-generated.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { runFiledReturnsDownloadStep } from "../../src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-flow";
+import { createGstDocument, makeLayoutVisible } from "./filed-returns-flow.test-helpers";
+import { parseDurableFiledReturnsSignals } from "../../src/connectors/gst/filed-returns-durable-signals";
+
+// Captured live. The portal replaces the download controls with this panel, and it keeps rendering
+// the period it was last loaded for until a new search settles -- which is what made a stale page
+// answer for eleven periods the run never visited.
+function createGstr2bNotGeneratedDocument(period: string, financialYear = "2025-26"): Document {
+  const documentRef = createGstDocument(
+    `
+      <main>
+        <h1>GSTR-2B- AUTO-DRAFTED ITC STATEMENT</h1>
+        <p>Financial Year - ${financialYear}</p>
+        <p>Return Period - ${period}</p>
+        <p>Generation date -</p>
+        <div class="alert">
+          Error!
+          GSTR-2B could not be generated by the System. Kindly compute your GSTR 2B manually by
+          clicking Compute GSTR-2B button available at IMS Dashboard.
+        </div>
+      </main>
+    `,
+    "https://gstr2b.gst.gov.in/gstr2b/auth/gstr2b/summary",
+  );
+  makeLayoutVisible(documentRef);
+  return documentRef;
+}
+
+describe("GSTR-2B the portal declined to generate", () => {
+  // The portal renders this panel where the download control would be, so waiting for that control
+  // burns the whole step budget and then stops the fiscal-year run on a period that can never
+  // produce an artifact. Recognising the refusal during observation ends the wait, and a blocked
+  // step is not continue-able, so the period is recorded absent and the run advances.
+  it("records the period whose refusal is actually on screen", async () => {
+    const documentRef = createGstr2bNotGeneratedDocument("April");
+
+    const result = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period: "April",
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    expect(result.safeSignals).toContain("filed-gstr2b-not-generated");
+    expect(result.state).toBe("blocked");
+    // `shouldContinueFlow` only continues on a clicked step, so a blocked one stops the wait.
+    expect(result.state).not.toBe("clicked");
+  });
+
+  it("refuses to answer for a period the visible refusal is not about", async () => {
+    // The run has moved on to May; the portal still shows April's panel because no new search has
+    // settled. Reading this as May's answer marks a period the run never navigated to.
+    const documentRef = createGstr2bNotGeneratedDocument("April");
+
+    const result = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period: "May",
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    expect(result.safeSignals).not.toContain("filed-gstr2b-not-generated");
+  });
+
+  it("refuses to answer when the visible period cannot be read at all", async () => {
+    // Fail closed: an unlabelled panel is "could not determine", never "matches".
+    const documentRef = createGstDocument(
+      `
+        <main>
+          <h1>GSTR-2B- AUTO-DRAFTED ITC STATEMENT</h1>
+          <div class="alert">GSTR-2B could not be generated by the System.</div>
+        </main>
+      `,
+      "https://gstr2b.gst.gov.in/gstr2b/auth/gstr2b/summary",
+    );
+    makeLayoutVisible(documentRef);
+
+    const result = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period: "May",
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    expect(result.safeSignals).not.toContain("filed-gstr2b-not-generated");
+  });
+
+  it("refuses to answer on the page's own configuration when nothing visible says so", async () => {
+    // The inline config is what the page asked the server for, not what a reader can see, and the
+    // refusal resolves the period outright -- no artifact follows to corroborate it. A download
+    // click may lean on this config because its file is correlated afterwards; a refusal may not.
+    const documentRef = createGstDocument(
+      `
+        <main>
+          <h1>GSTR-2B- AUTO-DRAFTED ITC STATEMENT</h1>
+          <div class="alert">GSTR-2B could not be generated by the System.</div>
+        </main>
+        <script>
+          var server_urls = {
+            "FIN_YEAR": "2025-26",
+            "RETURN_PERIOD": "052025",
+            "FORM_TYPE": "GSTR2B"
+          };
+        </script>
+      `,
+      "https://gstr2b.gst.gov.in/gstr2b/auth/gstr2b/summary",
+    );
+    makeLayoutVisible(documentRef);
+
+    const result = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period: "May",
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    expect(result.safeSignals).not.toContain("filed-gstr2b-not-generated");
+    expect(result.safeSignals).toContain("gstr2b-labelled-period-evidence-missing");
+  });
+});
+
+describe("recovering from a stale refusal", () => {
+  it("goes back to the dashboard to select the period it was asked for", async () => {
+    const documentRef = createGstr2bNotGeneratedDocument("April");
+    const back = documentRef.createElement("button");
+    back.textContent = "BACK TO DASHBOARD";
+    documentRef.querySelector("main")?.append(back);
+    let clicked = 0;
+    back.addEventListener("click", () => {
+      clicked += 1;
+    });
+
+    const result = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period: "May",
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    // Observable outcome: Pack navigates, rather than answering for a page it never loaded or
+    // stalling until the step budget runs out.
+    expect(clicked).toBe(1);
+    expect(result.state).toBe("clicked");
+    expect(result.safeSignals).not.toContain("filed-gstr2b-not-generated");
+  });
+});
+
+describe("the signals a terminal step leaves behind", () => {
+  // A terminal step's signals are persisted. One token the allowlist has never been told about
+  // rejects the entire array, which blocks the target -- so every period the portal declined came
+  // back as "needs review" instead of as the answer it was. The transient "ready" step carried the
+  // same token harmlessly for months, because its signals never reach durable state.
+  it.each([
+    ["the refusal it records", "April"],
+    ["the stale page it walks away from", "May"],
+  ])("survives storage: %s", async (_label, period) => {
+    const documentRef = createGstr2bNotGeneratedDocument("April");
+
+    const step = await runFiledReturnsDownloadStep(documentRef, {
+      artifactType: "PDF_AND_EXCEL",
+      financialYear: "2025-26",
+      period,
+      returnType: "GSTR-2B",
+    });
+
+    expect(parseDurableFiledReturnsSignals(step.safeSignals)).not.toBeNull();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/connectors/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.test.ts b/tests/connectors/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.test.ts
index 7846ee3d..22a0cad9 100644
--- a/tests/connectors/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.test.ts
+++ b/tests/connectors/filed-returns-post-click-blocked-state.test.ts
@@ -98,6 +98,28 @@ describe("GSTR-2B the portal did not generate", () => {
     expect(result).toBeNull();
   });
 
+  it("refuses to answer on the page's own configuration when nothing visible says so", () => {
+    // Same rule as the observation path: a refusal resolves the target outright and no artifact
+    // follows to corroborate it, so the inline config cannot stand in for the visible header.
+    const documentRef = createGstDocument(
+      `
+        <main>
+          <div class="alert">GSTR-2B could not be generated by the System.</div>
+        </main>
+        <script>
+          var server_urls = {
+            "FIN_YEAR": "2025-26",
+            "RETURN_PERIOD": "042025",
+            "FORM_TYPE": "GSTR2B"
+          };
+        </script>
+      `,
+      "https://gstr2b.gst.gov.in/gstr2b/auth/gstr2b/summary",
+    );
+
+    expect(detectPostClickBlockedState(documentRef, target, [])).toBeNull();
+  });
+
   it("refuses to answer when nothing visible names the period at all", () => {
     // Fail closed: an unlabelled panel is "could not determine", never "matches".
     const documentRef = createGstDocument(