diff --git a/crates/bugwarden/src/config.rs b/crates/bugwarden/src/config.rs
index 2f8ffd4..9a99876 100644
--- a/crates/bugwarden/src/config.rs
+++ b/crates/bugwarden/src/config.rs
@@ -445,11 +445,11 @@ mod tests {
         cli.api_key_file = Some(file.path().to_path_buf());
         let (custody, logs) = crate::testlog::capture_logs(|| cli.resolve_key_custody());
         drop(custody.expect("key file resolves"));
-        assert!(logs.contains("server-held"), "startup log: {logs}");
-        assert!(
-            logs.contains(&file.path().display().to_string()),
-            "the log must name the source path: {logs}"
-        );
+        crate::testlog::assert_logged(&logs, "server-held");
+        crate::testlog::assert_logged(&logs, &file.path().display().to_string());
+        // The I12 check below is a negative: on its own an empty capture would
+        // satisfy it. It is evidence only because the positive assertions above
+        // run first and fail loudly on one — keep them ahead of it.
         assert!(
             !logs.contains("hush-key"),
             "the log must never carry key material (I12): {logs}"
@@ -458,9 +458,6 @@ mod tests {
         let cli = base_cli("http");
         let (custody, logs) = crate::testlog::capture_logs(|| cli.resolve_key_custody());
         drop(custody.expect("http resolves"));
-        assert!(
-            logs.contains("per-request via the 'ApiKey' header"),
-            "startup log: {logs}"
-        );
+        crate::testlog::assert_logged(&logs, "per-request via the 'ApiKey' header");
     }
 }
diff --git a/crates/bugwarden/src/server.rs b/crates/bugwarden/src/server.rs
index a509c92..1fb9b76 100644
--- a/crates/bugwarden/src/server.rs
+++ b/crates/bugwarden/src/server.rs
@@ -3840,6 +3840,10 @@ mod tests {
             let (server, logs) =
                 crate::testlog::capture_logs(|| BugWarden::new(Arc::new(cli), guard, bz));
             drop(server.expect("server must build"));
+            // The `false` arm asserts an absence, which an empty capture
+            // satisfies while proving nothing. This is what separates "the
+            // warning was not emitted" from "nothing was captured at all".
+            crate::testlog::assert_captured(&logs);
             assert_eq!(
                 logs.contains("created_by_me describes that one account"),
                 expect_warn,
diff --git a/crates/bugwarden/src/testlog.rs b/crates/bugwarden/src/testlog.rs
index 3f820d8..24d74b2 100644
--- a/crates/bugwarden/src/testlog.rs
+++ b/crates/bugwarden/src/testlog.rs
@@ -1,19 +1,29 @@
 //! Test-only capture of tracing output, for pinning what startup log lines
 //! say — and, per I12, what they must never say.
 
+use std::cell::RefCell;
 use std::io::Write;
-use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};
+use std::sync::Once;
 
-/// Cloneable in-memory writer handed to the fmt subscriber.
-#[derive(Clone, Default)]
-struct Buffer(Arc<Mutex<Vec<u8>>>);
+thread_local! {
+    /// Where the calling thread's capture accumulates. `None` means this
+    /// thread is not capturing, and its events are dropped on the floor.
+    static CAPTURE: RefCell<Option<Vec<u8>>> = const { RefCell::new(None) };
+}
+
+/// Writer handed to the process-wide subscriber. Appends to the calling
+/// thread's capture, so parallel tests cannot splice events into each other's.
+struct ThreadCapture;
 
-impl Write for Buffer {
+impl Write for ThreadCapture {
     fn write(&mut self, buf: &[u8]) -> std::io::Result<usize> {
-        self.0
-            .lock()
-            .expect("log buffer lock")
-            .extend_from_slice(buf);
+        // `try_with`, not `with`: a thread may still log while its
+        // thread-locals are being torn down, and that must not panic.
+        let _ = CAPTURE.try_with(|slot| {
+            if let Some(capture) = slot.borrow_mut().as_mut() {
+                capture.extend_from_slice(buf);
+            }
+        });
         Ok(buf.len())
     }
 
@@ -22,18 +32,137 @@ impl Write for Buffer {
     }
 }
 
-/// Run `f` with a fresh fmt subscriber as the thread-default and return its
-/// result together with everything it logged.
+/// Install the capturing subscriber as the process-wide default, once.
+///
+/// It has to be a permanent global default rather than a `with_default` scoped
+/// to each capture. `tracing` caches a callsite's `Interest` the first time the
+/// callsite is hit, computed from the *registering* thread's default subscriber
+/// — as of tracing-core 0.1.36 the std `Dispatchers::rebuilder` takes its
+/// `has_just_one` fast path and simply asks `dispatcher::get_default`. Under
+/// parallel tests a thread running some other test — with no subscriber of its
+/// own — can win that race and cache `Interest::never()`, after which the
+/// `info!` macro short-circuits without ever consulting a dispatcher and every
+/// later capture of that callsite comes back empty (issue #92). Once this
+/// global default is visible, every such registration resolves to it instead.
+///
+/// The explicit rebuild closes the gap installation itself opens: setting the
+/// global default raises the global max level to TRACE while building the
+/// `Dispatch`, but only publishes the subscriber afterwards, and it never
+/// rebuilds. A callsite first hit in between passes `level_enabled!` and still
+/// resolves to no subscriber, so it caches `never` with nothing left to correct
+/// it; the rebuild recomputes everything registered while the default was
+/// invisible.
+///
+/// Consequence worth knowing: from the first capture onwards the process-wide
+/// max level stays TRACE, so every tracing macro in every later test evaluates
+/// its fields and is formatted before `ThreadCapture` discards it, where before
+/// it short-circuited. Field side effects are live across the whole binary.
+fn install() {
+    static INSTALLED: Once = Once::new();
+    INSTALLED.call_once(|| {
+        let subscriber = tracing_subscriber::fmt()
+            .with_max_level(tracing::Level::TRACE)
+            .with_ansi(false)
+            .with_writer(|| ThreadCapture)
+            .finish();
+        tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(subscriber)
+            .expect("the capturing subscriber must be this test process's only global default");
+        tracing::callsite::rebuild_interest_cache();
+    });
+}
+
+/// Run `f` with everything it logs *on this thread* captured, and return its
+/// result together with the captured output. Events emitted meanwhile by other
+/// threads go to their own (absent) capture and are discarded.
+///
+/// Captures do not nest: an inner call would hand the outer one an empty
+/// string, so a nested capture is a debug assertion rather than a silent loss.
 pub(crate) fn capture_logs<T>(f: impl FnOnce() -> T) -> (T, String) {
-    let buffer = Buffer::default();
-    let writer = buffer.clone();
-    let subscriber = tracing_subscriber::fmt()
-        .with_max_level(tracing::Level::TRACE)
-        .with_ansi(false)
-        .with_writer(move || writer.clone())
-        .finish();
-    let value = tracing::subscriber::with_default(subscriber, f);
-    let logs = String::from_utf8(buffer.0.lock().expect("log buffer lock").clone())
-        .expect("captured logs are UTF-8");
+    install();
+    CAPTURE.with(|slot| {
+        let mut slot = slot.borrow_mut();
+        debug_assert!(
+            slot.is_none(),
+            "capture_logs does not nest: the inner capture would swallow the outer one"
+        );
+        *slot = Some(Vec::new());
+    });
+    let value = f();
+    let captured = CAPTURE
+        .with(|slot| slot.borrow_mut().take())
+        .unwrap_or_default();
+    let logs = String::from_utf8(captured).expect("captured logs are UTF-8");
     (value, logs)
 }
+
+/// Assert that the capture is not empty.
+///
+/// Nothing captured is a different defect from a message that came out wrong —
+/// it means the subscriber saw no events at all — and it must be reported as
+/// such instead of surfacing as a bare "expected text missing" against an
+/// empty haystack. It is also what makes the negative I12 assertions evidence:
+/// "the log must never carry the key" holds vacuously over an empty capture.
+#[track_caller]
+pub(crate) fn assert_captured(logs: &str) {
+    assert!(
+        !logs.is_empty(),
+        "captured nothing: the subscriber saw no events"
+    );
+}
+
+/// Assert that the capture carries `needle`, distinguishing an empty capture
+/// from one that merely lacks the text.
+#[track_caller]
+pub(crate) fn assert_logged(logs: &str, needle: &str) {
+    assert_captured(logs);
+    assert!(
+        logs.contains(needle),
+        "captured logs lack {needle:?}: {logs}"
+    );
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    const PROBE: &str = "testlog-interest-probe";
+
+    /// Both hits below must be the *same* callsite, so the emit lives in one
+    /// function rather than being written out twice.
+    fn probe() {
+        tracing::info!("{PROBE}");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_subscriberless_thread_cannot_silence_a_later_capture() {
+        // Registering the callsite from a subscriber-less thread *inside* the
+        // capture is the deterministic form of the race a parallel test run
+        // used to lose: with a scoped `with_default` the interest cached there
+        // was `never` and the emit below vanished (issue #92).
+        let (_, logs) = capture_logs(|| {
+            std::thread::spawn(probe).join().expect("probe thread");
+            probe();
+        });
+        assert_logged(&logs, PROBE);
+        // Exactly one hit: the other thread's emit belongs to its own capture,
+        // not to this one.
+        assert_eq!(
+            logs.matches(PROBE).count(),
+            1,
+            "only this thread's events belong in the capture: {logs}"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// An empty capture must be reported as one, not as a missing needle.
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "captured nothing")]
+    fn an_empty_capture_fails_as_an_empty_capture() {
+        assert_logged("", "anything");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "captured logs lack")]
+    fn a_non_empty_capture_without_the_needle_fails_as_a_missing_needle() {
+        assert_logged("something else entirely", "anything");
+    }
+}