diff --git a/lib/outreach/cold.ts b/lib/outreach/cold.ts
index 4c946cf0..6f291300 100644
--- a/lib/outreach/cold.ts
+++ b/lib/outreach/cold.ts
@@ -414,12 +414,18 @@ export function unsupportedClaims(body: string, facts: ProspectFacts): string[]
  * facts, links to places the campaign never mentioned, and claimed prior
  * contact. Tone and phrasing are the prompt's job.
  */
-export function unsupportedCustomClaims(body: string, facts: string[]): string[] {
+export function unsupportedCustomClaims(body: string, declaredText: string[]): string[] {
   const problems: string[] = [];
   const lower = body.toLowerCase();
-  const declared = facts.join(" \n ").toLowerCase();
-
-  // A number in the body that appears in no declared fact is invented —
+  // The grounding set is everything the operator wrote, not the facts list
+  // alone. The intro says who is writing and the ask says what to ask for,
+  // and an ask like "link them to example.com/paper" is an instruction to
+  // include that URL — checking the output against a set that excludes it
+  // rejected every correct draft as a fabrication.
+  const declared = declaredText.join(" \n ").toLowerCase();
+
+  // A number in the body that appears nowhere the operator wrote is
+  // invented —
   // years of experience, team sizes, prices. Small integers are excluded
   // because they are usually prose ("one thing", "a couple of weeks").
   for (const m of body.matchAll(/\b(\d[\d,]*(?:\.\d+)?)\s*(%|\+)?/g)) {
@@ -435,7 +441,7 @@ export function unsupportedCustomClaims(body: string, facts: string[]): string[]
   for (const m of body.matchAll(/https?:\/\/[^\s)>\]]+/gi)) {
     const url = m[0].replace(/[.,]$/, "");
     if (!declared.includes(url.toLowerCase())) {
-      problems.push(`links to ${url}, which is not in the campaign's declared facts`);
+      problems.push(`links to ${url}, which the campaign never mentions`);
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/outreach/pipeline.ts b/lib/outreach/pipeline.ts
index 8a6cb889..21603028 100644
--- a/lib/outreach/pipeline.ts
+++ b/lib/outreach/pipeline.ts
@@ -776,7 +776,13 @@ async function draftCustomEmail(input: {
     return { ok: false, problems: [`generation failed: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message : "unknown"}`] };
   }
 
-  const problems = unsupportedCustomClaims(output.body, facts);
+  // Facts, plus the intro and ask — everything the operator authored counts
+  // as grounded, or an ask that names a URL makes its own draft invalid.
+  const problems = unsupportedCustomClaims(output.body, [
+    ...facts,
+    input.pitch.intro,
+    input.pitch.ask ?? "",
+  ]);
   if (problems.length) return { ok: false, problems };
 
   const subject = output.subject?.trim();
diff --git a/tests/custom-pitch.test.ts b/tests/custom-pitch.test.ts
index 028db46e..0197a433 100644
--- a/tests/custom-pitch.test.ts
+++ b/tests/custom-pitch.test.ts
@@ -105,3 +105,40 @@ describe("customDraftSystem", () => {
     expect(system).toMatch(/Never ask for a call in a first message/);
   });
 });
+
+describe("the ask is part of the grounding set", () => {
+  // A live campaign rejected every draft it produced. Its ask named a URL,
+  // the model included that URL as instructed, and the guard compared the
+  // body against the facts list alone — so following the instruction was
+  // scored as a fabrication. These are the real values from that campaign.
+  const INTRO =
+    "Anthony owner of threatcrush.com we want to generate leads for people to download our free whitepaper at https://threatcrush.com/get-whitepaper";
+  const ASK =
+    "we want to generate leads for people to download our free whitepaper at https://threatcrush.com/get-whitepaper";
+  const FACTS = ["30 years experience at small startups and enterprise companies as a software engineer."];
+  const declared = [...FACTS, INTRO, ASK];
+
+  it("accepts a URL the ask told it to include", () => {
+    const body =
+      "You can grab the free whitepaper at https://threatcrush.com/get-whitepaper whenever it is useful.";
+    expect(unsupportedCustomClaims(body, declared)).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("rejected it when only the facts were checked, which was the bug", () => {
+    const body = "Grab it at https://threatcrush.com/get-whitepaper";
+    expect(unsupportedCustomClaims(body, FACTS).join(" ")).toMatch(/threatcrush/);
+  });
+
+  it("still catches a URL nobody wrote anywhere", () => {
+    const body = "See https://not-ours.test/landing for details.";
+    expect(unsupportedCustomClaims(body, declared).join(" ")).toMatch(/not-ours\.test/);
+  });
+
+  it("accepts a number stated in the facts", () => {
+    expect(unsupportedCustomClaims("I have 30 years of experience.", declared)).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("still catches an invented number", () => {
+    expect(unsupportedCustomClaims("We have 450 customers.", declared).join(" ")).toMatch(/450/);
+  });
+});