diff --git a/lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c b/lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c
index 2f4c839..1036d16 100644
--- a/lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c
+++ b/lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c
@@ -6322,7 +6322,9 @@ static void engram_grow_edges(void) {
 static char* engram_new_id(void) {
     el_val_t v = uuid_new();
     const char* s = EL_CSTR(v);
-    return el_strdup(s ? s : "");
+    /* Persistent: node ids live in the global store; an arena (el_strdup) id is
+     * freed at el_request_end(), corrupting the node after the creating request. */
+    return el_strdup_persist(s ? s : "");
 }
 
 /* Convert a node into an ElMap of its fields.                            */
@@ -6417,12 +6419,17 @@ el_val_t engram_node_full(el_val_t content, el_val_t node_type, el_val_t label,
     const char* lb = EL_CSTR(label);
     const char* ti = EL_CSTR(tier);
     const char* tg = EL_CSTR(tags);
-    n->content   = el_strdup(c ? c : "");
-    n->node_type = el_strdup(nt && *nt ? nt : "Memory");
-    n->label     = el_strdup(lb && *lb ? lb : (c ? engram_first_n_chars(c, 60) : ""));
-    n->tier      = el_strdup(ti && *ti ? ti : "Working");
-    n->tags      = el_strdup(tg ? tg : "");
-    n->metadata  = el_strdup("{}");
+    /* Persistent (el_strdup_persist, NOT el_strdup): these strings are owned by the
+     * persistent global node store. el_strdup tracks into the per-request arena, which
+     * el_request_end() frees when the creating HTTP request completes — leaving the
+     * stored node with dangling pointers (corrupted ids, "saved but never listed").
+     * This is the root cause of the hallucinated/lost-saves class of bugs. */
+    n->content   = el_strdup_persist(c ? c : "");
+    n->node_type = el_strdup_persist(nt && *nt ? nt : "Memory");
+    n->label     = el_strdup_persist(lb && *lb ? lb : (c ? engram_first_n_chars(c, 60) : ""));
+    n->tier      = el_strdup_persist(ti && *ti ? ti : "Working");
+    n->tags      = el_strdup_persist(tg ? tg : "");
+    n->metadata  = el_strdup_persist("{}");
     n->salience    = engram_decode_score(salience);
     n->importance  = engram_decode_score(importance);
     n->confidence  = engram_decode_score(confidence);
@@ -7365,13 +7372,28 @@ el_val_t engram_save(el_val_t path) {
         jb_putc(&b, '}');
     }
     jb_puts(&b, "]}");
-    FILE* f = fopen(p, "wb");
-    if (!f) { free(b.buf); return 0; }
+    {
+        struct stat _st;
+        if (stat(p, &_st) == 0 && _st.st_size > 200000 &&
+            (uint64_t)b.len < (uint64_t)_st.st_size / 16) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "[engram_save] REFUSED sparse write: new %zu vs existing %lld (<1/16) protecting %s\n",
+                b.len, (long long)_st.st_size, p);
+            free(b.buf); return 0;
+        }
+    }
+    size_t _plen = strlen(p);
+    char* _tmp = (char*)malloc(_plen + 5);
+    if (!_tmp) { free(b.buf); return 0; }
+    memcpy(_tmp, p, _plen); memcpy(_tmp + _plen, ".tmp", 5);
+    FILE* f = fopen(_tmp, "wb");
+    if (!f) { free(_tmp); free(b.buf); return 0; }
     size_t w = fwrite(b.buf, 1, b.len, f);
-    fclose(f);
-    int ok = (w == b.len);
-    free(b.buf);
-    return ok ? 1 : 0;
+    int wok = (w == b.len);
+    if (wok) { fflush(f); fsync(fileno(f)); }
+    fclose(f); free(b.buf);
+    if (!wok) { unlink(_tmp); free(_tmp); return 0; }
+    if (rename(_tmp, p) != 0) { unlink(_tmp); free(_tmp); return 0; }
+    free(_tmp); return 1;
 }
 
 /* Helper: extract a string field from a JSON object substring. */