diff --git a/engram/dist/engram b/engram/dist/engram
index 1d7defa..f848140 100755
Binary files a/engram/dist/engram and b/engram/dist/engram differ
diff --git a/lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.c b/lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.c
index 5d6ad3f..eb74eeb 100644
--- a/lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.c
+++ b/lang/releases/v1.0.0-20260501/el_runtime.c
@@ -6022,10 +6022,17 @@ static int64_t _eg_embed_breaker_until = 0;
  * The executive-filter pathologies this system has repeatedly debugged by
  * inference (WM flooded with breakthrough-floor nodes, silent cap evictions,
  * embedder wedged behind the breaker) were all invisible: no ISE, no stats
- * field. These per-call counters record what the LAST engram_activate did;
- * engram_act_stats_json() exposes them so the soul heartbeat can emit them. */
-static int64_t _eg_act_breakthroughs = 0; /* forced promotions at the floor  */
-static int64_t _eg_act_wm_evicted    = 0; /* Pass 4 over-cap evictions        */
+ * field. engram_act_stats_json() exposes them so the soul heartbeat can emit
+ * them.
+ *
+ * CUMULATIVE CONTRACT (2026-07-31 self-review): these are monotonic totals
+ * for the process lifetime, like pulse/sync_added_total — NOT per-call. The
+ * original per-call reset meant engram_act_stats_json only reported the LAST
+ * activate call, and the 60s heartbeat (2 curiosity activates per 30s in
+ * between) missed nearly every eviction/breakthrough event. Consumers wanting
+ * rates keep the previous reading and diff. Restart legitimately resets to 0. */
+static int64_t _eg_act_breakthroughs = 0; /* forced promotions at the floor, cumulative */
+static int64_t _eg_act_wm_evicted    = 0; /* Pass 4 over-cap evictions, cumulative      */
 
 static int64_t engram_now_ms(void); /* defined in the store section below */
 
@@ -6724,7 +6731,7 @@ static el_val_t engram_node_to_map(const EngramNode* n) {
 
 /* (Node JSON serialization is provided by `engram_emit_node_json` further
  * down in the persistence section — reused by the *_json builtins below.) */
-static void engram_emit_node_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramNode* n);
+static void engram_emit_node_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramNode* n, int include_emb);
 static void engram_emit_edge_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramEdge* e);
 
 /* Salience may arrive either as a float bit-pattern or as a small integer
@@ -7659,9 +7666,11 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
 
     int64_t now_ms = engram_now_ms();
 
-    /* Reset per-call observability counters (2026-07-27). */
-    _eg_act_breakthroughs = 0;
-    _eg_act_wm_evicted    = 0;
+    /* Observability counters: _eg_act_breakthroughs/_eg_act_wm_evicted are
+     * CUMULATIVE for the process lifetime and intentionally NOT reset here
+     * (2026-07-31 self-review — the old per-call reset made the 60s heartbeat
+     * miss nearly all events between beats; see the definition site).
+     * ctx_cos stays per-call: it is a gauge of THIS query vs the centroid. */
     _eg_act_ctx_cos       = -2.0;
 
     /* ── Embedding backfill + query embedding (2026-07-24, bl-b2d1c944) ──
@@ -8411,7 +8420,13 @@ el_val_t engram_activate(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
 
 /* ── Engram persistence (JSON snapshot) ─────────────────────────────────── */
 
-static void engram_emit_node_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramNode* n) {
+/* include_emb (2026-07-31 self-review): the ~5.7KB "emb" vector belongs ONLY
+ * in persistence/replication output (engram_save → snapshot.json, which also
+ * backs /api/sync and /api/edges via scratch exports). Consumer read routes
+ * (/api/nodes, /api/search, activation results, neighbors, compiled context)
+ * were shipping it on every node — responses 10-50x oversized, blowing MCP
+ * token limits. Pass include_emb=1 only from engram_save. */
+static void engram_emit_node_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramNode* n, int include_emb) {
     jb_putc(b, '{');
     jb_puts(b, "\"id\":");          jb_emit_escaped(b, n->id ? n->id : "");
     jb_puts(b, ",\"content\":");    jb_emit_escaped(b, n->content ? n->content : "");
@@ -8454,7 +8469,7 @@ static void engram_emit_node_json(JsonBuf* b, const EngramNode* n) {
      * insensitive to 4-sig-fig rounding, and this keeps snapshot bloat to
      * ~5KB per embedded node without a base64 codec. Absent field = not
      * embedded; the lazy backfill re-embeds eventually if dropped. */
-    if (n->emb && n->emb_dim > 0) {
+    if (include_emb && n->emb && n->emb_dim > 0) {
         jb_puts(b, ",\"emb\":\"");
         for (int32_t j = 0; j < n->emb_dim; j++) {
             snprintf(tmp, sizeof(tmp), "%s%.4g", j ? "," : "",
@@ -8492,7 +8507,7 @@ el_val_t engram_save(el_val_t path) {
     jb_puts(&b, "{\"nodes\":[");
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < g->node_count; i++) {
         if (i > 0) jb_putc(&b, ',');
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[i]);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[i], 1);
     }
     jb_puts(&b, "],\"edges\":[");
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < g->edge_count; i++) {
@@ -9025,7 +9040,7 @@ el_val_t engram_get_node_json(el_val_t id) {
     EngramNode* n = engram_find_node(sid);
     if (!n) return el_wrap_str(el_strdup("{}"));
     JsonBuf b; jb_init(&b);
-    engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+    engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
     return el_wrap_str(b.buf);
 }
 
@@ -9050,7 +9065,7 @@ el_val_t engram_get_node_by_label(el_val_t label) {
         EngramNode* n = &g->nodes[i];
         if (n->label && strcmp(n->label, lbl) == 0) {
             JsonBuf b; jb_init(&b);
-            engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+            engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
             return el_wrap_str(b.buf);
         }
     }
@@ -9091,7 +9106,7 @@ el_val_t engram_search_json(el_val_t query, el_val_t limit) {
                 int64_t end = nhits < lim ? nhits : lim;
                 for (int64_t k = 0; k < end; k++) {
                     if (!first) jb_putc(&b, ',');
-                    engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[hits[k].idx]);
+                    engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[hits[k].idx], 0);
                     first = 0;
                 }
                 free(hits);
@@ -9123,7 +9138,7 @@ el_val_t engram_scan_nodes_json(el_val_t limit, el_val_t offset) {
     int first = 1;
     for (int64_t i = off; i < end; i++) {
         if (!first) jb_putc(&b, ',');
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]]);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]], 0);
         first = 0;
     }
     free(idx);
@@ -9160,7 +9175,7 @@ el_val_t engram_scan_nodes_by_type_json(el_val_t type_v, el_val_t limit, el_val_
     int first = 1;
     for (int64_t i = off; i < end; i++) {
         if (!first) jb_putc(&b, ',');
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]]);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]], 0);
         first = 0;
     }
     free(idx);
@@ -9224,7 +9239,7 @@ el_val_t engram_neighbors_json(el_val_t node_id, el_val_t max_depth, el_val_t di
             if (!n) continue;
             if (!first) jb_putc(&b, ',');
             jb_puts(&b, "{\"node\":");
-            engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+            engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
             jb_puts(&b, ",\"edge\":");
             engram_emit_edge_json(&b, e);
             char tmp[64]; snprintf(tmp, sizeof(tmp), ",\"hops\":%lld}", (long long)(h + 1));
@@ -9267,7 +9282,7 @@ el_val_t engram_activate_json(el_val_t query, el_val_t depth) {
             if (i > 0) jb_putc(&b, ',');
             jb_puts(&b, "{\"node\":");
             if (n) {
-                engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+                engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
             } else {
                 jb_puts(&b, "{}");
             }
@@ -9404,9 +9419,11 @@ el_val_t engram_stats_json(void) {
     return el_wrap_str(el_strdup(buf));
 }
 
-/* engram_act_stats_json — per-call activation observability + embedder
- * breaker state. (2026-07-27 self-review.) wm_evicted/breakthroughs describe
- * the LAST engram_activate call on this store; embed_breaker_open=1 means
+/* engram_act_stats_json — activation observability + embedder breaker state.
+ * (2026-07-27 self-review; counters made cumulative 2026-07-31.)
+ * wm_evicted/breakthroughs are monotonic process-lifetime totals across ALL
+ * engram_activate calls on this store (diff successive readings for rates;
+ * they reset to 0 only on restart); embed_breaker_open=1 means
  * eg_embed_fetch is currently refusing calls (semantic activation silently
  * degraded to lexical until the cooldown expires). The soul heartbeat folds
  * this into its ISE so the pathologies are diagnosable from telemetry
@@ -9593,7 +9610,7 @@ el_val_t engram_compile_layered_json(el_val_t intent, el_val_t depth) {
             jb_puts(&b, "[LAYER 0 — STRUCTURAL]\n");
             wrote_layer0 = 1;
         }
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
         jb_putc(&b, '\n');
     }
 
@@ -9606,7 +9623,7 @@ el_val_t engram_compile_layered_json(el_val_t intent, el_val_t depth) {
             jb_puts(&b, "[ENGRAM CONTEXT]\n");
             wrote_normal = 1;
         }
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, n);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, n, 0);
         jb_putc(&b, '\n');
     }
 
@@ -9656,7 +9673,7 @@ el_val_t engram_query_range(el_val_t start_ms_v, el_val_t end_ms_v) {
     jb_putc(&b, '[');
     for (int64_t i = 0; i < mc; i++) {
         if (i > 0) jb_putc(&b, ',');
-        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]]);
+        engram_emit_node_json(&b, &g->nodes[idx[i]], 0);
     }
     jb_putc(&b, ']');
     free(idx);