diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
index 9f00531..5d01627 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -128,13 +128,12 @@ jobs:
     # Gitea wakes exactly one Blocked job in the group and cancels the rest
     # outright, with no ordering on which one it picks (no `ORDER BY` in the
     # query behind CancelPreviousJobsByJobConcurrency,
-    # models/actions/run_job_list.go). What it buys is cheaper: every
-    # execution that does reach the push step targets origin/main's live tip
-    # (below), never its own trigger commit, so it makes no difference which
-    # one wins -- the survivor pushes where any of them would have, and a
-    # cancelled job costs nothing. This group's only job is to stop more than
-    # one job from pushing AT THE SAME TIME, which is wasted work, not a
-    # correctness risk on its own.
+    # models/actions/run_job_list.go). Every execution still only ever pushes
+    # its OWN gated commit (below), never another job's, so a job that gets
+    # cancelled here costs nothing beyond its own wasted run -- it was never
+    # going to push anyone else's commit either. This group's only job is to
+    # stop more than one job from pushing AT THE SAME TIME, which is wasted
+    # work, not a correctness risk on its own.
     concurrency:
       group: release-tag-v1
       cancel-in-progress: false
@@ -155,37 +154,42 @@ jobs:
           token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           fetch-depth: 0
 
-      # This run's own trigger commit (${{ github.sha }}) is deliberately not
-      # what gets pushed: whichever job the concurrency group above lets
-      # through is the one that pushes, and that choice carries no relation
-      # to commit recency, so every execution has to converge on the SAME
-      # target regardless of which job it is. `origin/main`'s live tip,
-      # re-fetched here rather than trusted from the checkout above (which
-      # can be minutes stale by this point, behind its own selftest job), is
-      # that common target -- read fresh, every job that reaches this step
-      # resolves to the same commit whenever main hasn't moved between them,
-      # and to whatever's newest when it has.
+      # `needs: selftest` only gates THIS run's own commit -- it says nothing
+      # about whether `origin/main` has since moved on to a merge whose own
+      # selftest hasn't finished, is still queued, or is red. Two things
+      # follow, checked in this order:
       #
-      # A live target doesn't make the push itself safe on its own: two jobs
-      # can still read main at genuinely different moments if it advances
-      # between their two fetches, so the one with the earlier reading must
-      # not overwrite the other's already-pushed, newer one. That's what the
-      # ancestor check below still guards -- not "this job's stale trigger
-      # commit" any more, but "this job's freshly-read tip, which another
-      # job's fresher read may have already superseded." `--is-ancestor`
-      # treats a commit as its own ancestor, so "already at" and "already
-      # ahead" are one case. A v1 that doesn't exist yet, or that shares no
-      # history with this tip, falls through to the push -- the guard is
-      # only ever a reason to skip, never a reason to fail.
-      - name: Determine origin/main's tip and whether v1 needs to move
+      # 1. If `origin/main`'s live tip (re-fetched here, not trusted from the
+      #    checkout above, which can be minutes stale behind this job's own
+      #    selftest) is no longer THIS run's own `github.sha`, some other
+      #    merge has landed since. Pushing it would release a commit this run
+      #    never gated -- so this run defers instead, unconditionally. The
+      #    commit that IS the live tip has its own run, and that run's own
+      #    guard is what releases it once ITS turn to push comes -- possibly
+      #    only once merges pause for a moment, so v1 can land one merge
+      #    later than the newest one in a busy stretch. It never lands on a
+      #    commit that wasn't gated, and it always catches up once things go
+      #    quiet, because every future merge re-attempts the same check
+      #    against whatever is current by then.
+      # 2. Only once (1) confirms this IS the live tip does it matter whether
+      #    v1 already covers it -- a duplicate run, or a manual push already
+      #    having done this. `--is-ancestor` treats a commit as its own
+      #    ancestor, so "already at" and "already ahead" are one case. A v1
+      #    that doesn't exist yet, or shares no history with this commit,
+      #    falls through to the push -- both checks are only ever a reason to
+      #    skip, never a reason to fail.
+      - name: Determine whether this commit is still current and needs releasing
         id: check
         run: |
           git fetch origin main
           TIP=$(git rev-parse origin/main)
-          echo "tip=$TIP" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
-          if git rev-parse -q --verify refs/tags/v1 >/dev/null \
-             && git merge-base --is-ancestor "$TIP" refs/tags/v1; then
-            echo "v1 already at or ahead of origin/main's tip ($TIP) -- nothing to do"
+          SHA="${{ github.sha }}"
+          if [ "$TIP" != "$SHA" ]; then
+            echo "origin/main's tip ($TIP) has moved past this run's own gated commit ($SHA) -- deferring to whichever run's own commit is now the live tip"
+            echo "skip=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          elif git rev-parse -q --verify refs/tags/v1 >/dev/null \
+               && git merge-base --is-ancestor "$SHA" refs/tags/v1; then
+            echo "v1 already at or ahead of $SHA -- nothing to do"
             echo "skip=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           else
             echo "skip=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
@@ -194,8 +198,8 @@ jobs:
       # Lightweight tag, matching what v1 already is (`git cat-file -t v1`
       # reports `commit`, not `tag`) -- no identity needed to move it, only
       # to push it.
-      - name: Force v1 to origin/main's tip
+      - name: Force v1 to this commit
         if: steps.check.outputs.skip != 'true'
         run: |
-          git tag -f v1 "${{ steps.check.outputs.tip }}"
+          git tag -f v1 "${{ github.sha }}"
           git push --force origin v1
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 43ecf61..c9f646f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -636,22 +636,26 @@ entry, another permission — is a `v2`, not a `v1` move. Everything else moves
 
 **Moving the tag is automatic, gated on the same build that gates a PR.** A
 `release-tag` job in `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml` runs on every push to `main`,
-`needs: selftest`, and force-moves `v1` to `origin/main`'s live tip once
+`needs: selftest`, and force-moves `v1` to *that run's own commit* once
 selftest succeeds — a broken build never reaches it, so `v1` can't advance
 onto one. It pushes with the run's built-in `GITHUB_TOKEN`; if that token
 turns out not to have write access, the push step fails and the job goes red
 in the Actions UI. That's a loud failure, not the silent one this replaced:
 `v1` stays put, and nobody has to notice on their own that it lagged.
 
-Two merges landing close together can start two `release-tag` jobs at once; a
-job-level `concurrency` group lets only one push at a time, and every job
-targets `origin/main`'s current tip rather than its own trigger commit, so it
-makes no difference which one the group lets through. Before pushing, the job
-also checks whether `v1` already points at that tip or a descendant of it —
-covering the case where two jobs read the tip at genuinely different moments
-— and skips as a normal, successful outcome rather than pushing backward. A
-run whose log says "nothing to do" did its job correctly; it just found
-nothing to move.
+Before pushing, the job checks two things and pushes only if both hold: that
+`origin/main`'s live tip is still this run's own commit (not some later merge
+that landed while this job was queued behind its own selftest), and that `v1`
+doesn't already point at that commit or a descendant of it. Either check can
+skip the push, as a normal, successful outcome — a run whose log says
+"nothing to do" did its job correctly. The first check is what a job-level
+`concurrency` group alone can't guarantee: Gitea's wake-one/cancel-rest
+handling applies no ordering by commit recency, so an older merge's job can
+be the one that survives to run — that job now defers instead of releasing a
+commit it never gated. The newer merge's own job releases it once its own
+turn comes, which can land `v1` one merge behind the newest during a busy
+stretch; it always catches up once merges pause, because every later run
+re-checks against whatever is current by then.
 
 This used to be a manual step, treated as a deliberate release decision taken
 once, knowingly, after the merge — in practice it was still forgotten
diff --git a/scripts/prune-cache-selftest.sh b/scripts/prune-cache-selftest.sh
index dc640d0..bf90c0e 100755
--- a/scripts/prune-cache-selftest.sh
+++ b/scripts/prune-cache-selftest.sh
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ PATH="$scratch/bin9:$outer_path" \
 assert_kept "$root/target-$OWN" "this run's own cache directory survives a genuinely pressured sibling pass"
 assert_kept "$root/target-$OWN/blob" "and its contents survive — not a recreated empty directory"
 assert_gone "$root/target-$LIVE" "the sibling is evicted instead, to make the same room"
-if grep -q 'self-clear' "$scratch/log"; then
+if grep -q 'clearing own' "$scratch/log"; then
   fail "own cache was cleared by pass 3, not genuinely spared by pass 2 — this scenario proves nothing"
 fi
 ok "the requirement was met by pass 2 alone; pass 3 never ran"