diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index ab527a7a..7c7da5aa 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -84,6 +84,26 @@ Universal rules every change should respect. The file is capped at
   § "M3 release-pipeline hardening" for the chart-appversion drift
   entry.
 
+- **Aggregate CI gates with `if: always()` and explicit
+  `needs.*.result` checks; default semantics silently bypass branch
+  protection.** GitHub short-circuits an aggregator job's `needs:` to
+  SKIPPED on any sub-job failure, and treats SKIPPED required checks
+  as satisfied. PR #73 silently merged past a failed `verify-test`
+  for this reason. Fix shape: aggregator runs `if: always()`,
+  evaluates each `needs.<job>.result`, and exits non-zero when any is
+  not `"success"`. Anchor: `.github/workflows/ci.yml` `verify:` job;
+  PR #74 commit `c1aa82a` body.
+
+- **Match perf-budget assertions by the invariant only — regex
+  patterns with implicit upper bounds flake on slow CI runners.**
+  `require.Regexp` with a pattern like `0\.0[0-9]+` enforces an upper
+  bound (<0.1s) on a counter whose only invariant is `>0`. Two such
+  assertions flaked in one session on slow GH Actions runners (0.126s
+  and 539ms observed). Fix shape: relax to "any non-zero value"
+  (e.g., `\d+\.[0-9]*[1-9]`) or use baseline-relative comparisons.
+  Anchor: `bench_test.go` PR #76 commit `869450b`; `impl_test.go` PR
+  #78 commit `06b9ddf`.
+
 ## Topic index — repo-wide
 
 Per-topic notes that apply to anyone working in this codebase. Read