diff --git a/docs/occupancy-2026-10.adoc b/docs/occupancy-2026-10.adoc
index 274fb1ee..6d291b05 100644
--- a/docs/occupancy-2026-10.adoc
+++ b/docs/occupancy-2026-10.adoc
@@ -19,8 +19,10 @@ on 2026-10-14, and checks it against the typed reading.
 * `julia_allocated_bytes`: the `Base.gc_num()` delta over the stage (cost);
 * per task (one spawned search): the largest sampled VmRSS of the child
   process it started (`peak_rss_kib`), the kernel's own VmHWM for it
-  (`hwm_kib`), and the sample window its children were live in
-  (`first_sample`, `last_sample`) — what its grade is read from;
+  (`hwm_kib`), and the sample window its children were live in — `first_sample`,
+  the first sample taken after its first child started, and `last_sample`, the
+  last taken before its last was waited for, 0 for never — which its grade is
+  read from;
 * `child_peak_rss_kib`: the largest sum of the stage's children's VmRSS at
   one sampling instant (the stage's occupancy).
 
@@ -74,8 +76,14 @@ whole window (`MemoryProbe`'s `task_grades`, `stage_grade`,
 `predicted_peak_rss_kib`, `cost_bound_rss_kib`, `reclaimed_kib`) and attaches the
 result to a recorded stage as `grades`; a record with no sample windows is left
 ungraded rather than graded on an assumed order. Tasks are read in sampled order
-(first sample, ties by record order); a task's drift is its peak when the next
-task still held it, and 0 when it had exited.
+(first sample, ties by record order). Each handover keeps only the tasks still
+live at it, so a task's `drift_kib` is the change in the live peak sum across its
+boundary — negative when the boundary also releases an earlier task — and
+`release_kib` is everything freed between its start and the next boundary, which
+can exceed that task's own peak. The folded drift is the sum of the peaks still
+live when the stage ends; the pinned instance's own `drift` is that non-negative
+live sum, the signed per-task delta being the extension its header records as
+H-2.
 
 For the three orders above, the algebra's predicted peak reproduces the measured
 stage peak exactly — 9204, 9192 and 18380 KiB — and the slack against the cost
diff --git a/src/core/memory_probe.jl b/src/core/memory_probe.jl
index 8653949c..a4ad4304 100644
--- a/src/core/memory_probe.jl
+++ b/src/core/memory_probe.jl
@@ -326,8 +326,14 @@ end
 #     hwm peak drift        with   drift ≤ peak
 #
 #   * `peak`  — the high-water mark this interaction reached, in KiB;
-#   * `drift` — the net change in memory held by the next interaction's start;
-#   * `release` = peak − drift — what the frontier reclaims.
+#   * `drift` — the change in the live peak sum across the interaction's
+#     boundary, so a boundary that also releases an earlier task is negative;
+#   * `release` = peak − drift — everything freed between the interaction's start
+#     and the next boundary, which can exceed the interaction's own peak.
+#
+# A task's drift subtracts earlier tasks that exited before the next start, so it
+# can be negative — the signed-drift extension `Instances/HWM`'s header records
+# as H-2. The folded drift is the sum of peaks still live at the stage's end.
 #
 # A task's drift subtracts earlier tasks that exited before the next start, so
 # it can be negative. The folded drift is the sum of peaks still live there.
@@ -368,7 +374,7 @@ struct Grade
     end
 end
 
-"`release(grade)` — what the frontier reclaims, `peak − drift`."
+"`release(grade)` — `peak − drift`: everything freed by the interaction's boundary."
 release(g::Grade) = g.peak - g.drift
 
 "`seq(a, b)` — sequence `b` after `a`: the suffix starts from `a`'s drift."
diff --git a/test/unit/test_occupancy_grade.jl b/test/unit/test_occupancy_grade.jl
index 215a176b..8b94a0a5 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_occupancy_grade.jl
+++ b/test/unit/test_occupancy_grade.jl
@@ -111,6 +111,27 @@ _occ_stage(tasks; measured) = OrderedDict{String,Any}(
         @test !MG._overlaps((1, 2), (3, 4))
     end
 
+    @testset "the reviewer's three-task example: expiry, not the sum of drifts" begin
+        # Windows [1,3], [2,10], [4,5] and peaks 100, 1, 100 KiB — CodeRabbit's
+        # example on #117. A overlaps B and exits before C starts, so the largest
+        # simultaneous sum is 101 (A+B at samples 2-3, then B+C at 4-5), not the
+        # 201 a rule that kept every earlier drift would read, and not the 201 KiB
+        # cost. A's release at C's boundary makes B's delta negative, which is how
+        # the fold stops charging for it.
+        tasks = [_occ_task(100; label = "A", first_sample = 1, last_sample = 3),
+                 _occ_task(1;   label = "B", first_sample = 2, last_sample = 10),
+                 _occ_task(100; label = "C", first_sample = 4, last_sample = 5)]
+        occ = _occ_stage(tasks; measured = 101)
+        @test [g.drift for g in MG.task_grades(occ)] == [100, -99, -1]
+        @test MG.predicted_peak_rss_kib(occ) == 101
+        @test MG.cost_bound_rss_kib(occ) == 201
+        @test MG.reclaimed_kib(occ) == 100          # the 100 KiB that never coexist
+        @test MG.disagreement(occ) === nothing
+        # The bound the expiry sharpens: 201 KiB resident at once is now the
+        # disagreement, where before the fix it was the prediction.
+        @test MG.disagreement(_occ_stage(tasks; measured = 201)) isa String
+    end
+
     @testset "registration keeps the first child's sample boundary" begin
         # No background sampler: watch! takes the first sample deterministically.
         probe = MG.Probe(0.01, ReentrantLock(), MG.TaskTrace[], MG.TaskTrace("(stage)"),