diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr-require-checks.yml b/.github/workflows/pr-require-checks.yml
index abdf3466dc4..12f85c2a472 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr-require-checks.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr-require-checks.yml
@@ -870,6 +870,8 @@ jobs:
           done
           echo "::error::could not mark ci-lanes pending on $HEAD_SHA; a contract-only run could carry an older verdict forward while this run is in flight."
           exit 1
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   select-tests:
     # The contract-only gate, verbatim on every job but `ci-status` (see the
@@ -1214,6 +1216,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           tokens: github-token
           outside: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && 'detect-changes:pulls/files' || '' }}
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # Public repository: every lane runs on GitHub-hosted ubuntu-24.04 (free for
   # public repositories); the local-runner selector is not permitted here.
@@ -1971,6 +1975,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE SHELL LINTERS: ShellCheck, and the repo-local gates that read shell
   # source (GNU-only constructs, piped early-exit greps, temp-path cleanup,
@@ -2245,6 +2251,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # PLUGIN CONTRACTS ACROSS FILES: the manifest schemas and duplicate keys, the
   # catalog presence and enablement, option docs, the changelog and vendor-bump
@@ -2778,6 +2786,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE PLUGIN CHECKS THAT READ THE ROOT NPM INSTALL: `claude plugin validate`
   # over the plugins and the catalog (with the contract, catalog, cheatsheet
@@ -2920,6 +2930,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # SKILL AND EVAL CONTRACTS: check 25 and the changed-skills gate, the
   # portability lint, leaf names, spoke paths, the listing budgets, the eval
@@ -3292,6 +3304,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE TEST LANES RUN WHAT THE SELECTION SAYS. `select-tests` plans them once
   # (scripts/plan-test-lanes.sh): the shell suites the change selects go to
@@ -3607,6 +3621,8 @@ jobs:
             exit 1
           fi
           scripts/run-plugin-tests.sh --jobs 3 --suites-from "$RUNNER_TEMP/leg-suites.txt"
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE PYTHON SUITES THE CHANGE SELECTS, one pytest process per module, on one
   # to nine legs of about 180 suite-seconds (one module at a time). Every module
@@ -3755,6 +3771,8 @@ jobs:
             [ "$suite_rc" = 0 ] || rc=1
           done <"$RUNNER_TEMP/leg-suites.txt"
           exit "$rc"
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE NODE PACKAGES THE CHANGE REACHES: the five sub-projects with their own
   # install, typecheck, lint and test chains (the miro MCP server, the
@@ -3937,6 +3955,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           path: ~/.npm
           key: ${{ steps.npm_cache.outputs.cache-primary-key }}
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # A pull request that hand-edits a file the standards sync-manifest manages
   # fails. A standards-sync pull request (melodic-standards-sync[bot], head
@@ -3969,6 +3989,8 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Guard managed files
         uses: melodic-software/ci-workflows/.github/actions/check-managed-files@2476d5dde8979eab34374150b7e4b0a2b99f4e88 # 2476d5d 2026-10-29
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   # THE WHOLE-TREE CAN'T-FAIL SCAN, WHENEVER THERE IS NO DIFF BASE: the
   # schedule, a dispatch, and a pull request or merge group that
@@ -4011,6 +4033,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/log-api-budget # zizmor: ignore[self-repository]
         with:
           tokens: github-token
+      - name: Lane finished
+        run: 'true'
 
   ci-status:
     needs:
@@ -6511,12 +6535,46 @@ jobs:
       # through as it is, so a skip that hid work stays `skipped` and the
       # aggregate fails it. Pinned by scripts/ci-ordered-skips.test.sh, which
       # runs this body.
+      #
+      # A CANCELLED LANE WHOSE STEPS ALL FINISHED COUNTS AS PASSED. GitHub can
+      # leave a job open after `Complete job` until its `timeout-minutes` ends,
+      # then record it `cancelled`: 31 jobs in 29 of 55 failed or cancelled
+      # merge-queue runs (2026-11-02). This job does not run on a run-level cancel, so a
+      # cancelled lane here reached its limit. A limit that lands between two steps
+      # skips the rest, so `success` and `skipped` alone do not show the work ran.
+      # Each lane's last step, `Lane finished`, runs only when no earlier step
+      # failed or was cancelled, so the lane counts as passed only when that step
+      # succeeded, no step did worse than skip, and `Complete job` is last. Any read
+      # failure leaves the lane cancelled. Each cancelled lane writes a
+      # `cancelled-after-success` notice, the count to compare against that baseline.
       - name: Check each skipped lane against scope
         id: lanes
         if: ${{ !cancelled() }}
         env:
           LANES: ${{ toJSON(needs) }}
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
         run: |
+          if jq -e 'any(.[]; .result == "cancelled")' <<<"$LANES" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            jobs_file=$(mktemp)
+            gh api --paginate "repos/$GITHUB_REPOSITORY/actions/runs/$GITHUB_RUN_ID/attempts/$GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT/jobs?per_page=100" --jq '.jobs[]' >"$jobs_file" || : >"$jobs_file"
+            recovered=$(jq -r --slurpfile jobs "$jobs_file" '
+              def finished:
+                .steps as $s
+                | ($s | length) > 0 and $s[-1].name == "Complete job"
+                  and all($s[]; .conclusion == "success" or .conclusion == "skipped")
+                  and any($s[]; .name == "Lane finished" and .conclusion == "success");
+              to_entries[] | select(.value.result == "cancelled") | .key
+              | . as $lane
+              | select([$jobs[] | select(.name == $lane or (.name | startswith($lane + " (")))]
+                  | length > 0 and all(.conclusion == "success"
+                      or (.conclusion == "cancelled" and finished)))' <<<"$LANES") || recovered=
+            for lane in $(jq -r 'to_entries[] | select(.value.result == "cancelled") | .key' <<<"$LANES"); do
+              if grep -qxF "$lane" <<<"$recovered"; then counted=true; else counted=false; fi
+              echo "::notice title=cancelled-after-success::lane=$lane counted-as-passed=$counted"
+            done
+            LANES=$(jq --arg names "$recovered" '($names | split("\n")) as $n
+              | with_entries(if (.key as $k | $n | index($k)) then .value.result = "success" else . end)' <<<"$LANES")
+          fi
           results=$(jq -r '
             .["select-tests"] as $s
             | to_entries
diff --git a/scripts/ci-ordered-skips.test.sh b/scripts/ci-ordered-skips.test.sh
index d5e8e3da54e..f150d5a8b58 100755
--- a/scripts/ci-ordered-skips.test.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci-ordered-skips.test.sh
@@ -86,4 +86,86 @@ expect "a contract-only run passes every skip through" 0 "skipped skipped skippe
   "$(lanes skipped "" "" "" skipped skipped skipped "" skipped | sed 's/"lint-repo":{"result":"success"/"lint-repo":{"result":"skipped"/')"
 expect "unreadable lanes fail and write no results" nonzero "" "not json"
 
+# A lane cancelled after its steps finished. The stub stands in for the jobs read: it prints
+# GH_FIXTURE, or fails on GH_FIXTURE=fail, and records that it was called.
+mkdir -p "$TMP_ROOT/bin"
+cat >"$TMP_ROOT/bin/gh" <<'STUB'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+echo called >>"$GH_CALLS"
+[[ "$GH_FIXTURE" == fail ]] && exit 1
+printf '%s\n' "$GH_FIXTURE"
+STUB
+chmod +x "$TMP_ROOT/bin/gh"
+export GH_CALLS="$TMP_ROOT/gh-calls" GITHUB_REPOSITORY=o/r GITHUB_RUN_ID=1 GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT=1
+
+# job <name> <conclusion> <other-step> <lane-finished-step> [<last-step-name>]
+job() {
+  printf '{"name":"%s","conclusion":"%s","steps":[{"name":"Run","conclusion":"%s"},{"name":"Lane finished","conclusion":"%s"},{"name":"%s","conclusion":"success"}]}\n' "$1" "$2" "$3" "$4" "${5-Complete job}"
+}
+
+# expect_cancelled <label> <want-results> <lanes-json> <fixture> [<want-notice>]
+expect_cancelled() {
+  local out got
+  : >"$TMP_ROOT/out"
+  out="$(PATH="$TMP_ROOT/bin:$PATH" GH_FIXTURE="$4" LANES="$3" GITHUB_OUTPUT="$TMP_ROOT/out" bash -e "$TMP_ROOT/body.sh" 2>&1)" || {
+    fail "$1: step failed: $out"
+    return
+  }
+  got="$(sed -n 's/^results=//p' "$TMP_ROOT/out")"
+  if [[ "$got" != "$2" ]]; then
+    fail "$1: expected results '$2' got '$got'"
+  elif [[ -n "${5-}" && "$out" != *"$5"* ]]; then
+    fail "$1: no notice '$5' in '$out'"
+  else
+    ok "$1"
+  fi
+}
+
+cancelled_python="$(lanes success false true false skipped cancelled skipped false skipped)"
+passed="success success success success success success"
+kept="success success success success cancelled success"
+expect_cancelled "every step finished: the lane counts as passed, with a notice" "$passed" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled success success)" "lane=test-python counted-as-passed=true"
+expect_cancelled "a limit between two steps skips Lane finished: the lane stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled success skipped)" "lane=test-python counted-as-passed=false"
+expect_cancelled "a later step skipped on its own condition still counts as passed" "$passed" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled skipped success)"
+expect_cancelled "a job with no Lane finished step stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  '{"name":"test-python (0)","conclusion":"cancelled","steps":[{"name":"Run","conclusion":"success"},{"name":"Complete job","conclusion":"success"}]}'
+expect_cancelled "a skipped job with no steps stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  '{"name":"test-python (0)","conclusion":"skipped","steps":[]}'
+expect_cancelled "a step cancelled mid-run stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled cancelled skipped)"
+expect_cancelled "a failed step stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled failure success)"
+expect_cancelled "no Complete job stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled success success 'Post Run')"
+expect_cancelled "a matrix sibling that failed keeps the lane cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled success success; job 'test-python (1)' failure failure skipped)"
+expect_cancelled "every cancelled matrix sibling must have finished" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python (0)' cancelled success success; job 'test-python (1)' cancelled success skipped)"
+expect_cancelled "a job read that fails leaves the lane cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" fail \
+  "lane=test-python counted-as-passed=false"
+expect_cancelled "a lane with no job in the read stays cancelled" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-node' cancelled success success)"
+expect_cancelled "another lane's name prefix does not match" "$kept" "$cancelled_python" \
+  "$(job 'test-python-extra' cancelled success success)"
+# select-tests finished but hung: its dependents never ran, so the run stays red on them.
+expect_cancelled "a recovered select-tests does not excuse the lanes it blocked" \
+  "success skipped skipped skipped skipped skipped" \
+  "$(lanes cancelled "" "" "" skipped skipped skipped "" skipped | sed 's/"lint-repo":{"result":"success"/"lint-repo":{"result":"skipped"/')" \
+  "$(job select-tests cancelled success success)"
+
+: >"$GH_CALLS"
+expect_cancelled "no cancelled lane makes no API call" \
+  "success success failure failure success success" \
+  "$(lanes success true false false failure skipped skipped true failure)" "$(job x success success success)"
+if [[ -s "$GH_CALLS" ]]; then fail "gh was called with no cancelled lane"; else ok "gh is not called with no cancelled lane"; fi
+
+# Every lane ci-status needs ends in Lane finished, so the rule above can pass it.
+while read -r lane; do
+  last="$(awk -v job="  $lane:" '$0 == job { on = 1; next } on && /^  [a-z]/ { exit } on && /^      - name: / { sub(/^      - name: /, ""); name = $0 } END { print name }' "$WORKFLOW")"
+  if [[ "$last" == "Lane finished" ]]; then ok "$lane ends in Lane finished"; else fail "$lane ends in '$last'"; fi
+done < <(awk '/^  ci-status:$/ { on = 1; next } on && /^    needs:$/ { n = 1; next } n && /^      - / { print $2; next } n { exit }' "$WORKFLOW")
+
 test_harness::report