diff --git a/internal/check-hardcoded-english.mjs b/internal/check-hardcoded-english.mjs
index 14e11fae5..3cac8e1f0 100644
--- a/internal/check-hardcoded-english.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-hardcoded-english.mjs
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url'
 import { execSync } from 'node:child_process'
 import { parse } from '@vue/compiler-sfc'
 import * as babel from '@babel/parser'
+import { productionForGating, stageReason } from './lib/effective-stage.mjs'
 
 // ── what counts as user-visible ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 const VISIBLE_ATTRS = new Set(['title', 'placeholder', 'aria-label', 'alt', 'label'])
@@ -408,13 +409,19 @@ export function scanSfc(src, file) {
 
 // ── production plugins: the scope this gate defends ─────────────────────────────────────────────
 // Read from the built manifest so the list cannot drift from what actually ships.
+// ★ EFFECTIVE stage, not declared stage. A production leaf composes other bundles at runtime, so a
+// reader on a production page sees code from bundles that declare themselves experimental — and
+// scoping by the declared stage held that code to the experimental bar. The rule and the graph live
+// in lib/effective-stage.mjs, shared with check:frozen-labels so the two gates cannot disagree about
+// what "production" means.
 function productionPluginDirs(root = '.') {
   const mf = join(root, 'public/dx-maps/manifest.json')
   if (!existsSync(mf)) return []
   const m = JSON.parse(readFileSync(mf, 'utf8'))
-  const names = m.bundles.filter((b) => b.stage === 'production').map((b) => b.bundle)
-  return names.map((n) => join(root, 'plugin-designs', n)).filter((d) => existsSync(d))
+  MANIFEST = m
+  return productionForGating(m).map((n) => join(root, 'plugin-designs', n)).filter((d) => existsSync(d))
 }
+let MANIFEST = null
 const sfcsIn = (dir) => {
   const out = []
   const walk = (d) => { for (const e of readdirSync(d, { withFileTypes: true })) {
@@ -485,6 +492,17 @@ const msg = t('engineMissing')
 const t2 = useOptionalT('regions')
 const ok2 = t2('Countries')`
 
+// ★ EFFECTIVE STAGE: a production leaf pulls experimental bundles into the production bar.
+const STAGE_FIXTURE = {
+  bundles: [
+    { bundle: 'leaf-prod', stage: 'production', composes: ['mid-exp', 'pair/with-profile'] },
+    { bundle: 'mid-exp', stage: 'experimental', composes: ['deep-exp'] },
+    { bundle: 'deep-exp', stage: 'experimental' },
+    { bundle: 'pair', stage: 'experimental' },
+    { bundle: 'lonely-exp', stage: 'experimental' },
+  ],
+}
+
 function selfTest() {
   let fails = 0
   const ok = (c, m) => { console.log(`  ${c ? 'ok  ' : 'FAIL'} - ${m}`); if (!c) fails++ }
@@ -562,6 +580,12 @@ function selfTest() {
   const xw = crossAreaKeys(XAREA_WRAPPED, 'planted-xarea-wrapped.vue')
   ok(xw.length === 1 && /pplr\.messages\.mapUnavailable/.test(xw[0].text),
     'SEES it through a WRAPPER factory with no literal namespace (usePplrT() → useOptionalT(\'pplr\'))')
+  const eff = productionForGating(STAGE_FIXTURE)
+  ok(eff.includes('mid-exp'), 'an experimental bundle COMPOSED by a production leaf is production-for-gating')
+  ok(eff.includes('deep-exp'), 'and TRANSITIVELY — composition nests, so one pass is not enough')
+  ok(eff.includes('pair'), "a composes entry of the form 'bundle/profile' resolves to its BUNDLE")
+  ok(!eff.includes('lonely-exp'), 'CONTROL: an experimental bundle nobody composes stays out of scope')
+  ok(stageReason(STAGE_FIXTURE, 'mid-exp').startsWith('composed by'), 'and the report can say WHY it is in scope')
   console.log(fails ? `\nSELF-TEST: ${fails} FAIL(s)` : '\nSELF-TEST: the gate can see planted leaks and stays quiet on correct code')
   return fails
 }
@@ -697,7 +721,13 @@ const leaks = findings.filter((f) => !f.deliberate && !f.suspect)
 // WHICH BYTES, so two correct runs are indistinguishable in a report. The stamp is therefore not
 // only for the writer who forgets to name a sha — it is what lets a READER tell two runs apart at
 // all. When counts disagree, compare the tree line before anything else.
-console.log(`\n  ${dirs.length} production plugin(s), ${files} SFC(s) scanned  ·  tree ${treeStamp()}`)
+const composed = MANIFEST ? dirs.map((d) => d.split('/').pop()).filter((n) => stageReason(MANIFEST, n).startsWith('composed')) : []
+console.log(`\n  ${dirs.length} production-for-gating plugin(s), ${files} SFC(s) scanned  ·  tree ${treeStamp()}`)
+if (composed.length) {
+  // Named, because "why is this experimental bundle in a production scan?" is the first question a
+  // reader will have, and the answer is a fact about the composition graph rather than a judgement.
+  console.log(`  including ${composed.length} reached only by composition: ${composed.map((n) => `${n} (${stageReason(MANIFEST, n)})`).join('; ')}`)
+}
 for (const f of leaks) console.log(`   ${f.kind.padEnd(16)} ${f.file.replace(/^.*plugin-designs\//, '')}  ${JSON.stringify(f.text).slice(0, 90)}`)
 if (deliberate.length) {
   // Listed so nobody wonders where they went, but NOT counted: dir="ltr" is the plugin's own marker
diff --git a/internal/lib/effective-stage.mjs b/internal/lib/effective-stage.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e313e5d01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/lib/effective-stage.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+// EFFECTIVE stage: what bar a bundle should be held to, rather than what stage it declares.
+//
+// ★ THE GAP THIS CLOSES (sr, 2026-09-28). A gate that scopes by a bundle's OWN stage misses what a
+// production reader actually sees. research-map-plus-grid is production and composes
+// doxa-research-map and people-groups-grid, both declared experimental; dashboard-plus-grid is
+// production and composes research-dashboard and people-groups-grid. So the code on a production
+// page was being held to the experimental bar — not because anyone decided that, but because the
+// scope was computed from the wrong end of the composition.
+//
+// THE RULE: a bundle is production-for-gating if it declares production, OR if any bundle that is
+// itself production-for-gating composes it. Transitive, because composition nests.
+//
+// ★ THE GRAPH'S EDGES HAVE TWO SHAPES and taking one and not the other silently halves it:
+// `composes` holds both bare bundle names ('doxa-research-map') and bundle/profile pairs
+// ('regions-dashboard/regions-list'). The bundle is the part before the slash in either case.
+//
+// Shared by check:hardcoded-english and check:frozen-labels so the two cannot disagree about what
+// "production" means — a disagreement that would show up as one gate passing a file the other fails,
+// with neither obviously wrong.
+
+/** The bundle a `composes` entry refers to: 'a/b' → 'a', 'a' → 'a'. */
+export const composedBundle = (entry) => String(entry || '').split('/')[0]
+
+/**
+ * @param {{bundles?: Array<{bundle?: string, stage?: string, composes?: string[]}>}} manifest
+ * @returns {Map<string, 'production'|'experimental'>} effective stage per bundle name
+ */
+export function effectiveStages(manifest) {
+  const bundles = (manifest && manifest.bundles) || []
+  const byName = new Map()
+  for (const b of bundles) if (b && b.bundle) byName.set(b.bundle, b)
+
+  const eff = new Map()
+  for (const b of bundles) if (b && b.bundle) eff.set(b.bundle, b.stage === 'production' ? 'production' : 'experimental')
+
+  // Walk down from every production root, marking what it composes. Repeat until nothing changes:
+  // a production bundle may compose one that composes another, and a single pass would stop at the
+  // first level. The visited set makes a cycle terminate rather than hang.
+  let changed = true
+  while (changed) {
+    changed = false
+    for (const [name, stage] of [...eff]) {
+      if (stage !== 'production') continue
+      const b = byName.get(name)
+      for (const entry of (b && b.composes) || []) {
+        const child = composedBundle(entry)
+        if (!eff.has(child)) continue                 // composes something not in the manifest
+        if (eff.get(child) === 'production') continue
+        eff.set(child, 'production')
+        changed = true
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return eff
+}
+
+/** Bundle names a gate should treat as production. */
+export function productionForGating(manifest) {
+  return [...effectiveStages(manifest)].filter(([, s]) => s === 'production').map(([n]) => n).sort()
+}
+
+/** Why a bundle is in scope — for a report that must explain itself. */
+export function stageReason(manifest, name) {
+  const bundles = (manifest && manifest.bundles) || []
+  const self = bundles.find((b) => b && b.bundle === name)
+  if (self && self.stage === 'production') return 'declares production'
+  const parents = bundles
+    .filter((b) => (b.composes || []).some((e) => composedBundle(e) === name))
+    .filter((b) => effectiveStages(manifest).get(b.bundle) === 'production')
+    .map((b) => b.bundle)
+  return parents.length ? `composed by ${parents.join(', ')}` : 'experimental'
+}