diff --git a/internal/check-packets-all.mjs b/internal/check-packets-all.mjs
index 10a110df0..a6dcd0959 100644
--- a/internal/check-packets-all.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-packets-all.mjs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 // SKIP (exit 0) only when the directory is genuinely absent or empty: packets are
 // generated on demand and a clean checkout has none. A skip says so out loud, with the
 // count, so "0 packets checked" can never read as "all packets passed".
-import { existsSync, readdirSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { existsSync, readdirSync, readFileSync, statSync } from 'node:fs'
 import { resolve, dirname, join } from 'node:path'
 // pathToFileURL, not a bare path: a dynamic import() of an absolute POSIX path works by luck on
 // linux and throws ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME the moment anyone runs this on windows.
@@ -38,9 +38,33 @@ if (!existsSync(DIR)) {
   process.exit(0)
 }
 
-const files = readdirSync(DIR).filter((f) => f.endsWith('.html')).sort()
+// ★ A STALE ARTIFACT IS NOT A DEFECT, and grading one as a defect is this gate's own recorded bug
+// (BUG-PACKET-SWEEP-GRADED-AN-ACCIDENTAL-SET-OF-GITIGNORED-ARTIFACTS). The card was closed without
+// the mechanism changing, and the gate went red again on 2026-09-28 over 43 packets left on disk
+// from a run three days earlier — before the prayer tick-boxes existed at all, so it reported
+// "0 prayer tick boxes" about a file that could not have had them.
+//
+// This whole directory is GITIGNORED (.gitignore:94 `library/scripts/*/out/**`), so nothing here
+// ever reaches main or another agent: it is one developer's scratch. The gate already knows that an
+// EMPTY directory is not a failure ("a clean checkout has none"); a directory of LEFTOVERS is the
+// same fact wearing different clothes.
+//
+// So a packet older than the renderer that produces it is SKIPPED, loudly, rather than failed. The
+// renderer's own mtime is the reference because that is what decides the shape a packet should have
+// — comparing against "today" would re-fail every morning, and comparing against nothing is what
+// produced this bug twice.
+const RENDERER = resolve(HERE, '..', 'library/packet/packet-render.js')
+const rendererMtime = existsSync(RENDERER) ? statSync(RENDERER).mtimeMs : 0
+const all = readdirSync(DIR).filter((f) => f.endsWith('.html')).sort()
+const stale = all.filter((f) => statSync(join(DIR, f)).mtimeMs < rendererMtime)
+const files = all.filter((f) => !stale.includes(f))
+if (stale.length) {
+  console.log(`PACKETS-ALL: skipping ${stale.length} packet(s) older than the renderer — regenerate`)
+  console.log(`  them (ONLY=<id> node library/scripts/posters/packet.mjs) or delete them; this`)
+  console.log(`  directory is gitignored scratch, so a leftover is not a defect.`)
+}
 if (!files.length) {
-  console.log(`PACKETS-ALL: SKIP — ${DIR} contains no .html packets`)
+  console.log(`PACKETS-ALL: SKIP — ${DIR} contains no .html packets newer than the renderer`)
   process.exit(0)
 }
 
@@ -67,9 +91,30 @@ if (!EXPECT_FUNNEL) {
   console.log('PACKETS-ALL: ⚠ PACKETS_ALL_NO_FUNNEL=1 — page 2 is NOT required this run.')
 }
 
+// ⚠ THE UNCONDITIONAL ABOVE STOPPED BEING TRUE, and this is the correction. The comment says every
+// packet comes from packet.mjs "which always passes FUNNEL" — that held until SERIES landed
+// (2026-09-28). A `country` packet DROPS the funnel page deliberately: the funnel narrows every
+// people group on earth down to THIS UPG-100 list, which is not a description of a country, and a
+// page of true numbers about the wrong thing is worse than no page.
+// So the expectation follows the SERIES that produced the packet, read from series.json rather than
+// hardcoded here — adding a series with funnel:false must not require editing this gate.
+// A packet whose series cannot be determined keeps the old unconditional expectation, because the
+// safe default for "I do not know" is the stricter check.
+const SERIES_PATH = resolve(HERE, '..', 'library/scripts/posters/series.json')
+const SERIES_DEFS = existsSync(SERIES_PATH) ? JSON.parse(readFileSync(SERIES_PATH, 'utf8')) : {}
+const NO_FUNNEL_MARKERS = Object.entries(SERIES_DEFS)
+  .filter(([id, def]) => !id.startsWith('_') && def && def.funnel === false)
+  .flatMap(([, def]) => (def.networks || []).map(([head]) => head).filter(Boolean))
+/** True when this packet's own text identifies it as a series that has no funnel page. */
+function expectsFunnel(html) {
+  if (!NO_FUNNEL_MARKERS.length) return EXPECT_FUNNEL
+  return !NO_FUNNEL_MARKERS.some((m) => html.includes(m)) && EXPECT_FUNNEL
+}
+
 const failed = []
 for (const f of files) {
-  const args = EXPECT_FUNNEL ? [gate, join(DIR, f), '--expect-funnel'] : [gate, join(DIR, f)]
+  const wantFunnel = expectsFunnel(readFileSync(join(DIR, f), 'utf8'))
+  const args = wantFunnel ? [gate, join(DIR, f), '--expect-funnel'] : [gate, join(DIR, f)]
   const res = spawnSync(process.execPath, args, { encoding: 'utf8' })
   const ok = res.status === 0
   console.log(`  ${ok ? '✓' : '✗'} ${f}`)