diff --git a/internal/check-embedded-rtl.mjs b/internal/check-embedded-rtl.mjs
index a46b2cc3d..28ed3bf9f 100644
--- a/internal/check-embedded-rtl.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-embedded-rtl.mjs
@@ -3,17 +3,41 @@
  * check-embedded-rtl — an RTL locale must turn the PLUGIN right-to-left, and must NEVER
  * turn the PARTNER'S PAGE right-to-left.
  *
- * TWO DEFECTS, one block (library/i18n/index.js, createAppI18n):
- *  1. TIMING. It reflects RTL at CONSTRUCTION time from detectLocale(), which reads only the URL
- *     and <html lang>. A locale arriving later through profile-config — the channel a HOST uses —
- *     never reaches it, so Arabic text renders inside a left-to-right layout. Measured: htmlDir
- *     null on every host-channel run, including leaves whose chrome was fully Arabic.
- *  2. TARGET. It writes document.documentElement.dir. An EMBEDDED widget doing that flips the
- *     partner's WHOLE PAGE. The existing comment already worries about the host ("a WordPress RTL
- *     theme owns that decision") but only guards against CLEARING it, not against setting it.
+ * ⚠ THE TWO DEFECTS BELOW WERE FIXED. This section is HISTORY, kept because it explains what the
+ * check asserts and why — not a description of the code today. Read it in the past tense; verified
+ * against main 2026-09-28.
  *
- * So direction belongs on the plugin's OWN element, driven by the locale ProfileLoader actually
- * applies; <html dir> stays only where the plugin owns the page (a standalone leaf).
+ * WHAT USED TO BE WRONG, both in one block (library/i18n/index.js, createAppI18n):
+ *  1. TIMING. It reflected RTL at CONSTRUCTION time from detectLocale(), which reads only the URL
+ *     and <html lang>. A locale arriving later through profile-config — the channel a HOST uses —
+ *     never reached it, so Arabic text rendered inside a left-to-right layout. Measured at the time:
+ *     htmlDir null on every host-channel run, including leaves whose chrome was fully Arabic.
+ *  2. TARGET. It wrote document.documentElement.dir unconditionally. An EMBEDDED widget doing that
+ *     flips the partner's WHOLE PAGE. The comment of the day worried about the host ("a WordPress
+ *     RTL theme owns that decision") but guarded only against CLEARING dir, not against setting it.
+ *
+ * HOW THEY WERE FIXED, and where to look before believing either is still live:
+ *  - (2) library/i18n/index.js guards the documentElement write with
+ *    `const ownsPage = window.MAP_OWNS_PAGE === true`, so only a page the plugin OWNS gets <html
+ *    dir>/<html lang>. An embed cannot touch the partner's page. (lang travels with dir there: an
+ *    owned page that flipped to rtl while keeping lang="en" had a screen reader speak Arabic in an
+ *    English voice.)
+ *  - (1) direction on the plugin's own root is ProfileLoader's job, not this block's:
+ *    ProfileLoader.vue computes dirAttr from effectiveLocale and binds :dir="dirAttr" on
+ *    .profile-loader (see its :208 and :285). effectiveLocale is `lang.value || appI18n locale ||
+ *    'en'`, and lang.value IS the profile-config channel — so a host-supplied locale does flip the
+ *    embedded root.
+ *
+ * ★ A STALE HEADER IS A TRAP, WHICH IS WHY THIS ONE IS DATED. Written in the present tense, this
+ * block read as a live defect long after both were fixed, and cost a reader a wrong bug report:
+ * the header was cited as current instead of the code being read. A gate's header is evidence of
+ * what WAS true when it was written. If you are about to act on one, check the source it names.
+ *
+ * SO WHAT THIS CHECK ASSERTS, which has not changed: direction belongs on the plugin's OWN element,
+ * driven by the locale ProfileLoader actually applies; <html dir> stays only where the plugin owns
+ * the page (a standalone leaf). It reads .profile-loader inside the shadow root for the plugin's
+ * own direction, and records partnerHtmlDir separately, because for an embed that one must stay
+ * unset.
  *
  * ⚠ THE HOST PAGE IS ON A DIFFERENT ORIGIN, deliberately: same-origin would let a bug pass that
  * only bites a real partner. The tree is served on one port, the partner page on another.