Render the dropped card at release, and pin the hold's timeout

03's sharpened settle rule: rendering the arrangement means rendering
the card — at release the shadow swaps for the dropped card(s) drawn in
place immediately, the appear never waiting for the echo reload. The
committed hold now carries the landing (ids, payload titles, operation)
and surfaces read one DropLanding seam: within-board moves draw the
real faces at their proposed slots under the arriving card's own key,
so the echo is an invisible content swap; cross-board card arrivals
draw payload-titled faces keyed positionally, so the echo reads as an
ordinary arrival. Cross-board lane arrivals deliberately keep their
shadow until the echo — a lane's face is a whole column with no honest
payload equivalent. The 1500 ms failed-write timeout is now seamed
(injectable duration, extracted expire) and pinned by tests.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SR4XGjmBE16ZUYWpfFHXwY

Kanban/UI/Board/BoardDrops.swift

@@ -456,6 +456,14 @@ struct BoardDropContext {
     ///
     /// The commit is the **destination** store's, one `performWrite` bracket per gesture whatever the
     /// set's size (DRAG-REORDER.md § The drop commits).
+    ///
+    /// The write is the first half; the second is the **settle** (`DragSession.commit`). The write is
+    /// still in flight when this returns, so the session flips from proposing to committed and the
+    /// slot the shadows were holding starts drawing the dropped cards themselves — "at release the
+    /// shadow is replaced by the dropped card(s) drawn in place immediately, the appear never waiting
+    /// for the echo" (03-board-ui.md § Motion, sharpened 2026-07-28). The survivors and the resolved
+    /// operation are handed over rather than re-derived, because the overlay must show exactly what
+    /// this call wrote: the same run, and a copy's originals back where a copy leaves them.
     func commitDrop() -> Bool {
         guard session.isActive, let kind = session.kind, let sourceRoot = session.sourceRoot else {
             return false
@@ -514,8 +522,9 @@ struct BoardDropContext {
             }
         }
 
-        // The committed-overlay hold: keep drawing the arrangement until this store's next snapshot.
-        session.commit(into: store)
+        // The committed-overlay hold: keep drawing the arrangement — the dropped cards included —
+        // until this store's next snapshot.
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: survivors, operation: operation)
         return true
     }
 

Kanban/UI/Board/BoardView.swift

@@ -383,8 +383,11 @@ struct BoardView: View {
     /// off the tidy snapped layout regardless of the live overflow.
     ///
     /// A lane being **dragged** is simply absent from the strip: it is lifted out of the resting
-    /// layout at pickup and stays out until release, whatever the effective operation is
-    /// (DRAG-REORDER.md § Resting-layout zones), while the system drag session carries its replica.
+    /// layout at pickup and stays out for as long as the drag is in flight, whatever the effective
+    /// operation is (DRAG-REORDER.md § Resting-layout zones), while the system drag session carries
+    /// its replica. At release it comes straight back — at its *landing* slot, drawn by this very
+    /// function, because a settled reorder renders the lanes rather than their outlines
+    /// (`stripSlots`, `runSlots`).
     @ViewBuilder
     private func laneSlot(_ lane: Lane, standard: CGFloat) -> some View {
         let resizing = resize.isResizing(lane.id)
@@ -556,18 +559,39 @@ struct BoardView: View {
         }
     }
 
-    /// What the strip lays out: the resting lanes — the dragged run lifted out, whatever the
-    /// effective operation is — with the shadows opened at the proposal.
+    /// What the strip lays out: the resting lanes — the dragged run lifted out while the drag is in
+    /// flight — with the run opened at the proposal.
     private var stripSlots: [StripSlot] {
         let session = appModel.dragSession
         let hidden = session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL)
         var slots = liveLanes.filter { !hidden.contains($0.id) }.map(StripSlot.lane)
-        guard let index = stripProposal else { return slots }
-        let shadows = session.laneUnits.enumerated().map { StripSlot.shadow(index: $0.offset, units: $0.element) }
-        slots.insert(contentsOf: shadows, at: min(max(0, index), slots.count))
+        guard let landing = session.laneLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL) else { return slots }
+        slots.insert(contentsOf: runSlots(landing, session: session), at: min(max(0, landing.index), slots.count))
         return slots
     }
 
+    /// What the strip's run is made of — shadows while the drag is in flight, and **the dropped lanes
+    /// themselves** the instant a within-board reorder settles (03-board-ui.md § Motion: "rendering
+    /// the arrangement means rendering the card").
+    ///
+    /// A within-board reorder is the easy half and the whole of what the strip owes: the lanes are
+    /// still in this snapshot, so the run draws the real `LaneView`s at their landing slot — keyed by
+    /// lane identity, so the echo reload is a content swap inside one element and the lane never
+    /// loses its scroll position or its masonry to the settle.
+    ///
+    /// **A cross-board lane arrival keeps its shadow**, deliberately: the destination has no lane to
+    /// draw yet, and a lane's face is a whole column of cards rather than a title and an icon — the
+    /// card level's payload-title fallback (`DroppedCardFace`) has no honest equivalent here. The
+    /// shadow stands until the echo, which for an arriving column is the same round trip a create
+    /// already takes.
+    private func runSlots(_ landing: DropLanding, session: DragSession) -> [StripSlot] {
+        if case let .dropped(drop) = landing.run, drop.isLocal {
+            let lanes = drop.items.compactMap { item in liveLanes.first { $0.id == item.id } }
+            if lanes.count == drop.items.count { return lanes.map(StripSlot.lane) }
+        }
+        return session.laneUnits.enumerated().map { StripSlot.shadow(index: $0.offset, units: $0.element) }
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Grammar keys
 
     /// **Return**, narrowly (04-interactions.md ▸ Grammar): a sole selected live card begins an

Kanban/UI/Board/DragSession.swift

@@ -57,8 +57,61 @@ struct FileDropTarget: Equatable, Sendable {
 
 // MARK: - The committed-overlay hold
 
-/// The hand-off condition for **the committed-overlay hold** (DRAG-REORDER.md § The
-/// committed-overlay hold), as a value so the state machine is testable without a filesystem.
+/// One item the hold is drawing: the identity it travelled under, and the title it wore on the way.
+///
+/// The title is not a convenience. A **cross-board arrival** has no presence in the board it just
+/// landed on — the write is in flight and the destination has never seen that folder — so the
+/// payload's title is the whole of what its face can say until the echo brings the real card. A
+/// within-board landing finds itself in the snapshot and draws its real face instead (`LaneView`).
+struct DroppedItem: Equatable, Sendable {
+    var id: ItemID
+    var title: String?
+}
+
+/// What a container draws at the drop proposal — **one value for both phases of a release**, because
+/// the slot is the same slot throughout and only its content changes.
+///
+/// 03-board-ui.md § Motion (sharpened 2026-07-28): "at release the shadow is replaced by the dropped
+/// card(s) drawn in place immediately, the appear never waiting for the echo — a lingering shadow
+/// over a hidden card is the hold failing its one job". Keeping the *index* outside the phase split
+/// is what lets the reflow's animation key stay put across the release: the settle renders, it does
+/// not move, so nothing about it may key motion.
+struct DropLanding: Equatable, Sendable {
+
+    /// The dropped run, as the settled overlay draws it.
+    struct Dropped: Equatable, Sendable {
+        /// The items that landed, in landing order.
+        var items: [DroppedItem]
+
+        /// Whether the arriving items keep the identities they travelled under, so the overlay's
+        /// slots may wear the arriving cards' own keys and the echo becomes a content swap inside
+        /// one element — the new-card placeholder's handoff exactly (`LaneSlot`). True for a
+        /// **within-board move** and nothing else: a copy mints fresh GUIDs, and a cross-board
+        /// arrival may be reminted at the import boundary, so neither can promise a key.
+        var keepsIdentity: Bool
+
+        /// Whether this board already holds these items — a rearrangement of its own, whose faces it
+        /// can therefore draw straight from its snapshot. False for an arrival from another board,
+        /// which has only `DroppedItem.title` to go on.
+        var isLocal: Bool
+    }
+
+    enum Run: Equatable, Sendable {
+        /// The drag is in flight: N hit-transparent shadows hold the space open (`DragShadow`).
+        case shadows
+        /// The release has settled: the dropped items themselves, drawn at the slot the shadows were
+        /// holding.
+        case dropped(Dropped)
+    }
+
+    /// Where the run opens, in the container's own order.
+    var index: Int
+    var run: Run
+}
+
+/// **The committed-overlay hold** (DRAG-REORDER.md § The committed-overlay hold; 03-board-ui.md §
+/// Motion) — the drop proposal, and the run that landed under it, kept as overlay state past the
+/// release. A value, so the state machine is testable without a filesystem.
 ///
 /// At release the write goes to disk and the *snapshot does not change* — the one-way flow means the
 /// board only shows the new order once the watcher's reload lands (02-architecture.md). Dropping the
@@ -68,7 +121,18 @@ struct FileDropTarget: Equatable, Sendable {
 /// app-mediated echo is normally next, and a foreign one that lands first re-grounds everything
 /// anyway.
 ///
-/// The `deadline` is the same guarantee the drag session's watchdog gives the drag itself: a write
+/// ### Rendering the arrangement means rendering the card
+///
+/// The hold carries *what* landed and not only *where*, because the arrangement is not an outline:
+/// "at release the shadow is replaced by the dropped card(s) drawn in place immediately" — the
+/// system drag image's fade then dissolves over a card that is already there, which is the whole
+/// promise of the settle. `landing` is that run, in the order it lands.
+///
+/// `operation` is the other half of what the overlay draws, and it settles two questions at once
+/// because a move and a copy differ in exactly those two ways — see `removesOriginals` and
+/// `keepsIdentity`.
+///
+/// The `timeout` is the same guarantee the drag session's watchdog gives the drag itself: a write
 /// that was refused outright (a read-only board) produces no reload at all, and an overlay with no
 /// hand-off coming must still dissolve and let the snapshot be the authority again.
 struct CommittedHold: Equatable, Sendable {
@@ -79,6 +143,23 @@ struct CommittedHold: Equatable, Sendable {
     /// That board's `snapshotGeneration` at the moment of the commit.
     var generation: Int
 
+    /// The run that landed, in landing order — the dropped cards the overlay draws in place.
+    /// Defaulted so the hand-off condition above can still be stated on its own.
+    var landing: [DroppedItem] = []
+
+    /// The effective operation the release committed, re-resolved at the drop.
+    var operation: TransferOperation = .move
+
+    /// Whether the source board keeps its originals lifted out of the resting layout. A move took
+    /// them away, so it does; a **copy left them exactly where they were**, so they come back the
+    /// instant the write is issued — the arrangement the hold renders has the originals *and* the
+    /// arrivals in it, which is what the echo will show.
+    var removesOriginals: Bool { operation == .move }
+
+    /// Whether the arriving items keep the identities they travelled under (`Dropped.keepsIdentity`
+    /// is this, narrowed to a within-board landing).
+    var keepsIdentity: Bool { operation == .move }
+
     /// How long the hold may stand with no snapshot arriving. Comfortably longer than a write plus
     /// a watcher round trip, short enough that a refused write does not leave the board drawing an
     /// arrangement it never got.
@@ -198,6 +279,11 @@ final class DragSession {
     /// The dragged items' folders, aligned 1:1 with `members` — what the cross-board commits take.
     @ObservationIgnored private(set) var folders: [URL] = []
 
+    /// The dragged items' titles, aligned 1:1 with `members` — captured at pickup off the very
+    /// payload the pasteboard carries, and read again at the drop so the committed hold can draw a
+    /// **cross-board arrival**'s face before that board has ever heard of it (`DroppedItem`).
+    @ObservationIgnored private(set) var titles: [String?] = []
+
     /// The board the drag started in. Root and store are kept separately because the store may go
     /// away with its window mid-drag while the root — the left-hand side of the locality
     /// comparison — stays perfectly usable.
@@ -243,7 +329,13 @@ final class DragSession {
 
     @ObservationIgnored private var watchdog: Task<Void, Never>?
     @ObservationIgnored private var fileWatchdog: Task<Void, Never>?
-    @ObservationIgnored private var holdTimeout: Task<Void, Never>?
+    @ObservationIgnored private var holdTimeoutTask: Task<Void, Never>?
+
+    /// How long this session's holds may stand with no snapshot arriving — `CommittedHold.timeout`,
+    /// and a `var` for one reason only: the discard path is a `Task` sleeping on the main actor, and
+    /// a test that had to wait the real figure out would be a 1.5 s wall clock in the suite
+    /// (`DragSessionTests`). Nothing in the app writes it.
+    @ObservationIgnored var holdTimeout: Duration = CommittedHold.timeout
 
     init() {}
 
@@ -253,6 +345,11 @@ final class DragSession {
     var isDraggingCards: Bool { kind == .cards }
     var isDraggingLanes: Bool { kind == .lanes }
 
+    /// Whether the release has **settled**: the write is issued, the proposal is being held as
+    /// overlay state, and every surface that was drawing shadows is now drawing the dropped items
+    /// (`CommittedHold`).
+    var isSettled: Bool { hold != nil }
+
     /// N — the number of contiguous shadows the proposal draws.
     var shadowCount: Int { members.count }
 
@@ -265,14 +362,23 @@ final class DragSession {
     /// carries items that render in the quasi-lane, not in any lane's masonry, so no lane loses a
     /// card to it.
     ///
-    /// **The dragged run is lifted out whatever the effective operation is** (DRAG-REORDER.md §
-    /// Resting-layout zones): ⌥ can be pressed and released mid-drag, and a layout that re-admitted
-    /// the originals on every modifier flip would flap the whole board under the cursor. The copy's
-    /// originals reappear when the write lands.
+    /// **The dragged run is lifted out whatever the effective operation is** *while the drag is in
+    /// flight* (DRAG-REORDER.md § Resting-layout zones): ⌥ can be pressed and released mid-drag, and
+    /// a layout that re-admitted the originals on every modifier flip would flap the whole board
+    /// under the cursor.
+    ///
+    /// **At release the operation stops being a guess**, and a settled copy's originals come back at
+    /// once (`CommittedHold.removesOriginals`): the copy left them exactly where they were, so the
+    /// arrangement the hold is drawing has both them and the arrivals in it, and hiding them a round
+    /// trip longer would be the same lie the lingering shadow was. A settled *move* keeps hiding
+    /// them, because the write really did take them away — the overlay draws them at their landing
+    /// slot instead, which is the whole of "rendering the arrangement means rendering the card"
+    /// (03-board-ui.md § Motion).
     func hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted root: URL) -> Set<ItemID> {
         guard isActive, side == .live, let sourceRoot,
               DragLocality.isSameBoard(root, sourceRoot)
         else { return [] }
+        if let hold, !hold.removesOriginals { return [] }
         return memberSet
     }
 
@@ -294,6 +400,41 @@ final class DragSession {
         return proposal.index
     }
 
+    /// **What `laneID`'s masonry draws at the proposal** — the shadow run while the drag is in
+    /// flight, the dropped cards themselves once the release has settled (`DropLanding`), and `nil`
+    /// when no proposal names this lane.
+    ///
+    /// The index is the same index in both phases, deliberately: the settle changes what the slot
+    /// *contains*, never where it is, so a view can key its reflow on the index and be sure the
+    /// release itself animates nothing (03-board-ui.md § Motion — the un-hide is rendering).
+    func cardLanding(onBoardRooted root: URL, laneID: ItemID) -> DropLanding? {
+        guard let index = laneProposal(onBoardRooted: root, laneID: laneID) else { return nil }
+        return DropLanding(index: index, run: landingRun)
+    }
+
+    /// The lane strip's twin of `cardLanding` — the shadow run, or the dropped lanes drawn at the
+    /// slot they landed in.
+    func laneLanding(onBoardRooted root: URL) -> DropLanding? {
+        guard let index = stripProposal(onBoardRooted: root) else { return nil }
+        return DropLanding(index: index, run: landingRun)
+    }
+
+    /// The phase, as the two accessors above read it.
+    ///
+    /// `isLocal` is what keeps a **colliding cross-board arrival** from being drawn twice: only a
+    /// board that already holds the dragged items may resolve their faces (and their identities)
+    /// against its own snapshot, and an arrival's payload title is the honest answer everywhere
+    /// else.
+    private var landingRun: DropLanding.Run {
+        guard let hold else { return .shadows }
+        let isLocal = sourceRoot.map { DragLocality.isSameBoard($0, hold.boardRoot) } ?? false
+        return .dropped(DropLanding.Dropped(
+            items: hold.landing,
+            keepsIdentity: hold.keepsIdentity && isLocal,
+            isLocal: isLocal
+        ))
+    }
+
     /// The members that are still there — **rule 3 of the re-grounding trio**: drag membership is a
     /// UUID set that vanished items leave silently (`TransientBoardState.dragMembers`), and when the
     /// last one goes the drag has emptied itself. Partial vanishing drops the survivors, matching
@@ -362,18 +503,19 @@ final class DragSession {
     func beginCards(
         _ members: [ItemID],
         folders: [URL],
+        titles: [String?],
         heights: [CGFloat],
         side: Liveness,
         source: BoardStore
     ) {
-        begin(kind: .cards, members: members, folders: folders, side: side, source: source)
+        begin(kind: .cards, members: members, folders: folders, titles: titles, side: side, source: source)
         cardHeights = heights
         laneUnits = []
     }
 
     /// Begins a lane session.
-    func beginLanes(_ members: [ItemID], folders: [URL], units: [Int], source: BoardStore) {
-        begin(kind: .lanes, members: members, folders: folders, side: .live, source: source)
+    func beginLanes(_ members: [ItemID], folders: [URL], titles: [String?], units: [Int], source: BoardStore) {
+        begin(kind: .lanes, members: members, folders: folders, titles: titles, side: .live, source: source)
         laneUnits = units
         cardHeights = []
     }
@@ -382,6 +524,7 @@ final class DragSession {
         kind: DragKind,
         members: [ItemID],
         folders: [URL],
+        titles: [String?],
         side: Liveness,
         source: BoardStore
     ) {
@@ -390,6 +533,7 @@ final class DragSession {
         self.members = members
         self.memberSet = Set(members)
         self.folders = folders
+        self.titles = titles
         self.side = side
         self.sourceStore = source
         self.sourceRoot = source.rootURL
@@ -402,8 +546,12 @@ final class DragSession {
     }
 
     /// Records a new proposal. `nil` withdraws it — rule 2's "the shadow withdraws".
+    ///
+    /// **A settled release is past retargeting**: the write naming that slot is already on its way,
+    /// so a late callback arriving after the commit — a stray `dropUpdated`, a revalidation — must
+    /// not move or withdraw the arrangement the hold is drawing.
     func propose(_ target: DropTarget?) {
-        guard isActive, proposal != target else { return }
+        guard isActive, hold == nil, proposal != target else { return }
         proposal = target
     }
 
@@ -429,6 +577,7 @@ final class DragSession {
         members = []
         memberSet = []
         folders = []
+        titles = []
         cardHeights = []
         laneUnits = []
         proposal = nil
@@ -443,25 +592,55 @@ final class DragSession {
     /// Enters the committed phase: the arrangement the session was showing stays on screen until
     /// `store` applies its next snapshot (`CommittedHold`).
     ///
-    /// Everything that drives the rendering — the members, the proposal, the source root — is kept
+    /// Everything that drives the rendering — the proposal, the members, the source root — is kept
     /// exactly as it was, so "keeps rendering the arrangement it was showing" needs no second
-    /// mechanism: the shadows stay at the landing slots and the originals stay lifted out until the
-    /// snapshot carrying the write arrives and the real faces take their place.
-    func commit(into store: BoardStore) {
+    /// mechanism. What *changes* at this instant is what the proposal's slot draws: the shadows are
+    /// over, and `survivors` — the run this drop actually wrote, vanished members already dropped —
+    /// becomes the hold's `landing`, drawn there as ordinary card faces (`DropLanding`). A copy's
+    /// originals come back in the same render pass (`hiddenMembers`); a move's stay lifted, because
+    /// the overlay is now drawing them at their landing slot.
+    ///
+    /// - Parameters:
+    ///   - survivors: indices into `members` — what `BoardDropContext.commitDrop` is writing, which
+    ///     is exactly what the overlay must show.
+    ///   - operation: the effective operation, re-resolved at the drop. It decides both halves of
+    ///     the overlay's grammar (`CommittedHold.removesOriginals`, `.keepsIdentity`).
+    func commit(into store: BoardStore, survivors: [Int], operation: TransferOperation) {
         guard isActive else { return }
         sourceStore?.transient.dragMembers = .empty
         watchdog?.cancel()
         watchdog = nil
-        let hold = CommittedHold(boardRoot: store.rootURL, generation: store.snapshotGeneration)
+        let hold = CommittedHold(
+            boardRoot: store.rootURL,
+            generation: store.snapshotGeneration,
+            landing: survivors.map {
+                DroppedItem(id: members[$0], title: titles.indices.contains($0) ? titles[$0] : nil)
+            },
+            operation: operation
+        )
         self.hold = hold
-        holdTimeout?.cancel()
-        holdTimeout = Task { @MainActor [weak self] in
-            try? await Task.sleep(for: CommittedHold.timeout)
-            guard !Task.isCancelled, let self, self.hold == hold else { return }
-            withAnimation(Motion.dragReflow(reduced: Motion.prefersReducedMotion)) { self.end() }
+        let timeout = holdTimeout
+        holdTimeoutTask?.cancel()
+        holdTimeoutTask = Task { @MainActor [weak self] in
+            try? await Task.sleep(for: timeout)
+            guard !Task.isCancelled, let self else { return }
+            self.expire(hold)
         }
     }
 
+    /// **The failed write's path**: no echo is coming, so the hold discards and the board animates
+    /// back to snapshot order (03-board-ui.md § Motion — "the width-drag rollback posture: the
+    /// action visibly doesn't happen"). The one path in the settle that *is* motion, and the reason
+    /// it wears `Motion.dragReflow`: what moves is the arrangement un-happening.
+    ///
+    /// The timeout's own body, spelled as a method rather than inlined in the `Task`, so the discard
+    /// can be pinned directly as well as through the clock (`DragSessionTests`). A hold that has
+    /// already been handed off — or replaced by a second drag's — is not this one's to end.
+    func expire(_ hold: CommittedHold) {
+        guard self.hold == hold else { return }
+        withAnimation(Motion.dragReflow(reduced: Motion.prefersReducedMotion)) { end() }
+    }
+
     /// The hand-off: a snapshot landed on `root`, so an overlay standing in for it dissolves.
     ///
     /// Called from every board window's own snapshot-generation watch, which is why the hold names
@@ -473,8 +652,8 @@ final class DragSession {
 
     private func endHold() {
         hold = nil
-        holdTimeout?.cancel()
-        holdTimeout = nil
+        holdTimeoutTask?.cancel()
+        holdTimeoutTask = nil
     }
 
     /// Cleanup for a session-phase event SwiftUI reports.

Kanban/UI/Board/DragShadow.swift

@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ import SwiftUI
 /// **Hit-transparent, always.** The strip's own drop target has to stay live beneath the shadows
 /// (DRAG-REORDER.md § Single-target dispatch: "shadow placeholders are hit-transparent, so the strip
 /// target stays live beneath them"), and a shadow that swallowed the release would strand the drop.
+///
+/// **A drag's shadow lives exactly as long as the drag does.** The moment the mouse comes up the
+/// slot it was holding draws the dropped card itself (`LaneView`'s `runSlots`, `DroppedCardFace`) —
+/// "a lingering shadow over a hidden card is the hold failing its one job" (03-board-ui.md § Motion,
+/// sharpened 2026-07-28). The one shadow that outlives a release is the cross-board *lane* arrival's,
+/// which has no column to draw until the echo lands (`BoardView.runSlots`).
 struct DragShadow: View {
 
     /// Matched to the surface it stands in for — a lane's plate is 10, a card's is 8.

Kanban/UI/Board/LaneView.swift

@@ -358,6 +358,9 @@ struct LaneView: View {
         drops.session.beginLanes(
             members.map(\.id),
             folders: payload.folders,
+            // What a cross-board arrival's overlay has to draw with (`DroppedItem`) — the payload's
+            // own titles, so the session and the pasteboard cannot disagree about what travelled.
+            titles: payload.items.map(\.title),
             // The dragged items' own sizes, frozen at drag start — the one thing that is
             // (03-board-ui.md § Motion).
             units: members.map { LaneLayoutMath.displayUnits(of: $0) },
@@ -466,6 +469,10 @@ struct LaneView: View {
                             // height — the run's real footprint, so the drop lands exactly here.
                             DragShadow(cornerRadius: 8)
                                 .frame(height: height)
+                        case let .dropped(face):
+                            // The same run, one instant later: the release has settled and the
+                            // dropped card is drawn where its shadow was (`DroppedCardFace`).
+                            DroppedCardFace(card: face.card, title: face.title)
                         }
                     }
                     // "Appear/disappear is scale + fade (cards scale from ~0.8 …)"
@@ -550,13 +557,16 @@ struct LaneView: View {
         }
     }
 
-    /// Where a card drag would land **in this lane**, or `nil` when the proposal is elsewhere.
-    private var cardProposal: Int? {
-        drops.session.laneProposal(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: lane.id)
+    /// Where a card drag lands **in this lane** and what that slot draws — a run of shadows while the
+    /// drag is in flight, the dropped cards themselves once the release has settled
+    /// (`DragSession.cardLanding`). `nil` when the proposal is elsewhere.
+    private var cardLanding: DropLanding? {
+        drops.session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: lane.id)
     }
 
-    /// The shadow run this lane opens, or `nil` when no proposal names it — the masonry's one
-    /// make-room mechanism, and the reflow's narrow animation key.
+    /// The run's **geometry** — where it opens and what each of its slots is worth in height — or
+    /// `nil` when no proposal names this lane. The masonry's one make-room mechanism, and the
+    /// reflow's narrow animation key.
     ///
     /// Two sessions feed it and they are mutually exclusive by construction (a file session never
     /// arms `DragSession`, so `isActive` is false for exactly as long as one is in flight):
@@ -565,9 +575,14 @@ struct LaneView: View {
     ///   drop lands exactly where the shadows are;
     /// - **a Finder file drag**, at the nominal height, one shadow per file — the cards being
     ///   proposed do not exist yet, so there is no measured height to be faithful to.
+    ///
+    /// **Computed identically on both sides of a release**, deliberately: the settle changes what
+    /// the run's slots *contain*, never where they are or how much room they take, so this value —
+    /// the animation key — does not move at the drop. That is what makes the un-hide instant
+    /// rendering rather than motion (03-board-ui.md § Motion), with no suppression flag anywhere.
     private var shadowRun: ShadowRun? {
-        if let position = cardProposal {
-            return ShadowRun(position: position, heights: drops.session.cardHeights)
+        if let cardLanding {
+            return ShadowRun(position: cardLanding.index, heights: drops.session.cardHeights)
         }
         if let proposal = drops.session.fileLaneProposal(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: lane.id) {
             return ShadowRun(
@@ -592,11 +607,15 @@ struct LaneView: View {
     /// arriving card's identity so the handoff is one arrival rather than two (`LaneSlot`). The
     /// position math above is untouched by that — the key changes, the index does not — so the
     /// masonry cannot flinch at the moment of commit.
+    ///
+    /// The drag's run is the same story told at the other end: its slots change from shadows to the
+    /// dropped cards at release, at the same position and the same count, so nothing in this function
+    /// moves when a drop settles (`runSlots`).
     private var slots: [LaneSlot] {
         var result = renderedCards.map(LaneSlot.card)
 
         let run = shadowRun
-        let shadowPosition = run.map { min(max(0, $0.position), result.count) }
+        let runPosition = run.map { min(max(0, $0.position), result.count) }
         var placeholder: (position: Int, phase: NewCardPlaceholder.Phase)?
         if let pending = store.transient.newCardPlaceholder, pending.laneID == lane.id {
             let position = BoardStore.insertionIndex(after: pending.anchorCardID, among: renderedCards)
@@ -604,30 +623,72 @@ struct LaneView: View {
             placeholder = (position, pending.phase)
         }
 
-        let heights = run?.heights ?? []
-        if let shadowPosition {
-            let shadows = heights.enumerated().map { LaneSlot.shadow(index: $0.offset, height: $0.element) }
-            result.insert(contentsOf: shadows, at: shadowPosition)
+        let inserted = runSlots(run)
+        if let runPosition {
+            result.insert(contentsOf: inserted, at: runPosition)
         }
         if var placeholder {
-            if let shadowPosition, placeholder.position >= shadowPosition {
-                placeholder.position += heights.count
+            if let runPosition, placeholder.position >= runPosition {
+                placeholder.position += inserted.count
             }
             result.insert(.placeholder(placeholder.phase), at: min(placeholder.position, result.count))
         }
         return result
     }
 
+    /// What the run at the proposal is made of — **the settle, as one branch**.
+    ///
+    /// While the drag is in flight it is N dashed outlines at the dragged cards' frozen heights. The
+    /// instant the release commits it is the cards themselves: "at release the shadow is replaced by
+    /// the dropped card(s) drawn in place immediately, the appear never waiting for the echo — a
+    /// lingering shadow over a hidden card is the hold failing its one job" (03-board-ui.md § Motion,
+    /// sharpened 2026-07-28).
+    ///
+    /// Where each face's content comes from is `DropLanding.Dropped.isLocal`'s answer: a within-board
+    /// landing is a card this snapshot still has — at its pre-drop position, or in the trash for a
+    /// restore — so its **real** face travels to the landing slot, and a cross-board arrival has only
+    /// the title it travelled under until the echo brings the rest (`DroppedCardFace`).
+    private func runSlots(_ run: ShadowRun?) -> [LaneSlot] {
+        guard let run else { return [] }
+        guard case let .dropped(drop) = cardLanding?.run else {
+            return run.heights.enumerated().map { LaneSlot.shadow(index: $0.offset, height: $0.element) }
+        }
+        return drop.items.enumerated().map { index, item in
+            LaneSlot.dropped(DroppedFace(
+                index: index,
+                id: item.id,
+                card: drop.isLocal ? snapshotCard(item.id) : nil,
+                title: item.title,
+                keepsIdentity: drop.keepsIdentity
+            ))
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The dropped item as this board already knows it, tombstones included — a restore's card is in
+    /// the snapshot exactly as a moved one is, only on the other side of the live/trash boundary.
+    /// `nil` for an arrival this board has never held.
+    private func snapshotCard(_ id: ItemID) -> Card? {
+        for lane in store.snapshot.lanes {
+            if let card = lane.cards.first(where: { $0.id == id }) { return card }
+        }
+        return nil
+    }
+
     /// **Tombstoned cards render nowhere**, and neither do the cards of a tombstoned lane — the
     /// ancestor walk is absolute (01-storage-format.md § Deletion, 02-architecture.md's effective
     /// liveness). The lane half of that rule is `BoardView`'s, which never builds a `LaneView` for a
     /// tombstoned lane at all.
     ///
-    /// **A dragged card renders nowhere either, for as long as the session lasts.** It is lifted out
-    /// of the resting layout at pickup and stays out until release *whatever the effective operation
-    /// is* — a ⌥-copy's originals really do stay, but ⌥ can be pressed and released mid-drag, and a
-    /// layout that re-admitted them on every flip would flap the board under the cursor
-    /// (DRAG-REORDER.md § Resting-layout zones). The copy's originals reappear when the write lands.
+    /// **A dragged card renders nowhere either, for as long as the drag is in flight.** It is lifted
+    /// out of the resting layout at pickup and stays out until release *whatever the effective
+    /// operation is* — a ⌥-copy's originals really do stay, but ⌥ can be pressed and released
+    /// mid-drag, and a layout that re-admitted them on every flip would flap the board under the
+    /// cursor (DRAG-REORDER.md § Resting-layout zones).
+    ///
+    /// **At release the lift ends** (`DragSession.hiddenMembers`): a settled copy's originals are
+    /// back in this list in the same render pass the copies appear at the landing slot, and a settled
+    /// move's stay out because the overlay is now drawing them *there* rather than here (`runSlots`).
+    /// Either way nothing on this board is hidden behind a shadow once the mouse is up.
     ///
     /// **A card the live search filter hides renders nowhere either** (04-interactions.md § Search):
     /// "cards whose title *and* body both miss the query animate out". This is the one collection
@@ -732,6 +793,9 @@ enum LaneSlot: Identifiable {
     case placeholder(NewCardPlaceholder.Phase)
     /// One of a drag's N contiguous shadows, at the dragged card's frozen height.
     case shadow(index: Int, height: CGFloat)
+    /// One of the **dropped** cards, drawn in its landing slot from the instant of release until the
+    /// echo reload brings the real one (`DroppedFace`).
+    case dropped(DroppedFace)
 
     var id: String {
         switch self {
@@ -740,6 +804,12 @@ enum LaneSlot: Identifiable {
         // Constant per position in the run, so the shadows animate as slides when the proposal moves
         // rather than blinking out and back in.
         case let .shadow(index, _): "shadow:\(index)"
+        // **The placeholder's handoff, again.** A move keeps the identity it travelled under, so the
+        // slot wears the arriving card's own key and the echo reload swaps content inside one
+        // element — no removal, no insertion, no transition to fire. A copy mints a fresh GUID and a
+        // cross-board arrival may be reminted at the import boundary, so neither can promise a key:
+        // theirs is positional, and the real card's arrival reads as the arrival it is.
+        case let .dropped(face): face.keepsIdentity ? Self.identity(of: face.id) : "landing:\(face.index)"
         }
     }
 
@@ -760,6 +830,25 @@ enum LaneSlot: Identifiable {
     }
 }
 
+/// One dropped card as its landing slot draws it, for the round trip between the release and the
+/// echo (03-board-ui.md § Motion ▸ the drop settle).
+///
+/// `card` is the item as **this** board already holds it — a within-board landing, whose real face
+/// simply moves to the landing slot. A cross-board arrival has none, and `title` is what it
+/// travelled under (`DroppedItem`): enough for a face, and everything the destination can honestly
+/// say before the write round-trips.
+struct DroppedFace {
+    /// Position within the run — the positional key's whole content, for a landing that cannot
+    /// promise an identity.
+    var index: Int
+    var id: ItemID
+    var card: Card?
+    var title: String?
+    /// Whether the arriving card will wear `id`, and therefore whether this slot may key by it —
+    /// see `LaneSlot.id`.
+    var keepsIdentity: Bool
+}
+
 // MARK: - The card plate's metrics
 
 /// The card plate's geometry, spelled once because **two views draw it**: the real face
@@ -984,6 +1073,9 @@ private struct CardFaceView: View {
         drops.session.beginCards(
             ordered,
             folders: payload.folders,
+            // What a cross-board arrival's overlay has to draw with (`DroppedItem`) — the payload's
+            // own titles, so the session and the pasteboard cannot disagree about what travelled.
+            titles: payload.items.map(\.title),
             // The dragged items' sizes, frozen at drag start — the pickup transition scales the
             // replica, and its lingering "last measured frame" would mis-size the shadow and the
             // span-cap (03-board-ui.md § Motion).
@@ -1357,6 +1449,92 @@ private struct NewCardStubView: View {
     }
 }
 
+// MARK: - The dropped card
+
+/// **A dropped card, drawn at the instant of release** — 03-board-ui.md § Motion, sharpened
+/// 2026-07-28: "at release the shadow is replaced by the dropped card(s) drawn in place immediately,
+/// the appear never waiting for the echo (a lingering shadow over a hidden card is the hold failing
+/// its one job)". The system drag image's fade then dissolves over a card that is already there,
+/// which is the whole promise the settle makes.
+///
+/// **`NewCardStubView.arrivingFace`'s precedent, applied to the drag**, and for the same reason: a
+/// static rendition at the same numbers (`CardFaceMetrics`) is what makes the echo's swap invisible
+/// rather than merely un-animated. It carries no gestures, no drop target, no geometry registration
+/// and no carousel — it stands in for exactly one round trip, and every surface that reads a card's
+/// drawn frame (the drop zones, the rubber band) is reading the *snapshot*'s cards, which this is
+/// not one of.
+///
+/// Two sources, one face (`DroppedFace`): a within-board landing draws the card the snapshot still
+/// holds — icon, tint, stripe, attachments and all, so a move looks like the very card that was
+/// picked up — and a cross-board arrival draws the title it travelled under under the level-default
+/// symbol, because that is all the destination knows until the write lands.
+private struct DroppedCardFace: View {
+
+    let card: Card?
+    let title: String?
+
+    var body: some View {
+        HStack(alignment: .firstTextBaseline, spacing: CardFaceMetrics.rowSpacing) {
+            Image(systemName: symbol)
+                .foregroundStyle(iconTint)
+                .imageScale(.medium)
+            Text(displayTitle ?? "Untitled")
+                .font(.body)
+                .foregroundStyle(displayTitle == nil ? .secondary : .primary)
+                .lineLimit(4)
+                .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
+            attachmentsIndicator
+        }
+        .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, alignment: .leading)
+        .padding(CardFaceMetrics.contentPadding)
+        .padding(.leading, CardFaceMetrics.stripeWidth)
+        .background(RoundedRectangle(cornerRadius: CardFaceMetrics.cornerRadius).fill(.background.secondary))
+        .overlay(alignment: .leading) { accentStripe }
+        // Inert, deliberately: the write naming this slot is already in flight, and a face that
+        // answered clicks would be offering to act on an item whose identity is a round trip away.
+        .allowsHitTesting(false)
+        .accessibilityHidden(true)
+    }
+
+    /// The card's own title, or the one it travelled under — `nil` means untitled either way, and
+    /// "Untitled" is a rendering rather than a value (03-board-ui.md § Card face).
+    private var displayTitle: String? { card?.title.value ?? title }
+
+    private var symbol: String {
+        guard let card else { return ItemSymbol.card }
+        return ItemSymbol.name(card.icon, fallback: ItemSymbol.card)
+    }
+
+    private var iconTint: AnyShapeStyle {
+        if let card, let color = Palette.color(for: card.iconColor) {
+            AnyShapeStyle(color)
+        } else {
+            AnyShapeStyle(.secondary)
+        }
+    }
+
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var accentStripe: some View {
+        if let card, let color = Palette.color(for: card.background) {
+            UnevenRoundedRectangle(
+                topLeadingRadius: CardFaceMetrics.cornerRadius,
+                bottomLeadingRadius: CardFaceMetrics.cornerRadius
+            )
+            .fill(color)
+            .frame(width: CardFaceMetrics.stripeWidth)
+        }
+    }
+
+    @ViewBuilder
+    private var attachmentsIndicator: some View {
+        if let card, !card.attachments.isEmpty {
+            Image(systemName: "paperclip")
+                .font(.caption)
+                .foregroundStyle(.secondary)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 // MARK: - The inline title field
 
 /// The one text field all three inline editors wear — the new-card placeholder, a card rename, and

Kanban/UI/Board/TrashLaneView.swift

@@ -397,6 +397,9 @@ private struct TrashEntryRow: View {
         drops.session.beginCards(
             rows.map(\.id),
             folders: payload.folders,
+            // What a cross-board arrival's overlay draws with (`DroppedItem`) — the payload's own
+            // titles, which for a trash row are the tombstone's.
+            titles: payload.items.map(\.title),
             heights: rows.map { _ in LaneDropRegistry.nominalCardHeight },
             side: .trashed,
             source: store

KanbanTests/DragSessionTests.swift

@@ -181,4 +181,298 @@ struct CommittedHoldTests {
         #expect(!Self.hold.isRetired(byRoot: Self.here, generation: 0))
         #expect(!Self.hold.isRetired(byRoot: Self.here, generation: 6))
     }
+
+    /// The figure 03-board-ui.md fixes for a hold with no echo coming: long enough for a write plus a
+    /// watcher round trip, short enough that a refused write does not leave the board drawing an
+    /// arrangement it never got.
+    @Test("The deadline is the design's own figure")
+    func theTimeoutFigure() {
+        #expect(CommittedHold.timeout == .milliseconds(1500))
+    }
+
+    /// The two questions the effective operation settles at once, which is why the hold carries it
+    /// rather than a pair of flags (`CommittedHold`).
+    @Test("A move takes the originals away and keeps their identities; a copy does neither")
+    func theOperationDecidesBothHalves() {
+        var hold = Self.hold
+        hold.operation = .move
+        #expect(hold.removesOriginals)
+        #expect(hold.keepsIdentity)
+        hold.operation = .copy
+        #expect(!hold.removesOriginals)
+        #expect(!hold.keepsIdentity)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - The settle
+
+/// **The drop settle** (03-board-ui.md § Motion, sharpened 2026-07-28): what the session renders
+/// between the release and the echo. The claims here are the pure state the board's surfaces read —
+/// what the proposal's slot draws (`DragSession.cardLanding`) and which originals stay lifted out
+/// (`hiddenMembers`) — so the whole ruling is checkable without a view: "at release the shadow is
+/// replaced by the dropped card(s) drawn in place immediately … a lingering shadow over a hidden
+/// card is the hold failing its one job".
+///
+/// A **real store over a real temp board**, like the write suites: `commit` names the destination
+/// store, and the session's own re-grounding reads that store's transient state, so a stub would be
+/// standing in for exactly the thing under test. Nothing here writes.
+@MainActor
+@Suite("The drop settle")
+struct DropSettleTests {
+
+    private static let lane1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.lane1)
+    private static let card1 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card1)
+    private static let card2 = ItemID(rawValue: Ident.card2)
+
+    /// Two cards in the first lane — enough for a run of two, and for one of them to vanish
+    /// mid-flight while the other still lands.
+    private func makeBoard() throws -> WriterFixture {
+        let fixture = try WriterFixture()
+        try fixture.item("", Item.board)
+        try fixture.item(Ident.lane1, Item.rich(order: "1024", title: "Todo"))
+        try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card1)", Item.rich(order: "1024", title: "First"))
+        try fixture.item("\(Ident.lane1)/\(Ident.card2)", Item.rich(order: "2048", title: "Second"))
+        try fixture.item(Ident.lane2, Item.rich(order: "2048", title: "Doing"))
+        return fixture
+    }
+
+    /// A session mid-drag: `members` picked up out of `lane1`, proposing into it at `index`.
+    private func proposing(
+        _ store: BoardStore,
+        members: [(id: ItemID, title: String?)] = [(card1, "First")],
+        at index: Int = 2
+    ) -> DragSession {
+        let session = DragSession()
+        pickUp(session, from: store, members: members)
+        session.propose(DropTarget(boardRoot: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1, index: index))
+        return session
+    }
+
+    /// The pickup half, on a session that may already have had a life — the second drag in
+    /// `aRetiredHoldsTimeoutIsCancelled` is the whole reason it is separable.
+    private func pickUp(
+        _ session: DragSession,
+        from store: BoardStore,
+        members: [(id: ItemID, title: String?)] = [(card1, "First")]
+    ) {
+        session.beginCards(
+            members.map(\.id),
+            folders: members.map {
+                store.rootURL
+                    .appendingPathComponent(Ident.lane1, isDirectory: true)
+                    .appendingPathComponent($0.id.rawValue, isDirectory: true)
+            },
+            titles: members.map(\.title),
+            heights: members.map { _ in 44 },
+            side: .live,
+            source: store
+        )
+    }
+
+    /// Polls for `condition`, because the timeout's discard is a `Task` on this very actor: the test
+    /// has to yield for it to run at all. Bounded, so a discard that never comes fails rather than
+    /// hangs.
+    private func settles(_ condition: () -> Bool) async -> Bool {
+        for _ in 0..<200 {
+            if condition() { return true }
+            try? await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(5))
+        }
+        return condition()
+    }
+
+    // MARK: In flight
+
+    @Test("While the drag is in flight the slot is a run of shadows and the originals are lifted out")
+    func inFlightDrawsShadows() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+
+        #expect(!session.isSettled)
+        #expect(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1)?.run == .shadows)
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL) == [Self.card1])
+    }
+
+    // MARK: The settle
+
+    @Test("A settled move draws the dropped card at the proposal, and draws no shadow")
+    func settledMoveDrawsTheCard() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+
+        #expect(session.isSettled)
+        let landing = try #require(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1))
+        // The slot has not moved — only what it contains has, which is what keeps the settle out of
+        // every animation key on the board.
+        #expect(landing.index == 2)
+        let drop = try #require(landing.dropped)
+        #expect(drop.items == [DroppedItem(id: Self.card1, title: "First")])
+        // A within-board move: the arriving card wears the identity it travelled under, so the
+        // overlay's slot can key by it and the echo is a content swap inside one element.
+        #expect(drop.keepsIdentity)
+        #expect(drop.isLocal)
+        // The original stays lifted, because the write really did take it away — the overlay is
+        // drawing it at its landing slot instead.
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL) == [Self.card1])
+    }
+
+    @Test("A settled copy puts the originals back in the same render pass that draws the copies")
+    func settledCopyRestoresTheOriginals() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .copy)
+
+        // A copy left them exactly where they were, and the arrangement the hold renders says so.
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL).isEmpty)
+        let drop = try #require(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1)?.dropped)
+        #expect(drop.items.map(\.id) == [Self.card1])
+        // Fresh GUIDs are coming, so no slot may claim one: the landing keys positionally.
+        #expect(!drop.keepsIdentity)
+    }
+
+    @Test("The run the overlay draws is the run the commit wrote — a vanished member is not drawn")
+    func onlySurvivorsAreDrawn() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store, members: [(Self.card1, "First"), (Self.card2, nil)])
+
+        // Rule 3 of the re-grounding trio: a partly emptied drag drops the survivors, and the
+        // overlay must show exactly those.
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [1], operation: .move)
+
+        let drop = try #require(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1)?.dropped)
+        #expect(drop.items == [DroppedItem(id: Self.card2, title: nil)])
+    }
+
+    @Test("A settled release is past retargeting: a late callback cannot move or withdraw it")
+    func settledProposalsAreFinal() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+
+        session.propose(nil)
+        session.propose(DropTarget(boardRoot: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1, index: 0))
+
+        #expect(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1)?.index == 2)
+    }
+
+    // MARK: The hand-off
+
+    @Test("The hand-off clears the hold and the overlay with it — the snapshot is the authority again")
+    func handOffClearsEverything() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+
+        session.handOff(root: store.rootURL, generation: store.snapshotGeneration + 1)
+
+        #expect(!session.isSettled)
+        #expect(!session.isActive)
+        #expect(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1) == nil)
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL).isEmpty)
+    }
+
+    @Test("Ending the session outright ends the hold with it")
+    func endClearsTheHold() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+
+        session.end()
+
+        #expect(!session.isSettled)
+        #expect(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1) == nil)
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL).isEmpty)
+        #expect(store.transient.dragMembers.ids.isEmpty)
+    }
+
+    // MARK: The timeout — the failed write's path
+
+    /// "A failed write discards the proposal and the board animates back to snapshot order"
+    /// (03-board-ui.md § Motion). A write refused outright produces no reload at all, so the deadline
+    /// is the only thing standing between the board and an arrangement it never got.
+    @Test("A hold with no echo coming times out, and the board is left with its snapshot order")
+    func theTimeoutDiscardsTheHold() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        // The seam: the real figure is `CommittedHold.timeout`, and waiting it out would be 1.5 s of
+        // wall clock in the suite for a claim about the discard rather than about the clock.
+        session.holdTimeout = .milliseconds(20)
+
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+        #expect(session.isSettled)
+
+        #expect(await settles { !session.isSettled }, "the deadline must dissolve an overlay with no hand-off coming")
+        #expect(!session.isActive)
+        #expect(session.cardLanding(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL, laneID: Self.lane1) == nil)
+        #expect(session.hiddenMembers(onBoardRooted: store.rootURL).isEmpty)
+        #expect(store.transient.dragMembers.ids.isEmpty)
+    }
+
+    /// The discard's own body, called directly — the half of the timeout that is a decision rather
+    /// than a wait, and the guard that makes the wait harmless.
+    @Test("The discard ends the hold it was armed for, and no other")
+    func theDiscardEndsOnlyItsOwnHold() throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+        let hold = try #require(session.hold)
+
+        session.expire(CommittedHold(boardRoot: store.rootURL, generation: 999))
+        #expect(session.isSettled, "a hold this session is not holding is not this session's to end")
+
+        session.expire(hold)
+        #expect(!session.isSettled)
+        #expect(!session.isActive)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A retired hold's deadline never reaches the next drag")
+    func aRetiredHoldsTimeoutIsCancelled() async throws {
+        let fixture = try makeBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let store = try BoardStore(rootURL: fixture.root)
+        let session = proposing(store)
+        session.holdTimeout = .milliseconds(20)
+        session.commit(into: store, survivors: [0], operation: .move)
+
+        // The echo lands well inside the deadline, and the user starts another drag immediately —
+        // the lifecycle trap the watchdog was written for, at the hold's end of the session.
+        session.handOff(root: store.rootURL, generation: store.snapshotGeneration + 1)
+        pickUp(session, from: store, members: [(Self.card2, "Second")])
+
+        try? await Task.sleep(for: .milliseconds(80))
+        #expect(session.isActive, "the retired hold's deadline must not end the drag that followed it")
+        #expect(session.hold == nil)
+    }
+}
+
+// MARK: - Reading a landing
+
+extension DropLanding {
+
+    /// The dropped run, or `nil` while the slot is still a run of shadows — a test-side convenience
+    /// so a claim about the settle reads as one line rather than as a `case let` dance.
+    var dropped: Dropped? {
+        if case let .dropped(drop) = run { return drop }
+        return nil
+    }
 }