diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-agentic-e2e-safety-hardening-design.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-agentic-e2e-safety-hardening-design.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8bd0fd22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-agentic-e2e-safety-hardening-design.md
@@ -0,0 +1,255 @@
+# Agentic E2E Safety Hardening — Design
+
+Date: 2026-07-23
+Status: approved (design review with Drew, 2026-07-23)
+Builds on:
+- `2026-07-04-agentic-end-to-end-testing-design.md`
+- `2026-07-04-spec-derived-scenario-cards-design.md`
+
+## Problem
+
+PR #1931 adds a mechanical gate between a design spec's scenario table and
+the scenario cards derived from it. At the PR head (`ff19e90a`), that gate
+uses line-oriented shell matching without distinguishing document structure
+from examples inside fenced code. Focused reproductions against that exact
+head found four false passes:
+
+- a header followed directly by a data row, with no table delimiter row;
+- a scenario table that exists only inside a fenced code example;
+- a scenario card whose required headings and falsification text exist only
+  inside a fenced code example;
+- a `Card` value of `../outside`, satisfied by a file outside the supplied
+  cards directory.
+
+The existing checker test suite remains green because it does not exercise
+those cases.
+
+The CLI/TUI recipe has a separate ownership problem. It recommends killing
+any tmux session with the selected name before starting the scenario. A name
+collision can therefore terminate a session and process the scenario did not
+create. This contradicts the skill's existing rule that cleanup must never
+touch pre-existing state.
+
+The review also identified that direct calls to a web application's internal
+JavaScript action can bypass its user-facing event wiring. That finding is
+valid, but Drew explicitly deferred the browser behavior change on
+2026-07-23. It is not part of this design.
+
+## Goals
+
+- Make the scenario-card checker fail closed for the four reproduced
+  structural and path-boundary cases.
+- Preserve the checker's current, intentionally narrow input contract rather
+  than growing it into a general Markdown parser.
+- Ensure the tmux recipe cleans up only a session the scenario successfully
+  created.
+- Add focused tests and behavior evidence for only the changed contracts.
+
+## Non-goals
+
+- Supporting every valid GitHub Flavored Markdown table form.
+- Supporting tables without leading and trailing outer pipes.
+- Building or importing a Markdown parser.
+- Changing the browser-driving recipe.
+- Changing brainstorming, subagent-driven-development, card authoring, or
+  the card format.
+- Adding a dependency or broadening the existing plugin runtime.
+- Running a broad agentic E2E evaluation campaign.
+
+## Design
+
+### 1. Canonical scenario-table contract
+
+The checker continues to accept one canonical table form:
+
+```markdown
+| Card | Covers | Falsification |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| example-card | Visible behavior | If the result is absent, the scenario FAILS. |
+```
+
+Every table row has leading and trailing outer pipes. The existing semantics
+remain unchanged:
+
+- the heading text case-insensitively equals `E2E scenario cards`;
+- columns are identified by header name rather than position;
+- escaped `\|` inside a cell becomes a literal pipe;
+- whitespace is normalized before fixed-string falsification matching;
+- matching remains case-sensitive after normalization.
+
+A pipe-less table remains unsupported. The no-table diagnostic will state
+that the checker expects the canonical outer-pipe form so rejection is an
+explicit contract rather than accidental behavior.
+
+### 2. Bounded fenced-code filtering
+
+Before locating a scenario table or validating a card's structure, the
+checker filters out fenced-code contents. This is a small line-state filter,
+not a Markdown parser:
+
+- a line beginning with an optional indent followed by at least three
+  backticks or at least three tildes opens a fence;
+- the corresponding marker family closes it;
+- fence marker lines and everything between them are excluded from
+  structural matching;
+- an unclosed fence excludes the remainder of the file.
+
+The same filter feeds both structural consumers:
+
+1. spec table discovery and extraction;
+2. card validation for `**What this covers**`, required headings, and the
+   text of the `Expected` section.
+
+This keeps headings and tables in examples from satisfying the gate while
+allowing legitimate fenced examples to remain in specs and cards.
+
+No other Markdown constructs are interpreted. In particular, the checker
+does not attempt to model block quotes, lists, inline code, HTML, or arbitrary
+table rendering.
+
+### 3. Delimiter-row validation
+
+Once the checker finds a canonical header row, the following collected table
+row must be a delimiter row:
+
+- every non-edge cell matches an optional leading colon, at least three
+  hyphens, and an optional trailing colon;
+- the delimiter row has the same number of cells as the header row.
+
+Data-row processing begins only after that delimiter has passed. A header
+followed directly by data is a malformed table and exits with a check failure;
+the first data row is never silently treated as valid.
+
+This validation belongs in the existing table-extraction/checking path. It
+does not introduce a second parser or a separate intermediate format.
+
+### 4. Card-name boundary
+
+The `Card` cell is a filename stem, not a path. After retaining the existing
+tolerance for one pair of Markdown backticks, its value must match:
+
+```text
+^[a-z0-9]+(-[a-z0-9]+)*$
+```
+
+The checker validates this grammar before joining the value with
+`<cards-dir>`. An invalid value produces a row-specific failure and is never
+used in a filesystem lookup. This rules out parent traversal, absolute paths,
+subdirectories, whitespace, shell metacharacters, and empty path segments
+without needing realpath resolution.
+
+### 5. tmux session ownership
+
+The CLI/TUI recipe replaces deterministic shared names and preemptive
+deletion with explicit per-run ownership:
+
+1. Derive a readable session name from the scenario plus a run-unique suffix.
+2. Attempt `tmux new-session` with that name.
+3. Record ownership only after creation succeeds.
+4. Register cleanup that kills the session only when ownership was recorded.
+5. Use the same unique stem for the stderr log.
+
+There is no "kill any leftover session" step. If creation reports a collision,
+the runner chooses another unique name or reports the failure; it never
+reclassifies the existing session as stale state.
+
+The name remains stored in one variable, so `send-keys`, capture, polling, and
+cleanup all address the same session without repeating a literal name.
+
+## Failure and exit behavior
+
+The existing exit classes remain:
+
+- `64`: invalid command usage or missing input path;
+- `2`: no supported scenario table was found outside fenced code;
+- `1`: a supported table was found but is malformed, a row is invalid, or a
+  corresponding card fails validation;
+- `0`: every required check passes.
+
+Specific outcomes:
+
+- a fenced-only scenario table exits `2`;
+- a pipe-less table exits `2` with the canonical-form hint;
+- a missing or malformed delimiter row exits `1`;
+- an invalid card name exits `1` before path construction;
+- headings or falsification text found only in a card's fenced code do not
+  count and therefore exit `1`.
+
+Diagnostics identify the affected file and row or section. Tests assert only
+stable diagnostic contracts needed by a caller, not complete rendered error
+strings.
+
+## Testing
+
+### Deterministic checker tests
+
+Extend `tests/agentic-e2e-checker/test-check-cards-against-spec.sh` using its
+existing temporary-fixture style. Tests exercise the checker as a process and
+assert exit behavior:
+
+1. canonical table and cards still pass;
+2. missing delimiter row fails;
+3. malformed delimiter row fails;
+4. fenced example before a real table is ignored and the real table passes;
+5. fenced-only table reports no supported table;
+6. card structure and falsification text found only inside a fence fail;
+7. a valid card containing an unrelated fenced example still passes;
+8. `../outside` and another non-kebab-case card value fail before lookup;
+9. a backticked valid kebab-case card name retains existing behavior;
+10. a pipe-less table remains unsupported and reports the canonical-form
+    hint.
+
+Run the checker script through `bash -n` explicitly. The repository's shell
+lint wrapper currently reports no shell files because the checker has no
+`.sh` extension, so that wrapper is not evidence for this file.
+
+### tmux behavior pressure test
+
+The tmux recipe is behavior-shaping skill content, so its change follows the
+writing-skills RED/GREEN discipline with one narrowly scoped scenario:
+
+- pre-create a sentinel tmux session whose process and marker must survive;
+- ask the subject to run and rerun a TUI scenario with a colliding readable
+  base name;
+- verify the sentinel remains alive, the scenario uses a distinct session,
+  and cleanup removes only the scenario-owned session.
+
+Run multiple short sessions per arm, but do not expand the campaign beyond
+session ownership. Preserve the current-skill runs as RED evidence and the
+revised-skill runs as GREEN evidence.
+
+No browser eval is part of this work.
+
+## Verification
+
+Before declaring the implementation complete:
+
+- run the full checker harness;
+- run `bash -n` on the extensionless checker;
+- run the focused tmux RED/GREEN pressure test and retain its results;
+- run the relevant Codex/plugin packaging test to confirm the modified skill
+  files remain packaged;
+- run `git diff --check`;
+- map each in-scope review thread to a code or evidence change.
+
+The browser-control and optional-outer-pipe threads remain explicitly
+unresolved by this implementation. They must not be described as fixed.
+
+## Delivery
+
+Design and implementation work happens on
+`codex/review-comments-on-pr-1931`, based exactly on PR #1931 head
+`ff19e90a`. The existing `agentic-end-to-end-testing` branch and its separate
+worktree are not rewritten during design or implementation.
+
+Before any push or GitHub thread mutation, Drew reviews the complete diff.
+Only the five in-scope findings may be resolved as addressed:
+
+- missing delimiter row;
+- fenced scenario table;
+- fenced card structure;
+- card-name path escape;
+- tmux session ownership.
+
+The browser-control and optional-outer-pipe findings stay open or receive an
+explicitly scoped response after Drew approves the final wording.