diff --git a/TODO.org b/TODO.org
index 7b8e242a..a983ab15 100644
--- a/TODO.org
+++ b/TODO.org
@@ -1565,11 +1565,12 @@ only by an explicit call. A sentence about the shape of the gate rather than an
 observed problem: only the daemon sets the variable and it never runs release
 builds. The fix, if it is ever felt, is a narrower gate.
 
-** NEXT The daemon's "has not called (agent/start ...)" note is unreachable
-Decided 2026-09-25: retire the note in the same dead-code sweep.
-Unreachable, not merely unexercised: the one state it was true of is closed by the
-constructor. Retiring it is the author's call over a lane that merged days ago, so
-it is left in place saying a true thing about a state nothing can be in.
+** DONE The daemon's "has not called (agent/start ...)" note is unreachable
+CLOSED: [2026-09-25]
+Retired, with the matching arm of an evaluation's timeout. A running program
+either links the agent, whose constructor binds the socket before =main=, or
+links none and has its delivery refused; no reply names =(agent/start ...)= as
+not yet called.
 
 ** DONE The allocation registry
 CLOSED: [2026-09-13]
diff --git a/docs/BUILT.md b/docs/BUILT.md
index 930c83da..7703ace3 100644
--- a/docs/BUILT.md
+++ b/docs/BUILT.md
@@ -7024,9 +7024,8 @@ registry now holds.
 **When it happens.** At the next frame boundary of a running program. A parked program — one whose `main` has
 finished — drains its ring when that sleep ends, so the store lands at the top of its next run, ahead of `main`; the
 run's own startup then computes the initialiser again, which is not a wart but the two events `defparameter` has: an
-evaluation assigns, and a re-run re-initialises. A program that has not called `(agent/start ...)` yet installs at its
-next `(agent/poll)`, and never if it has none — the reply already says so. A program stopped at a break runs it in the
-break loop, like any other evaluation.
+evaluation assigns, and a re-run re-initialises. A program stopped at a break runs it in the break loop, like any other
+evaluation.
 
 **A brand-new `def`** gets its initialiser run too. Its storage comes from `flan_dev_global` and nothing in the host's
 `.init-globals` names it, so before this a new `(def n i64 (count-them))` came up as `calloc`'s zeroes and stayed
diff --git a/lib/dev.ml b/lib/dev.ml
index 543e719c..6169b5b2 100644
--- a/lib/dev.ml
+++ b/lib/dev.ml
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ let await ?(ms = 5000) f =
 
 (* Whether the program has bound the socket it receives modules on.
 
-   Cheap enough to ask on every reply — one [stat] — and asked rather than
+   Cheap enough to ask before every request — one [stat] — and asked rather than
    remembered because the answer moves in one direction at a moment this side
    does not get to see: [agent/start] runs on the program's own thread. *)
 let agent_bound t = Sys.file_exists t.agent
@@ -781,7 +781,7 @@ let refusal ~parked reply =
    refusal; it is the difference between "queued" and "running", which is a
    difference only the program can close and only at a moment of its choosing.
 
-   Three of them, in the order of how far the module is from being live:
+   Two of them, in the order of how far the module is from being live:
 
    A PARKED program has finished [main] and is asleep in [flan_merged_park].
    Its ring is drained whenever that sleep ends — for an expression to run, or
@@ -796,16 +796,11 @@ let refusal ~parked reply =
    not per session, because the reader of a *new* park may not be the reader
    of the last one.
 
-   A RUNNING program that has not bound its agent socket has not called
-   [(agent/start ...)] yet — it may be about to, ahead of a window that is
-   still being created, or it may have no such call at all. Either way the
-   module is in the ring and the ring is drained by [(agent/poll)], so what
-   can honestly be promised is the poll and not a frame: a program with no
-   poll in it never installs this, and saying "at its next frame boundary"
-   would be the reply that made a redefinition look applied when it was not.
-
-   A RUNNING program that has bound it needs no note: the reply already says
-   queued, and the frame boundary is the next one it reaches. *)
+   A RUNNING program needs no note: the reply already says queued, and the
+   frame boundary is the next one it reaches. A running program whose agent
+   socket is not bound is not a third case: the agent package binds it in a
+   constructor, before [main], and a program that does not link the package
+   has nothing to queue a module on, so the delivery is refused instead. *)
 let install_note t ~parked =
   if parked then begin
     let first = not t.park_noted in
@@ -821,13 +816,6 @@ let install_note t ~parked =
            else "queued; installs no later than the parked program's next run")
     ]
   end
-  else if not (agent_bound t) then
-    [ ":note "
-      ^ Wire.quote
-          "queued, but the program has not called (agent/start ...) yet, so \
-           this installs when it next reaches an (agent/poll) — and not at \
-           all if it never does"
-    ]
   else []
 
 (* [pause], when given, is the position of the form to stop at — §9. It rides
@@ -1253,21 +1241,6 @@ let eval_expr t ~code ~origin ~pause =
                     the program is stopped at an earlier break and runs \
                     nothing until that ends. Take a restart or abort in the \
                     break buffer, and evaluate this again"
-               (* And a third cause, which is the one a session now reaches
-                  early enough to hit: the program has not bound its agent
-                  socket, so it is still ahead of its own [(agent/start ...)]
-                  — inside whatever it does first, a window being created —
-                  and asking whether it calls [(agent/poll)] would send the
-                  reader to look at a loop it has not got to yet. Said only
-                  where it is a fact about *this* program: the socket is
-                  missing, which is a stat, not a guess. *)
-               else if not (agent_bound t) then
-                 error
-                   "the program has not called (agent/start ...) yet, so \
-                    nothing has run the expression. It is queued and will run \
-                    at the program's first (agent/poll); this reply cannot \
-                    carry its value, so evaluate it again once the program is \
-                    up"
                else
                  error
                    "the program did not reach a frame boundary; is it calling \
diff --git a/test/programs/dev-noagent-running.flan b/test/programs/dev-noagent-running.flan
index 0883332a..1834441c 100644
--- a/test/programs/dev-noagent-running.flan
+++ b/test/programs/dev-noagent-running.flan
@@ -7,12 +7,10 @@
 ;;;; hand a module to and no socket to fall back on, so the daemon refuses the
 ;;;; delivery and says which socket it could not reach.
 ;;;;
-;;;; That is the honest answer for it. The sentence [install_note] keeps for a
-;;;; running program with no socket — queued, installs at its next
-;;;; (agent/poll) — was true of a program that *links* the agent and has not
-;;;; reached its (agent/start ...) yet, because there the ring is reachable
-;;;; in-process while the socket is not yet bound. The package's constructor
-;;;; binds before main now, so that window is gone; see TODO.org, "(agent/start) takes no argument, and binds before main".
+;;;; That is the honest answer for it. A program that *links* the agent has its
+;;;; socket bound by the package's constructor before main, so a running
+;;;; program with no socket is always this one; see TODO.org, "(agent/start)
+;;;; takes no argument, and binds before main".
 ;;;;
 ;;;; So: no (import agent ...) anywhere, and a loop that outlasts the test.
 (defn step [] i64 7)