diff --git a/TODO.org b/TODO.org
index 82913188..f3bf91a2 100644
--- a/TODO.org
+++ b/TODO.org
@@ -1242,7 +1242,8 @@ build, because a layout that changes with a build flag can disagree silently
 across the reload boundary. One addition: a budget, because =retry= needs a
 handler that can make the same request succeed.
 
-** TODO The Vec generation word has no reader
+** NEXT The Vec generation word has no reader
+Decided 2026-09-25: remove the word, and in a dev build fill a Vec's old buffer with the dead-beef pattern when a push moves it, so a stale slice reads visibly wrong values. No slice layout change; a release build is untouched. Rules out a dev-only word on every slice.
 It is bumped on reallocation and read by nothing. The stale-slice trap it exists
 for needs a slice that can carry the Vec's identity, and a slice is pointer and
 length — so either slices grow a word in a dev build or the trap does not exist.