diff --git a/PENDING.md b/PENDING.md
index c258f04..bc24d50 100644
--- a/PENDING.md
+++ b/PENDING.md
@@ -3504,3 +3504,34 @@ The third is the sharpest: **both halves are in the same document**, so this is
 **Awaiting:** Steward direction on (i)–(iv). ⚠ **(i) is time-critical: the 2026-08-07 cohort is deleted 2026-09-06.**
 
 ---
+
+### ✅ LEG (i) DISCHARGED — 2026-08-19, steward-authorized ("preserve the transcripts, then we shift")
+
+**Done.** All 47 `*.jsonl` in `~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/` copied to
+`~/.claude-transcript-archive/raw/`, outside the pruned tree. **Verified by readback, not by exit
+code: 46/47 confirmed sha256-identical to source.** The 47th is this session's own transcript, live
+and still being appended at copy time — recorded in the manifest as a **snapshot**, not silently
+counted as verified. Date span preserved: 2026-07-20 → 2026-08-19. 114 MB.
+
+`MANIFEST.json` records per file the `sha256`, byte count and source `mtime` **as data**, because
+mtime is mutable — the 2026-08-17 lesson, where a bulk repair moved 20 records' mtimes and broke the
+wake. Provenance is read from the manifest, never from the filesystem. Manifest + README are
+git-tracked in `~/dotfiles/claude/transcript-archive/`; the 114 MB of raw transcripts are **not**
+committed (42 MB even gzipped — ~1.5× the entire existing `dotfiles/.git`, and permanent in history).
+
+**⚠ WHAT LEG (i) DOES NOT DISCHARGE, stated so it is not read as closed:**
+
+1. **This is a snapshot, not a mechanism.** Sessions run after 2026-08-19 still land in the pruned
+   directory and are still deleted at 30 days. The recurring copy needs a hook or a wrap step, and
+   that is `[HARDENING]` — proposed, not taken unilaterally. **It is the same defect class this item
+   describes**: something expiring with nothing pointed at it. It should be ruled with (ii) rather
+   than left to memory, and it is deliberately NOT filed as an addendum carrying its own
+   `**Awaiting:**` — per the convention PENDING-146 proposes, an addendum may not carry a live ask.
+2. **One copy on one disk.** The deletion clock is stopped; disk-loss is untouched.
+3. **21 of the baseline's 64 transcripts were already gone before this ran.** The 14% baseline
+   (9/64, measured 2026-08-07 *"across the 64 transcripts on disk"*) is **no longer fully
+   auditable** — 43 of those 64 survive. Preservation arrived late for a third of the baseline, and
+   no option in this item recovers them. Recorded because a partial rescue read as a complete one is
+   exactly the reporting failure this item is about.
+
+**Legs (ii)–(iv) remain open and unchanged.**
diff --git a/claude/transcript-archive/MANIFEST.json b/claude/transcript-archive/MANIFEST.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1596424
--- /dev/null
+++ b/claude/transcript-archive/MANIFEST.json
@@ -0,0 +1,342 @@
+{
+  "preserved_at": "2026-08-19T11:21:32+02:00",
+  "why": "PENDING-147 leg (i). The harness prunes ~/.claude/projects/<name>/ at 30 days, so the REVIEWED-95 ladder trial and its REVIEWED-123 cond. 2 counter were measuring a rolling window and the trial evidence was being deleted. This archive stops that clock.",
+  "source_dir": "/Users/davidglidden/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden",
+  "count": 47,
+  "bytes_total": 119202600,
+  "live_session_snapshot": [
+    "0883c73d-9091-4508-aa31-592ddff5240a.jsonl"
+  ],
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+      "source_mtime_iso": "2026-08-19T11:21:12",
+      "source_matched_at_copy": false
+    }
+  ]
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/claude/transcript-archive/README.md b/claude/transcript-archive/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f6dfd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/claude/transcript-archive/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Preserved Claude Code transcripts
+
+**What this is.** A verified copy of every `*.jsonl` session transcript that existed in
+`~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden/` on 2026-08-19, taken out of that directory because the
+harness prunes it on a 30-day retention policy.
+
+**Why it exists — PENDING-147 leg (i), steward-authorized 2026-08-19.** Two governance instruments
+were counting files in that pruned directory as if the count were cumulative:
+
+- `REVIEWED-95` (2026-08-07) pre-registered a 20-session falsifier for the verification-ladder
+  retrieval trial, graded automatically when the count reaches 84.
+- `REVIEWED-123` cond. 2 (2026-08-17) obliges an N-now report at every wake.
+
+The count is a **30-day rolling window**, not a cumulative count: it read 60 on 08-17, 61 on 08-18
+and **47 on 08-19**. So the trigger is very likely unsatisfiable at the observed ~1 session/day, and
+the trial's own evidence was being deleted on a rolling basis — only 13 post-intervention
+transcripts survived, the earliest cohort due for deletion on 2026-09-06. **This archive stops that
+clock for everything that existed on 2026-08-19.**
+
+**What was verified.** 47/47 files copied; **46 confirmed sha256-identical to source**. The 47th is
+the live session's own transcript, still being appended at copy time — recorded in `MANIFEST.json`
+as a snapshot rather than silently counted as verified.
+
+**Read `MANIFEST.json` for provenance, not the filesystem.** Each entry carries `sha256`, `bytes`
+and the source `mtime` **as recorded data**. This is deliberate: mtime is mutable, and on 2026-08-17
+a bulk frontmatter repair moved 20 records' mtimes and broke the wake by promoting an April session
+to `Last wrap`. A hash in a manifest survives what a timestamp does not.
+
+## ⚠ What this archive does NOT do
+
+**It covers only files that existed on 2026-08-19.** It is a snapshot, not a mechanism. Sessions run
+after that date still land in the pruned directory and will still be deleted at 30 days unless the
+copy is repeated. The recurring case is named in PENDING-147 and is **not** discharged by this
+archive.
+
+**It is one copy on one disk.** The deletion clock is stopped; disk-loss is a different risk and is
+not addressed here.