diff --git a/mesh/mesh-rs/crates/mesh-router/src/lib.rs b/mesh/mesh-rs/crates/mesh-router/src/lib.rs
index d689a4dc9..cd9905309 100644
--- a/mesh/mesh-rs/crates/mesh-router/src/lib.rs
+++ b/mesh/mesh-rs/crates/mesh-router/src/lib.rs
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ use mesh_schema::{BackendId, Fidelity, RouteCandidate, RouteDecision, ServeReque
 /// without inheriting that confound. So this type carries the *shape* of the
 /// cost and the operator supplies the numbers — the same reason
 /// `BandingScale` ships no canonical scale.
-#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct CostProfile {
     /// Fixed microjoules to serve the request at all, independent of size.
     pub base_uj: u64,
@@ -53,8 +53,113 @@ pub struct CostProfile {
     /// says this backend gets more expensive per token as the prefix grows,
     /// which is what makes a long-context request refusable *before* it runs.
     pub uj_per_token_per_kctx: u64,
+    /// The operating point these constants were measured at, if the operator
+    /// declared one. See [`Calibration`].
+    ///
+    /// `None` is the historical shape and stays the default, so every existing
+    /// constructor and every sealed `wire()` string is unchanged. It is not a
+    /// safe default, though — it is an *undeclared* one, and
+    /// [`Self::require_applicable_at`] refuses it.
+    pub calibration: Option<Calibration>,
 }
 
+/// The operating point a [`CostProfile`]'s constants were measured at.
+///
+/// # Why a cost model has to say where it fits
+///
+/// A profile is a fit, and a fit is only a fit *somewhere*. The per-token
+/// energy of a serving backend is not a property of the backend; it is a
+/// property of the backend **at an occupancy**. The same weights on the same
+/// silicon cost dramatically less per token when batches are full — fixed
+/// per-step overheads amortise across more tokens, and the memory traffic that
+/// dominates decode is shared. Published figures are almost always measured at
+/// saturation, because that is the number a vendor wants quoted.
+///
+/// # The two errors are not symmetric at a gate
+///
+/// [`CostProfile`] feeds a *ceiling*. That makes the direction of an error
+/// decisive:
+///
+/// - **Over-estimating refuses** work that would in fact have fit. Visible,
+///   annoying, and safe — the operator sees a refusal and can raise the budget.
+/// - **Under-estimating admits** work the ceiling cannot cover. Silent, and
+///   the overspend is discovered after the joules are gone.
+///
+/// A profile fit at saturation and applied at low concurrency under-estimates,
+/// which is the unsafe direction. So the model records the point it was
+/// measured at, and [`CostProfile::require_applicable_at`] refuses exactly the
+/// cases that under-estimate — while permitting the ones that over-estimate.
+///
+/// # This ships no constants
+///
+/// `source` names the measurement, it does not substitute for it. Importing a
+/// published coefficient would put an unfalsified number inside a gate, and the
+/// only energy-calibration harness in this tree measures Apple silicon — so
+/// there is no honest cross-vendor constant to ship. A profile's numbers are
+/// the operator's to measure; this type only makes the model say where they
+/// came from.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub struct Calibration {
+    /// Concurrent requests in flight when the constants were measured.
+    pub concurrency: u32,
+    /// Where the measurement came from, so a reader can go and check it rather
+    /// than trust it. A harness run id, a receipt content-id, a document —
+    /// anything that resolves to the actual observation.
+    pub source: String,
+}
+
+/// How far a profile is being applied from the point it was measured at.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum Applicability {
+    /// The profile does not say where its constants were measured. Its error
+    /// direction is therefore unknown, which at a gate must be read as
+    /// possibly-under-estimating.
+    Unstated,
+    /// Applied at the concurrency it was measured at.
+    AtCalibration { concurrency: u32 },
+    /// Applied **below** the calibration point, where per-token cost is higher
+    /// than the fit predicts. This is the under-estimating direction: the gate
+    /// admits work the ceiling cannot cover.
+    BelowCalibration { measured_at: u32, applied_at: u32 },
+    /// Applied **above** the calibration point, where per-token cost is lower
+    /// than the fit predicts. This over-estimates, so the gate refuses work
+    /// that would have fit — the safe direction, and not an error worth
+    /// blocking on.
+    AboveCalibration { measured_at: u32, applied_at: u32 },
+}
+
+/// Why a cost model may not be used to gate at a given operating point.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum CostModelError {
+    /// The profile declares no calibration point.
+    Uncalibrated,
+    /// The profile was fit at a higher occupancy than it is being applied at,
+    /// so it under-estimates here.
+    UnderEstimatesAtThisOccupancy { measured_at: u32, applied_at: u32 },
+}
+
+impl core::fmt::Display for CostModelError {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut core::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> core::fmt::Result {
+        match self {
+            CostModelError::Uncalibrated => write!(
+                f,
+                "cost profile declares no calibration point, so its error \
+                 direction is unknown; an unknown direction at a ceiling must \
+                 be treated as under-estimating"
+            ),
+            CostModelError::UnderEstimatesAtThisOccupancy { measured_at, applied_at } => write!(
+                f,
+                "cost profile was measured at concurrency {measured_at} and is \
+                 being applied at {applied_at}; a saturation fit under-estimates \
+                 below its measurement point, and under-estimating admits work \
+                 the ceiling cannot cover"
+            ),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl std::error::Error for CostModelError {}
+
 /// Tokens of context per unit of [`CostProfile::uj_per_token_per_kctx`].
 const CTX_UNIT: u64 = 1024;
 
@@ -64,12 +169,12 @@ impl CostProfile {
     /// Retained so existing callers are unchanged and the scalar case stays
     /// honestly expressible — some backends really are flat.
     pub fn linear(uj_per_token: u64) -> Self {
-        CostProfile { base_uj: 0, uj_per_token, uj_per_token_per_kctx: 0 }
+        CostProfile { base_uj: 0, uj_per_token, uj_per_token_per_kctx: 0, calibration: None }
     }
 
     /// A profile whose per-token cost grows with the context length.
     pub fn context_scaled(base_uj: u64, uj_per_token: u64, uj_per_token_per_kctx: u64) -> Self {
-        CostProfile { base_uj, uj_per_token, uj_per_token_per_kctx }
+        CostProfile { base_uj, uj_per_token, uj_per_token_per_kctx, calibration: None }
     }
 
     /// Whether this profile can represent a context-dependent cost at all.
@@ -95,13 +200,72 @@ impl CostProfile {
         self.base_uj.saturating_add(flat).saturating_add(ctx)
     }
 
+    /// Record the operating point these constants were measured at.
+    pub fn measured_at(mut self, concurrency: u32, source: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
+        self.calibration =
+            Some(Calibration { concurrency, source: source.into() });
+        self
+    }
+
+    /// How far this profile is being applied from where it was measured.
+    ///
+    /// Reports rather than decides — a caller that wants the *decision* uses
+    /// [`Self::require_applicable_at`]. Kept separate because "this is an
+    /// extrapolation" is worth surfacing in a receipt even where it is not
+    /// worth refusing over.
+    pub fn applicability_at(&self, concurrency: u32) -> Applicability {
+        match &self.calibration {
+            None => Applicability::Unstated,
+            Some(c) if c.concurrency == concurrency => {
+                Applicability::AtCalibration { concurrency }
+            }
+            Some(c) if concurrency < c.concurrency => Applicability::BelowCalibration {
+                measured_at: c.concurrency,
+                applied_at: concurrency,
+            },
+            Some(c) => Applicability::AboveCalibration {
+                measured_at: c.concurrency,
+                applied_at: concurrency,
+            },
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Refuse to gate with this profile at `concurrency` unless its error
+    /// direction is known to be safe.
+    ///
+    /// Refuses [`Applicability::Unstated`] and
+    /// [`Applicability::BelowCalibration`] — the two cases that under-estimate,
+    /// and so admit work the ceiling cannot cover. **Permits**
+    /// [`Applicability::AboveCalibration`]: over-estimating refuses work that
+    /// would have fit, which is visible to the operator and costs no joules.
+    ///
+    /// The asymmetry is the whole point. A guard that refused both directions
+    /// would be treating a conservative estimate as equally dangerous as an
+    /// optimistic one, at a ceiling where only one of them can overspend.
+    pub fn require_applicable_at(&self, concurrency: u32) -> Result<Applicability, CostModelError> {
+        match self.applicability_at(concurrency) {
+            Applicability::Unstated => Err(CostModelError::Uncalibrated),
+            Applicability::BelowCalibration { measured_at, applied_at } => {
+                Err(CostModelError::UnderEstimatesAtThisOccupancy { measured_at, applied_at })
+            }
+            ok => Ok(ok),
+        }
+    }
+
     /// The profile as it is sealed into a receipt, so a route decision can be
     /// re-derived rather than trusted.
     pub fn wire(&self) -> String {
-        format!(
+        let base = format!(
             "base={};per_token={};per_token_per_kctx={}",
             self.base_uj, self.uj_per_token, self.uj_per_token_per_kctx
-        )
+        );
+        // Appended only when declared, so a profile without a calibration
+        // seals byte-identically to every receipt written before this field
+        // existed and published vectors keep verifying.
+        match &self.calibration {
+            None => base,
+            Some(c) => format!("{base};calibrated_at={};source={}", c.concurrency, c.source),
+        }
     }
 }
 
@@ -424,4 +588,100 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(d.candidates.len(), 1);
         assert!(!d.candidates[0].admissible);
     }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod calibration_tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// A profile with no calibration seals exactly as before, so receipts and
+    /// published vectors written before this field existed keep verifying.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_uncalibrated_profile_seals_byte_identically() {
+        let p = CostProfile::linear(7);
+        assert_eq!(p.wire(), "base=0;per_token=7;per_token_per_kctx=0");
+        assert!(!p.wire().contains("calibrated_at"));
+
+        // And declaring one is additive — the historical prefix is untouched.
+        let c = p.clone().measured_at(64, "harness-run:abc123");
+        assert!(c.wire().starts_with("base=0;per_token=7;per_token_per_kctx=0"));
+        assert!(c.wire().contains("calibrated_at=64"));
+        assert!(c.wire().contains("source=harness-run:abc123"));
+    }
+
+    /// Declaring a calibration point changes no estimate. This type records
+    /// where the numbers came from; it does not adjust them, because adjusting
+    /// them would require a scaling law this tree has not measured.
+    #[test]
+    fn calibration_is_provenance_not_a_correction() {
+        let plain = CostProfile::context_scaled(100, 7, 3);
+        let declared = plain.clone().measured_at(64, "run:x");
+        for (tokens, ctx) in [(0, 0), (100, 0), (1_000, 4_096), (10, 1_000_000)] {
+            assert_eq!(
+                plain.estimate_uj(tokens, ctx),
+                declared.estimate_uj(tokens, ctx),
+                "estimate must not move when provenance is added"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// An undeclared calibration point is not a safe default. The profile's
+    /// error direction is unknown, and unknown at a ceiling has to be read as
+    /// possibly-under-estimating.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_uncalibrated_profile_may_not_gate() {
+        let p = CostProfile::linear(7);
+        assert_eq!(p.applicability_at(1), Applicability::Unstated);
+        assert_eq!(p.require_applicable_at(1), Err(CostModelError::Uncalibrated));
+    }
+
+    /// The unsafe direction: a fit taken at saturation, applied where batches
+    /// are thin. Per-token cost is higher than the fit predicts, so the gate
+    /// admits work the ceiling cannot cover.
+    #[test]
+    fn applying_a_saturation_fit_at_low_concurrency_is_refused() {
+        let p = CostProfile::linear(7).measured_at(64, "run:saturated");
+        assert_eq!(
+            p.applicability_at(2),
+            Applicability::BelowCalibration { measured_at: 64, applied_at: 2 }
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            p.require_applicable_at(2),
+            Err(CostModelError::UnderEstimatesAtThisOccupancy { measured_at: 64, applied_at: 2 })
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The asymmetry, stated as a test: over-estimating is **permitted**.
+    ///
+    /// A guard that refused both directions would treat a conservative estimate
+    /// as equally dangerous as an optimistic one. At a ceiling only one of them
+    /// can overspend — the other merely refuses work that would have fit, which
+    /// the operator can see and correct.
+    #[test]
+    fn over_estimating_is_permitted_because_only_under_estimating_overspends() {
+        let p = CostProfile::linear(7).measured_at(2, "run:thin");
+        assert_eq!(
+            p.applicability_at(64),
+            Applicability::AboveCalibration { measured_at: 2, applied_at: 64 }
+        );
+        assert!(
+            p.require_applicable_at(64).is_ok(),
+            "a profile that over-estimates here must still be usable to gate"
+        );
+
+        // At the measurement point it is simply applicable.
+        assert!(matches!(
+            p.require_applicable_at(2),
+            Ok(Applicability::AtCalibration { concurrency: 2 })
+        ));
+    }
+
+    /// The gate's existing saturating discipline is untouched: nothing added
+    /// here can make an estimate wrap and come back small.
+    #[test]
+    fn estimates_still_saturate_rather_than_wrap() {
+        let p = CostProfile::context_scaled(u64::MAX, u64::MAX, u64::MAX)
+            .measured_at(1, "run:absurd");
+        assert_eq!(p.estimate_uj(u64::MAX, u64::MAX), u64::MAX);
+    }
+}
 }