diff --git a/cdc-service/src/test/java/com/xtrmetl/cdc/spi/CdcTargetCapabilityTest.java b/cdc-service/src/test/java/com/xtrmetl/cdc/spi/CdcTargetCapabilityTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..86c379d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cdc-service/src/test/java/com/xtrmetl/cdc/spi/CdcTargetCapabilityTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+package com.xtrmetl.cdc.spi;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;
+
+/**
+ * Fail-first contract for truthful CDC target execution metadata.
+ *
+ * <p>The production target registry currently exposes live Kafka and JDBC-replica product paths
+ * through connector objects whose canonical {@code write(...)} SPI is intentionally unwired. This
+ * contract requires machine-readable capability metadata so discovery can distinguish the shipped
+ * product path from canonical-write execution authority.</p>
+ */
+class CdcTargetCapabilityTest {
+
+    @Test
+    void liveTargetsDiscloseTheirActualExecutionBoundary() throws Exception {
+        Method capabilitiesMethod = Arrays.stream(CdcTargetConnector.class.getMethods())
+                .filter(method -> method.getName().equals("capabilities"))
+                .findFirst()
+                .orElse(null);
+
+        assertTrue(capabilitiesMethod != null,
+                "CDC target SPI must expose capabilities instead of overloading scaffoldOnly");
+
+        assertCapabilities(
+                capabilitiesMethod.invoke(new KafkaCdcTargetConnector()),
+                "RAW_DEBEZIUM_KAFKA"
+        );
+        assertCapabilities(
+                capabilitiesMethod.invoke(new JdbcReplicaCdcTargetConnector()),
+                "PROCESSED_DATA_JDBC_REPLICA"
+        );
+    }
+
+    private static void assertCapabilities(Object capabilities, String expectedDeliveryMode) throws Exception {
+        Method productPathLive = capabilities.getClass().getMethod("productPathLive");
+        Method canonicalWriteSupported = capabilities.getClass().getMethod("canonicalWriteSupported");
+        Method deliveryMode = capabilities.getClass().getMethod("deliveryMode");
+
+        assertTrue((Boolean) productPathLive.invoke(capabilities));
+        assertFalse((Boolean) canonicalWriteSupported.invoke(capabilities));
+        assertEquals(expectedDeliveryMode, ((Enum<?>) deliveryMode.invoke(capabilities)).name());
+    }
+}