diff --git a/polylogue/maintenance/archive_verification.py b/polylogue/maintenance/archive_verification.py
index d18cf9a80..7c58463d8 100644
--- a/polylogue/maintenance/archive_verification.py
+++ b/polylogue/maintenance/archive_verification.py
@@ -2393,8 +2393,8 @@ def _check_planner_stats(
                 _PLANNER_STATS_COVERED_TABLES,
             )
         }
-        # ANALYZE writes no sqlite_stat1 row for an empty table, so absent
-        # stats there are nothing to fix. Only a populated table can be
+        # A bare ANALYZE writes no sqlite_stat1 row for an empty table, so
+        # absent stats there are nothing to fix. Only a populated table can be
         # genuinely uncovered.
         populated = {
             table
diff --git a/tests/unit/maintenance/test_archive_verification.py b/tests/unit/maintenance/test_archive_verification.py
index fb8f1767a..5d20d416a 100644
--- a/tests/unit/maintenance/test_archive_verification.py
+++ b/tests/unit/maintenance/test_archive_verification.py
@@ -1220,14 +1220,19 @@ def test_partial_analyze_coverage_is_reported_by_table(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
 
 
 def test_empty_covered_table_without_stats_is_not_missing_coverage(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
-    """ANALYZE writes no sqlite_stat1 row for an empty table.
+    """An empty covered table with no sqlite_stat1 row is not uncovered.
 
-    Anti-vacuity: dropping the emptiness exemption makes every archive with no
-    action pairs warn, which is what this fixture is."""
+    Per-table ``ANALYZE`` records zero-row entries for an empty table, so the
+    fixture's rows are removed to build the uncovered-but-empty shape (a bare
+    ``ANALYZE`` produces it directly).
+
+    Anti-vacuity: dropping the emptiness exemption makes this archive warn."""
     _seed_coherent_archive(tmp_path)
     conn = _connect(tmp_path / "index.db")
     try:
         assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM action_pairs").fetchone()[0] == 0
+        conn.execute("DELETE FROM sqlite_stat1 WHERE tbl = 'action_pairs'")
+        conn.commit()
         assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sqlite_stat1 WHERE tbl = 'action_pairs'").fetchone()[0] == 0
     finally:
         conn.close()