diff --git a/scripts/hetzner/install-disk-gc.sh b/scripts/hetzner/install-disk-gc.sh
index 9cdcb3f8..e75a3a59 100644
--- a/scripts/hetzner/install-disk-gc.sh
+++ b/scripts/hetzner/install-disk-gc.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@
 # — ~/.cache/ms-playwright is the prod-dogfood browser set, and silently
 # deleting it would break the smoke suite with no signal. Reclaim it by hand.
 #
-# Reports what it freed through the watchdog's Telegram channel (lib-alert.sh),
+# Journals what it freed and pages only when the outcome is NOT routine
+# (still above the warn mark, or nothing left to reclaim) — lib-alert.sh,
 # and only when it actually did something — no "ran and did nothing" noise.
 #
 # Idempotent: re-run any time. Logic is covered by
@@ -238,7 +239,19 @@ fi
 end_pct=$(pct); end_used=$(usedk)
 total=$(( (start_used - end_used) / 1024 ))
 if [ "$total" -gt 0 ]; then
-  alert "🧹" "DISK GC: freed ${total}MB (${start_pct}% → ${end_pct}%) — ${FREED_LOG:-n/a}"
+  # Routine maintenance SUCCEEDING is not news. This fired at 00:02 on
+  # 2026-08-29 — "freed 2296MB (81% → 78%)" — a correct report of the box
+  # looking after itself, requiring nothing from anyone. The disk check already
+  # pages above 85%, so a GC that lands back under the mark has, by definition,
+  # removed the reason to say anything. It goes to the journal.
+  #
+  # It still PAGES when the outcome is not routine: space was reclaimed and the
+  # disk is STILL above the warn mark, which is the trend that ends in a full
+  # volume and is genuinely worth a human's attention.
+  logger -t disk-gc "DISK GC: freed ${total}MB (${start_pct}% → ${end_pct}%) — ${FREED_LOG:-n/a}"
+  if [ "${end_pct:-0}" -gt 85 ]; then
+    alert "🧹" "DISK GC: freed ${total}MB but / is still ${end_pct}% — reclaiming is no longer keeping up. ${FREED_LOG:-n/a}"
+  fi
 else
   # Above the mark but nothing safe left to reclaim: that is a real capacity
   # problem and the operator needs to know it, not a silent no-op.
diff --git a/scripts/hetzner/install-host-alerts.sh b/scripts/hetzner/install-host-alerts.sh
index 787be951..7ba65db7 100755
--- a/scripts/hetzner/install-host-alerts.sh
+++ b/scripts/hetzner/install-host-alerts.sh
@@ -293,24 +293,52 @@ fi
 # UNIT: ●") — which is how this shipped once already. The sed is belt and
 # braces for systemd builds that ignore --plain. The old aggregate code got
 # away with the bullet because it only tested the string for emptiness.
+#
+# ONE INCIDENT IS ONE MESSAGE ACROSS DETECTORS, not just within one.
+#
+# This sweep and the OnFailure notifier are two independent detectors of the
+# same fact, and on 2026-08-29 they both reported it: `⚙️ FAILED UNIT:
+# orangecat-cat-outcomes.service` at 06:45 from here, `🔴 UNIT DOWN:
+# orangecat-cat-outcomes.service` at 06:46 from notify-failure once its grace
+# window expired. Each was individually correct and correctly deduplicated
+# against itself — which is exactly why the duplicate survived a fix aimed at
+# per-detector storms. Keying per detector still lets N detectors send N
+# messages.
+#
+# So the cooldown key is the SUBJECT (the unit), shared with notify-failure:
+# whichever detector notices first speaks, the other finds the claim already
+# taken and goes to the journal. Neither has to know the other exists.
+UNIT_COOLDOWN=${NOTIFY_COOLDOWN_SEC:-1800}
 mapfile -t failed_units < <(systemctl list-units --type=service --state=failed --no-legend --plain 2>/dev/null \
   | sed 's/^[^A-Za-z0-9]*//' | awk '{print $1}' | grep -E '\.service$' | grep -v '^notify-failure@')
 declare -A unit_now=()
 for u in ${failed_units[@]+"${failed_units[@]}"}; do
-  k="unit_$(printf '%s' "$u" | tr -c 'a-zA-Z0-9' '_')"
+  k="failed_$(printf '%s' "$u" | tr -c 'a-zA-Z0-9' '_')"
   unit_now[$k]=1
-  alert_transition "$k" bad "⚙️" "FAILED UNIT: $u"
+  # The state file records WHICH units are known-failed (its content is the unit
+  # name, so recovery can name it); alert_once decides whether anyone is told.
+  printf '%s' "$u" > "$MON/state/host_$k"
+  alert_once "$u" "$UNIT_COOLDOWN" "⚙️" "FAILED UNIT: $u"
 done
 # Anything that was failing and is not in the current set has recovered. Without
-# this the key would stay `bad` and its next genuine failure would be silent —
-# the same latch, one level down.
-for sf in "$MON"/state/host_unit_*; do
+# this the key would stay set and its next genuine failure would be silent —
+# the same latch, one level down. Report the recovery only if the failure was
+# actually announced: closure on a message nobody received is just noise, and
+# `✅ RECOVERED: unit____` is how that reads when the key is not a real name.
+for sf in "$MON"/state/host_failed_*; do
   [ -e "$sf" ] || continue
   k=$(basename "$sf"); k=${k#host_}
-  [ -n "${unit_now[$k]:-}" ] || alert_transition "$k" ok "" ""
+  [ -n "${unit_now[$k]:-}" ] && continue
+  u=$(cat "$sf" 2>/dev/null)
+  if [ -n "$u" ] && [ -e "$MON/state/paged_$(printf '%s' "$u" | tr -c 'a-zA-Z0-9' '_')" ]; then
+    _alert_deliver "✅ RECOVERED: $u"
+  fi
+  [ -n "$u" ] && alert_clear "$u"
+  rm -f "$sf"
 done
-# Retire the old aggregate latch so it cannot linger at `bad` forever.
-rm -f "$MON/state/host_units"
+# Retire the old aggregate latch, and the previous per-unit keys whose content
+# was a bare ok/bad and whose name could not be turned back into a unit.
+rm -f "$MON/state/host_units" "$MON"/state/host_unit_*
 
 # App .env readability — repair it, don't report it.
 #
diff --git a/scripts/hetzner/test-disk-gc.sh b/scripts/hetzner/test-disk-gc.sh
index 611c95fd..8c245856 100755
--- a/scripts/hetzner/test-disk-gc.sh
+++ b/scripts/hetzner/test-disk-gc.sh
@@ -58,6 +58,19 @@ done
 chmod +x "$TMP/bin"/*
 export PATH="$TMP/bin:$PATH"
 export MON="$TMP"
+# logger records the JOURNAL; curl records what reaches the PHONE. Without the
+# second stub, moving a message from alert() to logger() looks identical to
+# leaving it alone — which is how a routine nightly report could go on being
+# "tested" while still ringing a phone every midnight.
+cat > "$TMP/bin/curl" <<'STUB'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+for a in "$@"; do case "$a" in text=*) printf '%s\n' "${a#text=}" >> "$SEND_LOG";; esac; done
+exit 0
+STUB
+chmod +x "$TMP/bin/curl"
+printf 'TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=test-token\nTELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=test-chat\n' > "$TMP/telegram.env"
+export SEND_LOG="$TMP/sent.log"
+: > "$SEND_LOG"
 export ALERT_LOG="$TMP/alerts.log"
 
 pass=0 fail=0
@@ -67,7 +80,7 @@ check() { if [ "$2" -eq 0 ]; then pass=$((pass+1)); printf '  ✓ %s\n' "$1"
 # Build a fresh fake filesystem for each scenario.
 seed() {
   rm -rf "$FAKE_FS"; mkdir -p "$FAKE_FS/dev" "$FAKE_FS/opt"
-  : > "$ALERT_LOG"; rm -f "$TMP/state/host_diskgc"
+  : > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"; rm -f "$TMP/state/host_diskgc"
   local old_ts="202601010000"   # long past → cold
   # Two cold repos and one worked-on-today repo, each with a 20MB node_modules.
   for r in coldrepo olderrepo; do
@@ -123,8 +136,13 @@ check "releases beyond keep-count removed" \
   "$([ ! -d "$FAKE_FS/opt/someapp/releases/rel-1" ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 check "newest 2 releases kept" \
   "$([ -d "$FAKE_FS/opt/someapp/releases/rel-4" ] && [ -d "$FAKE_FS/opt/someapp/releases/rel-3" ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
-check "reports what it freed" \
+check "reports what it freed — to the journal" \
   "$(grep -q 'DISK GC: freed' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+# A successful nightly GC that leaves the disk healthy asks nothing of anyone.
+# It fired at 00:02 on 2026-08-29 ("freed 2296MB, 81% → 78%") purely to say the
+# box had looked after itself. Journal yes, phone no.
+check "a routine successful GC does not reach the phone" \
+  "$([ ! -s "$SEND_LOG" ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 
 # ── 3. Stops at the cheapest tier that suffices (does not over-delete) ──────
 # Usage is 50%, target 45%. Dropping two 10MB releases gets there, so the GC
@@ -144,10 +162,15 @@ check "cheap tier actually ran: releases trimmed to 2 (got $rels)" \
 # No dev root, no releases → every tier is a no-op, but the disk is still full.
 rm -rf "$FAKE_FS"; mkdir -p "$FAKE_FS/dev" "$FAKE_FS/opt"
 truncate -s 180M "$FAKE_FS/ballast"
-: > "$ALERT_LOG"; rm -f "$TMP/state/host_diskgc"
+: > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"; rm -f "$TMP/state/host_diskgc"
 gc DISK_GC_HIGH_PCT=75 DISK_GC_TARGET_PCT=65
 check "exhausted tiers while still full: escalates, not silent" \
   "$(grep -q 'could not free space' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+# The half that must survive quietening the routine case: an outcome the
+# operator has to act on still reaches them. Silencing everything would be the
+# worse bug of the two.
+check "…and that one DOES reach the phone" \
+  "$(grep -q 'could not free space' "$SEND_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 
 # ── 5. safe_rm refuses to delete outside the root it was given ───────────────
 mkdir -p "$TMP/outside/precious"
diff --git a/scripts/hetzner/test-host-alerts.sh b/scripts/hetzner/test-host-alerts.sh
index 80889ab4..34d7705d 100755
--- a/scripts/hetzner/test-host-alerts.sh
+++ b/scripts/hetzner/test-host-alerts.sh
@@ -186,8 +186,8 @@ check "86% third tick: still silent (got $n3)" "$([ "$n3" -eq 0 ] && echo 0 || e
 # alert to these counts — an earlier version of this test counted a disk
 # RECOVERED as a unit alert and "failed" on correct behaviour.
 run_units() { : > "$ALERT_LOG"; DISK_PCT=82 FAILED_UNITS="$1" bash "$TMP/host-check.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true; }
-unit_alerts() { grep -c 'FAILED UNIT\|RECOVERED: unit_' "$ALERT_LOG" 2>/dev/null | tr -d "[:space:]" || true; }
-rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_unit_* "$TMP/state/host_units"
+unit_alerts() { grep -c 'FAILED UNIT\|RECOVERED: ' "$ALERT_LOG" 2>/dev/null | tr -d "[:space:]" || true; }
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_failed_* "$TMP/state/host_units" "$TMP"/state/paged_*
 
 run_units "a.service b.service"
 check "units: first failures alert once per unit (got $(unit_alerts))" \
@@ -203,8 +203,8 @@ check "units: a NEW failure alerts while old ones are still failing (got $(unit_
   "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && grep -q 'c.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 
 run_units "b.service c.service"
-check "units: only the recovered unit reports RECOVERED" \
-  "$(grep -q 'RECOVERED: unit_a_service' "$ALERT_LOG" && [ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+check "units: only the recovered unit reports RECOVERED, by NAME" \
+  "$(grep -q 'RECOVERED: a.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && [ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 
 run_units ""
 check "units: the rest recover when the set empties (got $(unit_alerts))" \
@@ -275,11 +275,12 @@ check "tight memory: no 'integer expected' from field-count drift" \
 # ── the bullet: systemd prefixes a failed unit with "●" without --plain -------
 # Shipped once as `FAILED UNIT: ●`, one shared key for every failure. The stub
 # above now emits the bullet, so this is a real regression test.
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_z_service "$TMP"/state/host_failed_z_service
 run_units "z.service"
 check "units: the unit NAME is alerted, not systemd's bullet" \
   "$(grep -q 'FAILED UNIT: z.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && ! grep -q 'FAILED UNIT: ●' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 check "units: the state key is derived from the name, not the bullet" \
-  "$([ -e "$TMP/state/host_unit_z_service" ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+  "$([ -e "$TMP/state/host_failed_z_service" ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 
 # ── 6. OnFailure notifier: one incident is ONE page, not one per restart ──────
 # On 2026-08-28 vitareba-app could not read its .env (root-owned after a
@@ -465,7 +466,7 @@ env_run() { # run host-check with only the env check able to say anything
   printf '%s' ok > "$TMP/state/host_mem"; printf '%s' ok > "$TMP/state/host_disk"
   # Likewise the failed-unit keys: section 1b leaves z.service at `bad`, and an
   # empty FAILED_UNITS here would emit its RECOVERED into this section's count.
-  rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_unit_*
+  rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_failed_*
   APPROOT="$TMP/opt" APP_UNITS="demo-app.service" UNIT_USER="$(id -un)" \
     DISK_PCT=82 bash "$TMP/host-check.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
 }
@@ -496,7 +497,7 @@ check "env: a fresh recurrence is reported again, not muted by the last repair"
 chmod 000 "$TMP/opt/demo/shared/.env"
 : > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"; : > "$CHOWN_LOG"
 printf '%s' ok > "$TMP/state/host_mem"; printf '%s' ok > "$TMP/state/host_disk"
-rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_unit_*
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/host_failed_*
 rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_envfix_demo "$TMP"/state/paged_envbad_demo
 CHOWN_FAIL=1 APPROOT="$TMP/opt" APP_UNITS="demo-app.service" UNIT_USER="$(id -un)" \
   DISK_PCT=82 bash "$TMP/host-check.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
@@ -504,5 +505,62 @@ check "env: an unrepairable .env asks, and carries the exact fix command" \
   "$([ "$(sent)" -eq 1 ] && grep -q 'chown .* && systemctl restart demo-app.service' "$SEND_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
 chmod 600 "$TMP/opt/demo/shared/.env"
 
+# ── 12. Two detectors, one incident, ONE message ─────────────────────────────
+# 2026-08-29 06:45 `⚙️ FAILED UNIT: orangecat-cat-outcomes.service` from the
+# sweep; 06:46 `🔴 UNIT DOWN: orangecat-cat-outcomes.service` from the OnFailure
+# notifier once its grace expired. Both were correct, and both were correctly
+# deduplicated *against themselves* — which is precisely why this duplicate
+# survived a fix aimed at per-detector storms. Keying per detector lets N
+# detectors send N messages for one fact. The key is the SUBJECT.
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_* "$TMP"/state/host_failed_* "$TMP"/state/dedupe_*
+: > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"
+
+# The notifier speaks first (this is the real order: OnFailure fires at once,
+# the sweep runs on its 5-minute tick).
+UNIT_TYPE=oneshot notify orangecat-cat-outcomes.service
+check "cross-detector: the notifier pages the failure (got $(pages))" \
+  "$([ "$(pages)" -eq 1 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+run_units "orangecat-cat-outcomes.service"
+check "cross-detector: the sweep then stays silent about the SAME unit (got $(unit_alerts))" \
+  "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 0 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+check "cross-detector: the sweep's suppression is still journalled" \
+  "$(grep -q 'ALERT held for orangecat-cat-outcomes.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+
+# And the reverse order — whichever detector gets there first is the one that
+# speaks; neither needs to know the other exists.
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_* "$TMP"/state/host_failed_* "$TMP"/state/dedupe_*
+run_units "some-cron.service"
+check "cross-detector: the sweep pages when it is first (got $(unit_alerts))" \
+  "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+UNIT_TYPE=oneshot notify some-cron.service
+check "cross-detector: the notifier then stays silent (got $(pages))" \
+  "$([ "$(pages)" -eq 0 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+
+# A different unit is still a different incident — sharing the key must not
+# turn one outage into a fleet-wide gag.
+: > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"
+run_units "some-cron.service another-cron.service"
+check "cross-detector: a DIFFERENT unit still pages while the first is claimed" \
+  "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && grep -q 'another-cron.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+
+# ── 13. Closure only for failures that were actually announced ───────────────
+# `✅ RECOVERED: unit____` reached George on 2026-08-28 — closure on a message
+# nobody ever received, naming a key instead of a unit. If nothing was said
+# about the failure, nothing needs saying about its recovery.
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_* "$TMP"/state/host_failed_* "$TMP"/state/dedupe_*
+run_units "quiet.service"                       # pages, stamp claimed
+: > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"
+run_units ""                                    # recovers
+check "recovery: an announced failure gets closure, named by unit (got $(unit_alerts))" \
+  "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 1 ] && grep -q 'RECOVERED: quiet.service' "$ALERT_LOG" && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_* "$TMP"/state/host_failed_* "$TMP"/state/dedupe_*
+run_units "silent.service"
+rm -f "$TMP"/state/paged_silent_service        # as if the page had been suppressed
+: > "$ALERT_LOG"; : > "$SEND_LOG"
+run_units ""
+check "recovery: an UNannounced failure gets no closure either (got $(unit_alerts))" \
+  "$([ "$(unit_alerts)" -eq 0 ] && echo 0 || echo 1)"
+
 printf '\n  %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
 [ "$fail" -eq 0 ]