diff --git a/limits.go b/limits.go
index 2bff4c7..408ebd6 100644
--- a/limits.go
+++ b/limits.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package traefikllmgateway
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"math"
 	"net/http"
@@ -503,9 +504,13 @@ type limiter struct {
 	// time-to-first-byte path (a synchronous storeIncrMulti round trip
 	// there would delay every first chunk by however long that write
 	// takes). newLimiter always wires a production limiter's spawn to a
-	// real `go f()`; a test that needs recordProviderAttempt's write to
-	// have already landed by the time it reads a counter back overrides
-	// spawn to run f synchronously instead — the same dependency-
+	// BOUNDED goroutine — see spawnTokens below (FOLDED-1, v0.22 review
+	// round, round 2): unbounded `go f()` could pile up an unlimited
+	// number of in-flight writes against a slow-but-alive Redis, since
+	// nothing here backpressures request volume. A test that needs
+	// recordProviderAttempt's write to have already landed by the time it
+	// reads a counter back overrides spawn to run f synchronously
+	// instead, bypassing spawnTokens entirely — the same dependency-
 	// injection idiom nowFn already uses on this struct, and waitFn uses
 	// on retryPolicy (retry.go). A goroutine spawned this way outlives
 	// the request that triggered it by design: a write still in flight at
@@ -514,6 +519,24 @@ type limiter struct {
 	// writes to are inherently approximate already (a counter reset at a
 	// bucket boundary loses whatever was in the previous bucket too).
 	spawn func(func())
+	// spawnTokens is the buffered-channel semaphore the production spawn
+	// closure (newLimiter) acquires from non-blockingly before starting a
+	// goroutine, and releases when that goroutine finishes — FOLDED-1
+	// (v0.22 review round, round 2): capped at providerAttemptSpawnCap
+	// in-flight writes per limiter. Acquiring a token that is not
+	// immediately available means the write is DROPPED, never queued or
+	// blocked — bounded AND lossy-under-pressure, by design: this is a
+	// telemetry counter family (recordProviderAttempt), not enforcement
+	// (checkAndCount/account never go through spawn at all), so losing an
+	// occasional attempt/failure increment under sustained store pressure
+	// is an accepted trade-off against the alternative, an unbounded
+	// goroutine pile-up that could itself become the outage. Per-limiter,
+	// not a package-level channel: this codebase's own test suite
+	// constructs many independent *limiter values in one process
+	// (including in parallel, via t.Parallel()), and a shared global
+	// semaphore would let one test's write volume starve an unrelated
+	// test's — see newLimiter's own construction of it.
+	spawnTokens chan struct{}
 	// lastErrMsg is the message of the most recent store operation
 	// failure, guarded by logMu alongside lastStoreFailure. It is never
 	// cleared on a later success — "last store error" for the admin
@@ -525,6 +548,16 @@ type limiter struct {
 	failOpen   bool // store-error policy: true falls back to fallback, false refuses the request
 }
 
+// providerAttemptSpawnCap bounds how many concurrent recordProviderAttempt
+// store writes one limiter's production spawn implementation will run at
+// once (FOLDED-1, v0.22 review round, round 2) — see limiter.spawnTokens'
+// own doc comment for the full rationale. 64 is generous headroom for
+// this telemetry path specifically (every real deployment's traffic
+// volume is expected to sit well under it in steady state) while still
+// bounding the worst case against a store that has gone slow but not
+// down.
+const providerAttemptSpawnCap = 64
+
 // newLimiter returns a limiter. A nil store means every operation uses the
 // limiter's own in-process fallback memoryStore — the plugin still
 // enforces limits with no distributed backend configured, just without
@@ -533,14 +566,27 @@ type limiter struct {
 // memoryStore for that operation, false refuses the request (see
 // storeIncrBy / storeGet).
 func newLimiter(store counterStore, failOpen bool) *limiter {
-	return &limiter{
-		store:    store,
-		fallback: newMemoryStore(),
-		nowFn:    time.Now,
-		logf:     func(string, ...any) {},
-		failOpen: failOpen,
-		spawn:    func(f func()) { go f() },
+	l := &limiter{
+		store:       store,
+		fallback:    newMemoryStore(),
+		nowFn:       time.Now,
+		logf:        func(string, ...any) {},
+		failOpen:    failOpen,
+		spawnTokens: make(chan struct{}, providerAttemptSpawnCap),
 	}
+	l.spawn = func(f func()) {
+		select {
+		case l.spawnTokens <- struct{}{}:
+			go func() {
+				defer func() { <-l.spawnTokens }()
+				f()
+			}()
+		default:
+			// Dropped: spawnTokens is full — bounded, lossy-under-pressure
+			// by design (FOLDED-1, its own doc comment above).
+		}
+	}
+	return l
 }
 
 // now returns the limiter's current time, via nowFn.
@@ -1204,43 +1250,50 @@ func providerModelScopeID(provider, model string) string {
 	return provider + "/" + model
 }
 
-// sentinelUnwrapper is the errors.Unwrap interface, matched bare (a comma-ok
-// type assertion, never errors.Is/errors.As) — see matchesSentinel's own
-// doc comment for why.
-type sentinelUnwrapper interface {
-	Unwrap() error
-}
-
-// matchesSentinel reports whether err IS, or wraps, sentinel — the exact
-// semantics errors.Is applies for a plain sentinel comparison (neither
-// context.DeadlineExceeded nor context.Canceled defines an Is(error)
-// method, so there is no behavioral difference to preserve), implemented
-// by hand-walking err's Unwrap chain instead of calling errors.Is itself.
+// matchesSentinel reports whether err IS, or wraps (through any
+// combination of single-%w and multi-%w Unwrap chains), sentinel —
+// implemented with a real errors.Is call, NOT a hand-rolled Unwrap walk.
 //
-// This is deliberate, not a style preference: providerHTTPError's own doc
-// comment (providers.go) already documents that errors.As panics under
-// Yaegi when checking whether an interpreted pointer type implements
-// error, which is why handleAdapterError uses a bare type assertion
-// instead. errors.Is walks the identical reflect-based machinery
-// internally (both live in package errors and share its Is/As helper
-// code) and carries the same risk — recordProviderAttempt is exercised
-// under Yaegi too (tools/yaegi-check's harness drives a real chat
-// completion through it), so this sidesteps the trap entirely: a bare
-// `err.(sentinelUnwrapper)` comma-ok assertion is plain interface
-// satisfaction, never reflection over a possibly-interpreted concrete
-// type.
+// This function used to hand-roll that walk instead, via two locally
+// declared interfaces (single-error Unwrap() error, multi-error
+// Unwrap() []error) matched with bare comma-ok type assertions — the
+// documented-safe pattern providerHTTPError's own doc comment
+// (providers.go) already established for a DIFFERENT direction: checking
+// whether an INTERPRETED plugin-defined type (like providerHTTPError
+// itself) satisfies the standard error interface, which is exactly what
+// makes errors.As panic under Yaegi (it needs to synthesize interpreted
+// type info for that check). That hand-rolled version was WRONG for
+// THIS direction, and the SHOULD-A yaegi-check harness (v0.22 review
+// round, round 2 — tools/yaegi-check/main.go's exerciseAttemptAccounting)
+// caught it empirically: under the interpreter, `err.(multiUnwrapper)`
+// — an INTERPRETED interface type (multiUnwrapper, declared in this
+// file) asserted against a value whose concrete type is COMPILED
+// (*fmt.wrapErrors, from a real fmt.Errorf call with more than one %w) —
+// silently returned ok=false even though %T correctly reported
+// *fmt.wrapErrors and that type genuinely implements Unwrap() []error in
+// real, compiled Go. Yaegi's interface-satisfaction check apparently
+// does not correctly match a compiled concrete type's method set against
+// an interpreter-declared interface signature, at least for this shape —
+// the reverse direction of the already-documented trap, not previously
+// known to this codebase.
+//
+// errors.Is does not have this problem here: sentinel (context.
+// DeadlineExceeded, context.Canceled — isDeadlineExceeded's only
+// callers) and every err this function is ever called with (the network/
+// context error chain client.Do and fmt.Errorf produce) are BOTH always
+// compiled-origin values — never an interpreted plugin type. errors.Is's
+// own internal Unwrap-chain walk (including its Go 1.20+ multi-error
+// support) therefore runs entirely within compiled code on compiled
+// types, the same safe shape retry.go's isTransient already relies on
+// for these identical two sentinels, proven correct under Yaegi across
+// every prior review round. The risk this file's earlier version was
+// trying to avoid — errors.As panicking on an INTERPRETED type — simply
+// does not arise for a plain sentinel comparison against a compiled
+// value. Verified directly: this replacement is what made SHOULD-A's
+// timeout-driving harness pass under the real interpreter (round 2's
+// hand-rolled fix, though it passed every compiled `go test`, did not).
 func matchesSentinel(err, sentinel error) bool {
-	for err != nil {
-		if err == sentinel { //nolint:errorlint // deliberate identity comparison; see doc comment above
-			return true
-		}
-		u, ok := err.(sentinelUnwrapper)
-		if !ok {
-			return false
-		}
-		err = u.Unwrap()
-	}
-	return false
+	return errors.Is(err, sentinel)
 }
 
 // isDeadlineExceeded reports whether err IS, or wraps, context.
diff --git a/limits_test.go b/limits_test.go
index 292404a..b1b56ed 100644
--- a/limits_test.go
+++ b/limits_test.go
@@ -1421,7 +1421,7 @@ func TestRecordProviderAttempt_ClassifiesUsingIsTransient(t *testing.T) {
 		{name: "network error", err: errors.New("dial tcp: connection refused"), wantFail: true},
 		{name: "context canceled (not a provider fault)", err: context.Canceled, wantFail: false},
 		{name: "context deadline exceeded (hung upstream timed out — SHOULD-1)", err: context.DeadlineExceeded, wantFail: true},
-		{name: "wrapped context deadline exceeded (proves the manual Unwrap walk)", err: fmt.Errorf("%w: dial timeout", context.DeadlineExceeded), wantFail: true},
+		{name: "wrapped context deadline exceeded (proves errors.Is walks the chain)", err: fmt.Errorf("%w: dial timeout", context.DeadlineExceeded), wantFail: true},
 		{name: "wrapped context canceled stays non-failure too", err: fmt.Errorf("%w: client hung up", context.Canceled), wantFail: false},
 	}
 
@@ -1494,14 +1494,63 @@ func TestRecordProviderAttempt_EmptyProvider_NoOp(t *testing.T) {
 	l.recordProviderAttempt("", "some-model", &http.Response{StatusCode: http.StatusOK}, nil) // must not panic
 }
 
-// TestIsDeadlineExceeded_YaegiSafeUnwrap exercises matchesSentinel's
-// hand-rolled Unwrap walk directly (SHOULD-1, v0.22 review round): a bare
-// context.DeadlineExceeded, one wrapped once, one wrapped twice (proving
-// the loop actually loops, not just unwraps one level), a non-matching
-// error that implements Unwrap (must walk to its end and report false,
-// not stop after one failed comparison), and a plain error with no
-// Unwrap method at all (the comma-ok assertion's negative case).
-func TestIsDeadlineExceeded_YaegiSafeUnwrap(t *testing.T) {
+// TestRecordProviderAttempt_ProductionSpawn_WriteEventuallyLandsAsync
+// leaves limiter.spawn at its real production default (newLimiter's own
+// bounded, goroutine-spawning closure) instead of overriding it to run
+// synchronously like every other recordProviderAttempt test in this file
+// — FOLDED-2 (v0.22 review round, round 2): every other test here proves
+// the WRITE is correct, but only by bypassing the actual async code path
+// (limiter.spawn's own doc comment) entirely; this is the one test that
+// exercises it for real, closing a real -race async-path gap. Polls
+// (waitUntil, registry_test.go) rather than sleeping a fixed duration —
+// a fixed sleep is either flaky (too short, especially under `-race`,
+// which distorts goroutine scheduling) or wastefully slow (too long); a
+// deadline-bounded poll is neither.
+func TestRecordProviderAttempt_ProductionSpawn_WriteEventuallyLandsAsync(t *testing.T) {
+	l := newLimiter(nil, true) // production default spawn — deliberately NOT newSyncLimiter
+	now := time.Date(2026, 8, 21, 12, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	l.nowFn = func() time.Time { return now }
+
+	l.recordProviderAttempt("openai", "gpt-4o", &http.Response{StatusCode: http.StatusOK}, nil)
+
+	waitUntil(t, time.Second, func() bool {
+		attempts, _ := l.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvAttempt, windowDay, now)
+		return attempts == 1
+	})
+	fails, _ := l.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvFail, windowDay, now)
+	if fails != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("fails/day = %d, want 0 (a 200 response is never a failure)", fails)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestIsDeadlineExceeded_Classification exercises isDeadlineExceeded's
+// observable classification across every wrap shape that matters: bare,
+// wrapped once, wrapped twice, an unrelated sentinel (context.Canceled,
+// which must never match), an unrelated wrapped error, a plain error
+// with no Unwrap method — PLUS the prod-shape double-%w/triple-%w rows a
+// review round-2 blocker demanded, byte-for-byte the exact format
+// strings providers.go's three upstreamJSON/upstreamBytes call sites use.
+//
+// A load-bearing caveat this test's own name used to hide (it was
+// TestIsDeadlineExceeded_YaegiSafeUnwrap): every case here runs COMPILED,
+// under `go test`, and compiled-Go correctness is not the same claim as
+// Yaegi-interpreted correctness. Round 2's original fix — a hand-rolled
+// Unwrap walk against two locally declared interfaces, matched with bare
+// comma-ok type assertions — passed every one of these exact rows
+// (including the double-/triple-%w ones) under `go test`, while
+// SHOULD-A's yaegi-check harness (tools/yaegi-check/main.go's
+// exerciseAttemptAccounting) proved it silently returned false for the
+// double-%w case under the REAL interpreter: an interpreted interface
+// type does not correctly match a compiled concrete value's method set
+// in Yaegi, the reverse direction of the already-documented errors.As-
+// on-interpreted-types trap. matchesSentinel now calls real errors.Is
+// instead (limits.go's own doc comment there has the full account of why
+// that is safe here specifically, unlike errors.As on an interpreted
+// type) — this table still pins the OBSERVABLE behavior, but
+// tools/yaegi-check is what actually proves it under the interpreter;
+// this table alone would not have caught the round-2 regression, and a
+// future change here must keep running yaegi-check, not just `go test`.
+func TestIsDeadlineExceeded_Classification(t *testing.T) {
 	tests := []struct {
 		err  error
 		name string
@@ -1514,6 +1563,31 @@ func TestIsDeadlineExceeded_YaegiSafeUnwrap(t *testing.T) {
 		{name: "unrelated sentinel (context.Canceled)", err: context.Canceled, want: false},
 		{name: "unrelated wrapped error", err: fmt.Errorf("dial: %w", errors.New("connection refused")), want: false},
 		{name: "plain error, no Unwrap method", err: errors.New("boom"), want: false},
+		{
+			name: "double-%w, upstreamBytes' client.Do shape — the blocker's own reproduction",
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("%w: %w", errUpstream, context.DeadlineExceeded),
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "double-%w, upstreamJSON's encode-failure shape",
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("%w: encode request body: %w", errUpstream, context.DeadlineExceeded),
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "triple-%w, upstreamBytes' build-request shape",
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("%w: %w: build request: %w", errUpstream, errRequestBuildFailed, context.DeadlineExceeded),
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "double-%w wrapping context.Canceled must still NOT match — multi-wrap does not blur the two sentinels apart",
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("%w: %w", errUpstream, context.Canceled),
+			want: false,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "double-%w wrapping an unrelated error must still NOT match",
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("%w: %w", errUpstream, errors.New("connection refused")),
+			want: false,
+		},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/routes_passthrough_test.go b/routes_passthrough_test.go
index 79c6683..074ba9b 100644
--- a/routes_passthrough_test.go
+++ b/routes_passthrough_test.go
@@ -934,3 +934,56 @@ func TestHandlePassthrough_AnthropicClientAPIKeyStripped_ProviderKeyInjected(t *
 		t.Errorf("x-api-key = %q, want the provider's own key injected", gotAPIKeyHeader)
 	}
 }
+
+// TestHandlePassthrough_ContextDeadlineExceeded_RecordsProviderFailure is
+// the passthrough half of the route-level regression the review's
+// blocker demanded (v0.22, round 2) — a real context deadline against a
+// real sleeping httptest upstream. Passthrough was NEVER actually broken
+// by the multi-%w bug (proxyUpstream's client.Do error reaches
+// attemptRecorderFromContext bare, never re-wrapped by upstreamBytes —
+// see recordProviderAttempt's own call site here, routes_passthrough.go),
+// but the review round proved that by observation, not a route-level
+// assertion; this pins it so a future refactor cannot silently regress
+// it the same way the unified route regressed.
+func TestHandlePassthrough_ContextDeadlineExceeded_RecordsProviderFailure(t *testing.T) {
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		time.Sleep(600 * time.Millisecond) // well past the request's own 60ms deadline below
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+
+	cfg := CreateConfig()
+	cfg.Providers = map[string]*ProviderConfig{
+		"openai": {Type: "openai", BaseURL: srv.URL, APIKey: "sk-up"},
+	}
+	cfg.Groups = map[string]*GroupConfig{"default": {}}
+	cfg.Users = &UsersConfig{Inline: []*UserConfig{
+		{Name: "alice", Group: "default", APIKey: "sk-alice", Limits: &LimitsConfig{}},
+	}}
+	next := http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {})
+	h, err := New(context.Background(), next, cfg, "llmgw")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("New: %v", err)
+	}
+	gw, ok := h.(*Gateway)
+	if !ok {
+		t.Fatal("handler is not *Gateway")
+	}
+	gw.limiter.spawn = func(f func()) { f() }
+
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 60*time.Millisecond)
+	defer cancel()
+	req := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/openai/v1/native-endpoint", strings.NewReader(`{}`)).WithContext(ctx)
+	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer sk-alice")
+	rec := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	h.ServeHTTP(rec, req)
+
+	now := time.Now()
+	attempts, _ := gw.limiter.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvAttempt, windowDay, now)
+	if attempts != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("provider attempts/day = %d, want 1", attempts)
+	}
+	fails, _ := gw.limiter.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvFail, windowDay, now)
+	if fails != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("provider fails/day = %d, want 1 — a real context-deadline timeout must count as a provider-health failure (SHOULD-1)", fails)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/routes_unified_test.go b/routes_unified_test.go
index be9a8f3..cb703ea 100644
--- a/routes_unified_test.go
+++ b/routes_unified_test.go
@@ -1830,3 +1830,67 @@ func TestUnifiedCostMicros(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+// TestHandleChat_ContextDeadlineExceeded_RecordsProviderFailure is the
+// route-level regression test the review's blocker (v0.22, round 2)
+// specifically demanded: TestIsDeadlineExceeded_YaegiSafeUnwrap's
+// hand-built error shapes (limits_test.go) proved matchesSentinel's own
+// unwrap logic works in isolation, but that alone is exactly what let the
+// real bug ship — every hand-built shape there was single-%w, while the
+// live chain through upstreamBytes' client.Do call is providers.go's
+// own double-%w `fmt.Errorf("%w: %w", errUpstream, err)`, one layer
+// short of what a table test alone would ever exercise. This drives a
+// REAL request whose context deadline expires while a REAL httptest
+// upstream is still sleeping — client.Do, *url.Error, and the wrap chain
+// providers.go actually builds, all for real — and asserts the resulting
+// provider counters directly, not a synthetic error value.
+func TestHandleChat_ContextDeadlineExceeded_RecordsProviderFailure(t *testing.T) {
+	srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		time.Sleep(600 * time.Millisecond) // well past the request's own 60ms deadline below
+		w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+		_, _ = w.Write([]byte(`{"id":"c1","object":"chat.completion","model":"gpt-test","choices":[],"usage":{}}`))
+	}))
+	defer srv.Close()
+
+	cfg := CreateConfig()
+	cfg.Providers = map[string]*ProviderConfig{
+		"openai": {Type: "openai", BaseURL: srv.URL, APIKey: "sk-up", Models: []string{"gpt-test"}},
+	}
+	cfg.Groups = map[string]*GroupConfig{"default": {}}
+	cfg.Users = &UsersConfig{Inline: []*UserConfig{
+		{Name: "alice", Group: "default", APIKey: "sk-alice", Limits: &LimitsConfig{}},
+	}}
+	next := http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {})
+	h, err := New(context.Background(), next, cfg, "llmgw")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("New: %v", err)
+	}
+	gw, ok := h.(*Gateway)
+	if !ok {
+		t.Fatal("handler is not *Gateway")
+	}
+	// SHOULD-5: run recordProviderAttempt's store write synchronously so
+	// the counter read below is deterministic (see limiter.spawn's own
+	// doc comment, limits.go). FOLDED-2's own test (limits_test.go)
+	// covers the production async default separately.
+	gw.limiter.spawn = func(f func()) { f() }
+
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 60*time.Millisecond)
+	defer cancel()
+	req := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/v1/chat/completions",
+		strings.NewReader(`{"model":"gpt-test","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}`)).WithContext(ctx)
+	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer sk-alice")
+	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+	rec := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	h.ServeHTTP(rec, req)
+
+	now := time.Now()
+	attempts, _ := gw.limiter.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvAttempt, windowDay, now)
+	if attempts != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("provider attempts/day = %d, want 1", attempts)
+	}
+	fails, _ := gw.limiter.getCounter(kindProvider, "openai", metricProvFail, windowDay, now)
+	if fails != 1 {
+		t.Errorf("provider fails/day = %d, want 1 — a real context-deadline timeout must count as a provider-health failure (SHOULD-1)", fails)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/tools/yaegi-check/main.go b/tools/yaegi-check/main.go
index ec80498..1df550e 100644
--- a/tools/yaegi-check/main.go
+++ b/tools/yaegi-check/main.go
@@ -50,14 +50,44 @@ import (
 // layers on top of testData (see its own override comment) — SHOULD-4
 // (v0.22 review round): this harness proves recordProviderAttempt's
 // SHOULD-1 deadline/cancel classification (limits.go's matchesSentinel/
-// isDeadlineExceeded, a hand-rolled errors.Unwrap walk specifically
-// because errors.Is/errors.As are unsafe under Yaegi — see their own doc
-// comments) actually runs correctly INTERPRETED, not merely compiled: a
-// bug there would not show up under `go test`, only here.
+// isDeadlineExceeded) actually runs correctly INTERPRETED, not merely
+// compiled: a bug there would not show up under `go test`, only here —
+// which is exactly what happened in round 2 (see slowProviderName's own
+// doc comment immediately below, and matchesSentinel's in limits.go, for
+// the full account of the interpreter-only bug this harness caught).
+//
+// slowProviderName/slowProviderModel/slowUpstreamSleep/
+// slowRequestDeadline back exerciseAttemptAccounting's SECOND request
+// (SHOULD-A, v0.22 review round, round 2): the FIRST version of this
+// harness only ever drove an upstream that answers instantly, so
+// isDeadlineExceeded never actually saw a non-nil error, interpreted or
+// otherwise — a comment claiming to prove the interpreted deadline path
+// while never exercising it. Once fixed to actually drive a timeout, it
+// caught a real bug: round 2's original matchesSentinel (a hand-rolled
+// Unwrap walk against two locally declared interfaces, comma-ok matched)
+// passed every compiled `go test` row for a double-%w error shape but
+// silently misclassified it under the real interpreter — an interpreted
+// interface type failing to match a compiled concrete value's method
+// set. matchesSentinel now calls real errors.Is instead (limits.go's own
+// doc comment has the full account of why that is safe here
+// specifically). The second request below: a second, DELIBERATELY slow
+// provider, addressed by its own provider-prefixed model id
+// (`slowProviderName+"/"+slowProviderModel`, routableModelId's own
+// "provider/model" convention) so it can never collide with
+// testDataWantModel's bare "gpt-test" on the "openai" provider, driven
+// with a request context deadline shorter than the upstream's own
+// sleep — the exact shape the route-level Go test regression (routes_
+// unified_test.go's TestHandleChat_ContextDeadlineExceeded_
+// RecordsProviderFailure) already proves compiled; this proves it
+// interpreted.
 const (
 	testDataUserAPIKey           = "test-user-key"
 	testDataWantModel            = "gpt-test"
 	attemptAccountingAdminAPIKey = "sk-admin1"
+	slowProviderName             = "slow"
+	slowProviderModel            = "gpt-test"
+	slowUpstreamSleep            = 600 * time.Millisecond
+	slowRequestDeadline          = 60 * time.Millisecond
 )
 
 // excludedTopLevelDirs lists repo-root directories the GOPATH copy must
@@ -178,7 +208,20 @@ func run() error {
 		_, _ = w.Write([]byte(`{"id":"c1","object":"chat.completion","model":"gpt-test","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"role":"assistant","content":"hi"},"finish_reason":"stop"}],"usage":{"prompt_tokens":1,"completion_tokens":1}}`))
 	}))
 	defer upstream.Close()
-	attemptAccountingOverride := `{"providers":{"openai":{"type":"openai","baseUrl":"` + upstream.URL + `","apiKey":"sk-up","models":["` + testDataWantModel + `"]}},"admin":{"enabled":true},"users":{"inline":[{"name":"tester","group":"default","apiKey":"` + testDataUserAPIKey + `"},{"name":"admin1","group":"default","apiKey":"` + attemptAccountingAdminAPIKey + `","admin":true}]}}`
+
+	// slowUpstream never answers within slowRequestDeadline — see
+	// slowProviderName's own doc comment above (SHOULD-A) for why this
+	// second provider exists at all.
+	slowUpstream := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		time.Sleep(slowUpstreamSleep)
+		w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+		_, _ = w.Write([]byte(`{"id":"c2","object":"chat.completion","model":"gpt-test","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"role":"assistant","content":"hi"},"finish_reason":"stop"}],"usage":{"prompt_tokens":1,"completion_tokens":1}}`))
+	}))
+	defer slowUpstream.Close()
+
+	attemptAccountingOverride := `{"providers":{"openai":{"type":"openai","baseUrl":"` + upstream.URL + `","apiKey":"sk-up","models":["` + testDataWantModel + `"]},"` +
+		slowProviderName + `":{"type":"openai","baseUrl":"` + slowUpstream.URL + `","apiKey":"sk-up","models":["` + slowProviderModel + `"]}},` +
+		`"admin":{"enabled":true},"users":{"inline":[{"name":"tester","group":"default","apiKey":"` + testDataUserAPIKey + `"},{"name":"admin1","group":"default","apiKey":"` + attemptAccountingAdminAPIKey + `","admin":true}]}}`
 	if err = json.Unmarshal([]byte(attemptAccountingOverride), cfgVal.Interface()); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("decode attempt-accounting harness override into the interpreted Config: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -248,20 +291,35 @@ func exerciseHandler(handler http.Handler) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// exerciseAttemptAccounting drives a real chat completion through
-// handler (against the local httptest upstream run's own override wired
-// in), then GET /admin/api/overview, asserting the resulting provider
-// reports exactly one attempt and zero failures — Feature A's (v0.22)
-// per-provider success-rate accounting, exercised end to end under
-// Yaegi: runUnified's attemptRecorder (routes_unified.go) ->
-// retryPolicy.do's context lookup (retry.go) ->
+// exerciseAttemptAccounting drives two real requests through handler —
+// Feature A's (v0.22) per-provider success-rate accounting, exercised
+// end to end under Yaegi: runUnified's attemptRecorder (routes_unified.
+// go) -> retryPolicy.do's context lookup (retry.go) ->
 // limiter.recordProviderAttempt's isTransient/isDeadlineExceeded
-// classification (limits.go) -> its fire-and-forget spawn (SHOULD-5) ->
-// buildAdminOverview's own batched providerUsage read (admin.go). Any
-// interpreter-only failure in that chain — a construct `go build`/`go
-// test` cannot catch, exactly the class of bug this harness exists for
-// (SHOULD-4, v0.22 review round) — surfaces here as a non-1/non-0 count
-// or an outright panic under Yaegi.
+// classification (limits.go, including matchesSentinel's errors.Is call
+// through providers.go's own multi-%w wrapping) -> its fire-and-forget
+// spawn (SHOULD-5) -> buildAdminOverview's own batched providerUsage read
+// (admin.go). Any interpreter-only failure in that chain — a construct
+// `go build`/`go test` cannot catch, exactly the class of bug this
+// harness exists for (SHOULD-4, v0.22 review round) — surfaces here as a
+// non-1/non-0 count or an outright panic under Yaegi.
+//
+// The first request (against "openai", instant upstream) proves the
+// success path: one attempt, zero failures. The second (against
+// slowProviderName, an upstream that never answers within
+// slowRequestDeadline — SHOULD-A, round 2) proves the FAILURE path:
+// exactly what round 1 of this harness claimed to prove but never
+// actually drove — the interpreted plugin never saw a non-nil error at
+// all, so isDeadlineExceeded was never exercised under this harness even
+// while it ran (and passed) under `go test`. THIS is what SHOULD-A was
+// for: the first version of this second request, run against round 2's
+// hand-rolled comma-ok Unwrap-walk fix (limits.go's matchesSentinel,
+// since replaced), FAILED right here — under the interpreter only,
+// despite passing every compiled `go test` row for the identical error
+// shape — because an interpreted interface type does not correctly match
+// a compiled concrete value's method set in Yaegi. matchesSentinel now
+// uses real errors.Is instead (its own doc comment in limits.go has the
+// full account); this harness is what caught the difference.
 func exerciseAttemptAccounting(handler http.Handler) error {
 	chatReq := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/v1/chat/completions", strings.NewReader(
 		`{"model":"`+testDataWantModel+`","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}`,
@@ -274,33 +332,61 @@ func exerciseAttemptAccounting(handler http.Handler) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("POST /v1/chat/completions (attempt-accounting harness): status = %d, want 200, body=%s", chatRec.Code, chatRec.Body.String())
 	}
 
-	attemptsDay, failuresDay, err := pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler)
+	attemptsDay, failuresDay, err := pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler, "openai")
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	if attemptsDay != 1 {
-		return fmt.Errorf("admin overview providers[0].attemptsDay = %v, want 1 (Feature A attempt-accounting harness)", attemptsDay)
+		return fmt.Errorf(`admin overview provider "openai" attemptsDay = %v, want 1 (Feature A attempt-accounting harness)`, attemptsDay)
 	}
 	if failuresDay != 0 {
-		return fmt.Errorf("admin overview providers[0].failuresDay = %v, want 0", failuresDay)
+		return fmt.Errorf(`admin overview provider "openai" failuresDay = %v, want 0`, failuresDay)
+	}
+
+	// SHOULD-A: a real, interpreted context-deadline timeout against a
+	// deliberately slow upstream must record a FAILURE — the whole
+	// reason this harness exists after round 2's blocker.
+	slowCtx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), slowRequestDeadline)
+	defer cancel()
+	slowReq := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/v1/chat/completions", strings.NewReader(
+		`{"model":"`+slowProviderName+`/`+slowProviderModel+`","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}`,
+	)).WithContext(slowCtx)
+	slowReq.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+testDataUserAPIKey)
+	slowReq.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+	slowRec := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	handler.ServeHTTP(slowRec, slowReq)
+	// No status assertion here on purpose: the point of interest is the
+	// PROVIDER-HEALTH counter a timed-out upstream attempt leaves behind,
+	// not what status code a canceled/timed-out client request itself
+	// gets back (which the existing route-level Go tests already pin).
+
+	slowAttemptsDay, slowFailuresDay, err := pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler, slowProviderName)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if slowAttemptsDay != 1 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("admin overview provider %q attemptsDay = %v, want 1 (SHOULD-A timeout harness)", slowProviderName, slowAttemptsDay)
+	}
+	if slowFailuresDay != 1 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("admin overview provider %q failuresDay = %v, want 1 — a real interpreted context-deadline timeout must count as a provider-health failure (SHOULD-A, closes the round-2 blocker)", slowProviderName, slowFailuresDay)
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
 // pollProviderAttemptCounters drives GET /admin/api/overview against
-// handler repeatedly until providers[0].attemptsDay is non-zero or a 2s
+// handler repeatedly until providerName's attemptsDay is non-zero or a 2s
 // budget elapses, then returns its final reading either way — SHOULD-5
 // (v0.22 review round): recordProviderAttempt's store write runs on its
-// own goroutine (limiter.spawn), off the chat request that triggered it,
-// so a single immediate read right after that request returns could race
+// own goroutine (limiter.spawn), off the request that triggered it, so a
+// single immediate read right after that request returns could race
 // ahead of the write landing. A real goroutine still schedules promptly
 // under Yaegi (only the INTERPRETED code driving it runs slower, not the
 // underlying Go runtime's scheduler), so this is a short poll, not a
 // long one.
-func pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler) (attemptsDay, failuresDay float64, err error) {
+func pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler, providerName string) (attemptsDay, failuresDay float64, err error) {
 	deadline := time.Now().Add(2 * time.Second)
 	for {
-		attemptsDay, failuresDay, err = readProviderAttemptCounters(handler)
+		attemptsDay, failuresDay, err = readProviderAttemptCounters(handler, providerName)
 		if err != nil {
 			return 0, 0, err
 		}
@@ -311,14 +397,18 @@ func pollProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler) (attemptsDay, failuresDay
 	}
 }
 
-// readProviderAttemptCounters reads GET /admin/api/overview's first
-// provider's attemptsDay/failuresDay fields via a generic map[string]any
-// decode — this harness module is compiled, not interpreted, so it could
-// import the plugin's own admin.go types directly, but they are
-// unexported (adminOverviewResponse, adminProviderView); decoding
-// generically here is simpler than exporting test-only types across that
-// boundary just for this one harness.
-func readProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler) (attemptsDay, failuresDay float64, err error) {
+// readProviderAttemptCounters reads GET /admin/api/overview, finds the
+// entry named providerName, and returns its attemptsDay/failuresDay
+// fields via a generic map[string]any decode — this harness module is
+// compiled, not interpreted, so it could import the plugin's own admin.go
+// types directly, but they are unexported (adminOverviewResponse,
+// adminProviderView); decoding generically here is simpler than exporting
+// test-only types across that boundary just for this one harness. Looked
+// up by name, not index 0 (round 1 of this harness only ever had one
+// configured provider): buildAdminOverview sorts providers by name
+// (registry.go), so adding slowProviderName ("slow") after "openai"
+// changed which index held which provider.
+func readProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler, providerName string) (attemptsDay, failuresDay float64, err error) {
 	req := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, "/admin/api/overview", nil)
 	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+attemptAccountingAdminAPIKey)
 	rec := httptest.NewRecorder()
@@ -332,16 +422,22 @@ func readProviderAttemptCounters(handler http.Handler) (attemptsDay, failuresDay
 		return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("decode GET /admin/api/overview body: %w", err)
 	}
 	providers, ok := body["providers"].([]any)
-	if !ok || len(providers) == 0 {
-		return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("admin overview body has no providers: %s", rec.Body.String())
-	}
-	p, ok := providers[0].(map[string]any)
 	if !ok {
-		return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("admin overview providers[0] is not an object: %s", rec.Body.String())
+		return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("admin overview body has no providers array: %s", rec.Body.String())
 	}
-	attemptsDay, _ = p["attemptsDay"].(float64)
-	failuresDay, _ = p["failuresDay"].(float64)
-	return attemptsDay, failuresDay, nil
+	for _, raw := range providers {
+		p, ok := raw.(map[string]any)
+		if !ok {
+			continue
+		}
+		if name, _ := p["name"].(string); name != providerName {
+			continue
+		}
+		attemptsDay, _ = p["attemptsDay"].(float64)
+		failuresDay, _ = p["failuresDay"].(float64)
+		return attemptsDay, failuresDay, nil
+	}
+	return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("admin overview body has no provider named %q: %s", providerName, rec.Body.String())
 }
 
 // readModulePath returns the module path declared by goModPath's