diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4d0871c..16523f4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ so entries say what changed, cite the issue, and stop.
 - `needs-ruling` — the cross-cutting flag for a pending human decision, excluded from `state:needs-human` and from the staleness sweep (#51).
 - Cross-repo doctrine: the panel is the PR's repo's roster, a review request is authorization but not panel membership, and `Part of <repo>#N` replaces the `Closes #N` that cannot cross repos (#57).
 - `actions/runner-isolated` — a `pull_request`-triggered job may never run on a self-hosted runner (#58).
+- The sweep's `needs-ruling` invariants, one implementation for both surfaces: the issue-side staleness exemption, the bare-flag check (comment-only, the label is never removed), and the 7-day nudge to the decider (#52).
 
 ## 0.1.0 — 2026-07-22
 
diff --git a/LABELS.md b/LABELS.md
index d617129..5d3def5 100644
--- a/LABELS.md
+++ b/LABELS.md
@@ -89,7 +89,15 @@ disagrees that agreement was reached, the label goes back on. The machine
 reads it and never writes it: the reconciler refuses `state:needs-human`
 while it stands (the PR falls to `state:addressing` — the ball on the PR is
 the builder's, who carries the ruling in), and the staleness sweep skips
-it, because waiting on a human is legitimately quiet.
+it, because waiting on a human is legitimately quiet. Quiet, but not
+unwatched (#52, both surfaces): a flag set with no escalation comment from
+its setter is called out by the sweep — comment-only, scoped to the labeled
+event, the label never removed — and a ruling with no real activity for 7
+days draws a comment-only nudge addressed to the decider, linking the
+escalation. The nudge carries no marker on purpose: the comment is itself
+activity, so it resets its own window and never repeats within a quiet
+week. Label churn is not activity — the clock reads comments, reviews and
+commits, or the sweep would reset itself.
 
 ## Scope — which surface? (PRs and issues, any number)
 
diff --git a/docs/CONSUMERS.md b/docs/CONSUMERS.md
index 1f38c91..bea4151 100644
--- a/docs/CONSUMERS.md
+++ b/docs/CONSUMERS.md
@@ -226,9 +226,12 @@ build (#15) and incubator's GHCR image push (#16).
 ## Labels automation
 
 The reusable labels workflow owns two independent jobs: additive path-based
-`scope:*` labels and reconciliation of PR state, blockers, handoff, and stale
-status. The consumer keeps its path mapping in `.github/labeler.yml` and its
-review panel plus scope taxonomy in `.github/labels.conf`.
+`scope:*` labels and reconciliation of PR state, blockers, handoff, stale
+status, and the `needs-ruling` invariants on both surfaces — the bare-flag
+check and the 7-day comment-only nudge (#52; the sweep reads that flag and
+never writes it). The consumer keeps its path mapping in
+`.github/labeler.yml` and its review panel plus scope taxonomy in
+`.github/labels.conf`.
 
 The complete caller is:
 
@@ -253,6 +256,8 @@ jobs:
 `pull_request_target` is intentional: fork PRs need the base repository's
 token to write labels. The reusable workflow executes no PR code. It checks
 out only the consumer's base branch and the pinned ceremony implementation.
+The #52 ruling invariants ride exactly these triggers — the caller above is
+unchanged since #18, so adopting them is a pin bump, not a stub edit.
 
 `.github/labels.conf` has one mandatory panel setting, one mandatory
 `triage-actors` setting, and then zero or more scope rows: