diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2dae2cc..fdfebe8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,27 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 0.4.23
+
+Publishes `340aecac` (#69): the renderer no longer writes a managed instruction
+home larger than it will later agree to read.
+
+The writer was unbounded at `apply.ts:161` while the reader capped every
+observation at 256 KiB via `readUtf8RegularFile`, so a flattening adapter could
+emit a home it could not subsequently open — wedging its own next run. Only
+flattening adapters were affected; splitting homes distribute the identical
+payload across separate files and never approach the bound.
+
+Two bounds are now named instead of one constant repeated in three places:
+`FOREIGN_INPUT_MAX_BYTES` (256 KiB, unchanged, for input this tool did not
+author) and `SESSION_MANAGED_OUTPUT_MAX_BYTES` for files it does author, with
+`managedObservationMaxBytes()` as the single decision point. The fragment read
+keeps its 4 KiB bound and the cache its 32 KiB.
+
+Concretely, this release is what the codex home is waiting on: station01's
+`$HOME/.codex/AGENTS.md` is 273,860 bytes, generated 2026-08-07T14:47:43Z, and
+is four sources behind the claude home's 44. It sits above the 256 KiB read cap
+and no published version can repair it.
+
 ## 0.4.22
 
 Ships the managed Bash-profile fix from issue #65 and task
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b89c0c2..3015b86 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@hasna/instructions",
-  "version": "0.4.22",
+  "version": "0.4.23",
   "description": "AI coding agent instruction & configuration manager \u2014 store, version, apply, and share all your AI coding configs. CLI + MCP + HTTP API (instructions-serve) + generated SDK + Dashboard.",
   "type": "module",
   "main": "dist/index.js",
diff --git a/src/cli/output.test.ts b/src/cli/output.test.ts
index 3daa439..5d10339 100644
--- a/src/cli/output.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli/output.test.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ function seedConfigs(count: number): { home: string; dbPath: string } {
   const dbPath = join(home, "configs.db");
   process.env["HASNA_INSTRUCTIONS_DB_PATH"] = dbPath;
   resetDatabase();
-  const db = getDatabase();
+  const db = getDatabase(dbPath);
   for (let i = 1; i <= count; i++) {
     createConfig({
       name: `Very Long Agent Config ${String(i).padStart(2, "0")}`,
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ describe("configs apply ownership output", () => {
     const dbPath = join(home, "configs.db");
     process.env["HASNA_INSTRUCTIONS_DB_PATH"] = dbPath;
     resetDatabase();
-    const db = getDatabase();
+    const db = getDatabase(dbPath);
     const claude = createConfig({
       name: "Claude Legacy Writer",
       category: "rules",
diff --git a/src/cli/session.test.ts b/src/cli/session.test.ts
index 565b18e..d6acf5c 100644
--- a/src/cli/session.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli/session.test.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ function runCli(args: string[], env: Record<string, string | undefined> = {}) {
     encoding: "utf8",
     env: {
       ...process.env,
+      HASNA_INSTRUCTIONS_API_URL: "",
+      HASNA_INSTRUCTIONS_API_KEY: "",
       ...env,
       NO_COLOR: "1",
       FORCE_COLOR: "0",