diff --git a/tests/map/ladder-emit.test.ts b/tests/map/ladder-emit.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..086e1c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/map/ladder-emit.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { mkdtempSync, mkdirSync, writeFileSync, rmSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+import { buildInputMap } from '../../src/map/index.js';
+import { LADDER_CASES, type LadderCase } from './ladder-cases.js';
+
+// Regeneration entry point for the ladder maps a CONSUMER checks in and grades.
+//
+// The platform stores these five documents as fixtures and asserts what each one grades to. They are
+// generated artifacts, and until this existed they had no generator: the ladder suite builds each app in a
+// temp directory, asserts, and deletes it. So the consumer's copies could only be reproduced by hand, and
+// nothing detected them going stale — a fixture older than this extractor still parses and still grades, it
+// just answers for an app the extractor now reads differently.
+//
+// Why a spec rather than a script in `scripts/`: `src/map/*` imports with ESM `.js` specifiers that point at
+// `.ts` sources, so plain `node` cannot load it and a script would have to run against a build. Living here
+// also keeps the emitter beside the app definitions it emits, which is the drift this is meant to prevent.
+//
+// Run:
+//   PS_LADDER_EMIT_DIR=/path/to/back/tests/Fixtures/ReachabilityLadder npx vitest run tests/map/ladder-emit
+//
+// Skipped otherwise, so a normal suite run neither writes files nor needs a directory.
+
+const OUT = process.env.PS_LADDER_EMIT_DIR;
+
+/**
+ * Per-machine measurements. They carry no contract, and leaving them in would make every regeneration a
+ * diff on noise — which is how a regeneration step stops being run.
+ */
+const VOLATILE = ['analysisMs', 'rssBytes', 'peakRssBytes'] as const;
+
+/** The consumer's on-disk form: two-space JSON with a trailing newline. Byte-identical or it diffs. */
+function serialize(document: unknown): string {
+  return JSON.stringify(document, null, 2) + '\n';
+}
+
+async function mapFor(c: LadderCase): Promise<Record<string, any>> {
+  const dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'ps-ladder-emit-'));
+  try {
+    for (const [rel, body] of Object.entries(c.files)) {
+      const path = join(dir, rel);
+      mkdirSync(dirname(path), { recursive: true });
+      writeFileSync(path, body);
+    }
+    writeFileSync(join(dir, 'package.json'), JSON.stringify(c.packageJson));
+
+    const { map, error } = await buildInputMap(dir);
+    expect(error, `${c.id} must produce a map`).toBeUndefined();
+    const document = map as Record<string, any>;
+    for (const field of VOLATILE) delete document.coverage[field];
+
+    return document;
+  } finally {
+    rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}
+
+/** The rung/advisory/package pairing, so a consumer can key its expectations off this rather than restate it. */
+function manifest(): Record<string, unknown> {
+  return {
+    note: 'Generated from the ladder fixture apps. Do not edit; regenerate.',
+    cases: LADDER_CASES.map((c) => ({ id: c.id, rung: c.rung, cve: c.cve, package: c.pkg, name: c.name })),
+  };
+}
+
+describe.skipIf(!OUT)('emitting the ladder maps for a consumer', () => {
+  it('writes one document per rung, plus the rung/advisory manifest', async () => {
+    const written: string[] = [];
+    for (const c of LADDER_CASES) {
+      const file = c.id.replace('ladder/', '') + '.json';
+      writeFileSync(join(OUT!, file), serialize(await mapFor(c)));
+      written.push(file);
+    }
+    writeFileSync(join(OUT!, 'manifest.json'), serialize(manifest()));
+
+    expect(written).toHaveLength(LADDER_CASES.length);
+    console.log(`[ladder] wrote ${written.join(', ')} and manifest.json to ${OUT}`);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('the emitter agrees with what it emits', () => {
+  // The emitter's value is that its output can be committed elsewhere and trusted. Two properties make that
+  // true, and both are cheap to assert without writing anything: the volatile fields really are gone (a
+  // machine-specific number in a committed fixture makes every regeneration a diff), and the document still
+  // carries the blocks the consumer's controls check — a map missing them grades LOWER rather than failing,
+  // so an emitter that quietly dropped one would produce fixtures that pass as conservative verdicts.
+  it('emits documents with no per-machine fields and both evidence blocks intact', async () => {
+    const document = await mapFor(LADDER_CASES[0]);
+
+    for (const field of VOLATILE) expect(document.coverage).not.toHaveProperty(field);
+    expect(document.version).toBe(3);
+    expect(Array.isArray(document.imports)).toBe(true);
+    expect(Array.isArray(document.apiInvocations)).toBe(true);
+    expect(document.coverage.importsComplete).toBeDefined();
+    expect(document.coverage.filesParsed).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  it('serializes exactly as the consumer stores it', () => {
+    // Formatting is part of the contract here: a different indent or a missing trailing newline rewrites
+    // every line of every fixture and buries the one change that mattered.
+    expect(serialize({ a: 1 })).toBe('{\n  "a": 1\n}\n');
+  });
+
+  it('names every case in the manifest, with its rung and advisory', () => {
+    const cases = manifest().cases as Array<Record<string, string>>;
+
+    expect(cases).toHaveLength(LADDER_CASES.length);
+    for (const entry of cases) {
+      expect(entry.id).toMatch(/^ladder\//);
+      expect(entry.cve).toMatch(/^CVE-/);
+      expect(entry.package).not.toBe('');
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/map/ladder.test.ts b/tests/map/ladder.test.ts
index 2805979..f6fd371 100644
--- a/tests/map/ladder.test.ts
+++ b/tests/map/ladder.test.ts
@@ -59,11 +59,17 @@ describe('every ladder case was actually analysed', () => {
   });
 
   it.each(LADDER_CASES.map((c) => [c.id, c] as const))('%s declares its dependency', (_id, c) => {
-    const declared = (map: InputMap) => ((map.imports ?? []) as Array<{ package: string }>).map((i) => i.package);
+    const declared = ((mapFor(c).imports ?? []) as Array<{ package: string }>).map((i) => i.package);
+
     // Declared in package.json regardless of whether the map can attribute a usage. For the
     // `unknown` case this is the whole point: the dependency is present and the usage is invisible.
     expect(c.packageJson.dependencies).toHaveProperty(c.pkg);
-    expect(declared(mapFor(c)).length + (mapFor(c).apiInvocations ?? []).length).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(0);
+    // And the analysis attributed SOMETHING for this app. Every ladder app imports express — it is the
+    // shared control dependency for exactly this reason — so an inventory without it means the scan came
+    // back empty, and every assertion in this file would then pass over nothing. (The version this
+    // replaced summed two lengths and asserted `>= 0`, which is true of the empty map it existed to
+    // exclude.)
+    expect(declared, 'an empty inventory makes every assertion below vacuous').toContain('express');
   });
 });