diff --git a/config/docdrift_test.go b/config/docdrift_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47e497b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/docdrift_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+package config
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"regexp"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// The preset tables in the docs must match the presets the product actually ships — as a SET,
+// in both directions: every preset has a row, every row is a preset, and every row's pipeline is
+// the one that runs.
+//
+// This guard exists because they did not. Auditing the "What each one runs" table in
+// docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md against the `presets` map in config/config.go found EVERY row
+// stale: three presets (`codesmart`, `coding`, `general`) were still documented as running
+// `toon`, which was retired from them after it acted 0 times on 5,752 production requests and
+// converted 0 candidates in 11.67M measured tokens, and every row omitted components that do
+// run — the lossless pair (`textclean`, `searchfold`) and `linecap`. Three presets had no row at
+// all (`agentdiet`, `house`, `housellm`). docs/reference/presets.md was correct at the same
+// moment, so the two documents contradicted each other and a reader had no way to tell which one
+// was lying.
+//
+// That is worse than an out-of-date sentence: the table is what somebody reads to decide whether
+// a preset does anything they object to, and the answer it gave was wrong in the direction that
+// matters — it named a component that does not run and omitted three that do.
+//
+// The set check in BOTH directions is deliberate, and it is what the first version of this guard
+// got wrong: it iterated the rows it happened to find and asked only "is this row right?", with a
+// hand-tuned coverage floor standing in for completeness. Against 12 multi-component presets that
+// floor tolerated deleting seven rows, and a preset that ships with no row is exactly the defect
+// this PR fixed by hand. The reverse direction matters just as much: a documented preset that
+// does not exist is not a cosmetic error, it is a STARTUP failure —
+//
+//	$ PRESET=cache ./context-guru-proxy
+//	config: config: unknown preset "cache"      # process exits
+//
+// the same class as the `skeleton`/`coding` incident this repo's own comments describe.
+//
+// Same reasoning as deploy/harbor/pipeline_drift_test.go, applied to the docs instead of the
+// benchmark harnesses.
+var presetTableDocs = []string{
+	"../docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md",
+	"../docs/reference/presets.md",
+}
+
+// docRow matches a markdown table row whose first cell is a `preset` name in backticks, and
+// captures the rest of the row (where the component list lives, in either `a, b` or `a → b`
+// form — the two files use different separators on purpose, so the check reads component names
+// rather than trying to normalise the formatting).
+//
+// The name class is deliberately wider than the presets that exist today: a row naming
+// `code-smart` or `preset2` must be REPORTED as documenting a preset that does not exist, not
+// skipped for failing to look like a name this file recognises.
+var docRow = regexp.MustCompile("(?m)^\\|\\s*`([a-z0-9_-]+)`\\s*\\|(.*)$")
+
+// componentToken matches one component name in a pipeline cell.
+//
+// The two documents format a pipeline differently — choose-a-preset.md writes the whole list
+// inside ONE pair of backticks (`format, textclean, cachesplit`) while presets.md backticks each
+// name and joins them with arrows (`format` → `textclean`). An earlier version of this guard
+// looked for backticked names only, which silently matched nothing in the first file: every
+// multi-component row was skipped, and the guard's coverage there was limited to the presets
+// that happen to run exactly one component. So the cell is stripped of backticks and split on
+// the separators instead, which reads both forms.
+var componentToken = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-z][a-z_]*$`)
+
+// pipelineFromCell reads the component list out of a table cell, in either document's format.
+func pipelineFromCell(cell string) []string {
+	cell = strings.ReplaceAll(cell, "`", " ")
+	cell = strings.ReplaceAll(cell, "→", ",")
+	cell = strings.ReplaceAll(cell, "->", ",")
+	var out []string
+	for _, tok := range strings.Split(cell, ",") {
+		tok = strings.TrimSpace(tok)
+		if componentToken.MatchString(tok) {
+			out = append(out, tok)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func TestPresetDocsDoNotDrift(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, path := range presetTableDocs {
+		b, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("%s: %v", path, err)
+		}
+
+		documented := map[string][]string{}
+		for _, m := range docRow.FindAllStringSubmatch(string(b), -1) {
+			name, row := m[1], m[2]
+			// The pipeline cell is the one that lists components. In choose-a-preset.md it is
+			// the whole rest of the row; in presets.md the prose that follows also mentions
+			// component names, so only the FIRST cell after the name is read.
+			cell := row
+			if i := strings.Index(row, "|"); i >= 0 {
+				cell = row[:i]
+			}
+			documented[name] = pipelineFromCell(cell)
+		}
+
+		// Direction 1: every preset that ships is documented, with the pipeline it runs.
+		// Iterated over the map, not over the rows, so a missing row FAILS instead of simply
+		// not being checked.
+		names := make([]string, 0, len(presets))
+		for name := range presets {
+			names = append(names, name)
+		}
+		sort.Strings(names)
+		for _, name := range names {
+			want := presets[name]
+			got, ok := documented[name]
+			if !ok {
+				t.Errorf("%s: preset %q ships %v but has no row in this table. "+
+					"An undocumented preset is the same defect as a misdocumented one: a reader "+
+					"cannot tell it exists, or what it would do to their context.", path, name, want)
+				continue
+			}
+			// `off` is the passthrough: no components on either side, and the table writes it
+			// as *(empty)*. Anything else that documents an empty pipeline for a preset which
+			// runs components is caught by the comparison below.
+			if len(want) == 0 && len(got) == 0 {
+				continue
+			}
+			if strings.Join(got, ",") != strings.Join(want, ",") {
+				t.Errorf("%s: preset %q is documented as running\n  %v\nbut ships\n  %v\n"+
+					"A reader uses this table to decide what a preset will do to their context; "+
+					"naming a component that does not run, or omitting one that does, is the "+
+					"failure this guard exists for.", path, name, got, want)
+			}
+		}
+
+		// Direction 2: nothing is documented that does not exist. `--preset <name>` for a name
+		// that is not in the map does not degrade, it exits at startup, so a row inviting one is
+		// a break dressed as documentation.
+		rows := make([]string, 0, len(documented))
+		for name := range documented {
+			rows = append(rows, name)
+		}
+		sort.Strings(rows)
+		for _, name := range rows {
+			if _, ok := presets[name]; !ok {
+				t.Errorf("%s: preset %q is documented but does not exist in the presets map; "+
+					"`--preset %s` exits at startup with `unknown preset %q`.", path, name, name, name)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md b/docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md
index 15a32c5..7f3b501 100644
--- a/docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md
+++ b/docs/how-to/choose-a-preset.md
@@ -26,20 +26,33 @@ context-guru-proxy --preset codesmart      # or PRESET=codesmart, or preset: in
 
 | Preset | Pipeline |
 |---|---|
-| `codesmart` | `format, toon, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, extract_llm, extract, cachesplit` |
-| `codesafe` | `format, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, extract, collapse, cachesplit` |
-| `safe` | `format, cachesplit` |
-| `balanced` | `format, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, cachesplit` |
-| `aggressive` | `format, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, smartcrush, extract, extract_llm, cachesplit` |
-| `coding` | `format, toon, dedup, cmdfilter, extract, cachesplit` |
-| `mcp` | `format, smartcrush, cachesplit` |
-| `agent` | `format, dedup, failed_run, mask, extract, extract_llm, cachesplit` |
-| `general` | `format, toon, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, mask, extract, extract_llm, collapse, cachesplit` |
+| `codesmart` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, extract_llm, extract, linecap, cachesplit` |
+| `codesafe` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, extract, collapse, linecap, cachesplit` |
+| `safe` | `format, textclean, searchfold, cachesplit` |
+| `balanced` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, linecap, cachesplit` |
+| `aggressive` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, smartcrush, extract, extract_llm, linecap, cachesplit` |
+| `coding` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, cmdfilter, extract, linecap, cachesplit` |
+| `mcp` | `format, textclean, smartcrush, cachesplit` |
+| `agent` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, mask, extract, extract_llm, cachesplit` |
+| `general` | `format, textclean, searchfold, dedup, failed_run, cmdfilter, mask, extract, extract_llm, collapse, linecap, cachesplit` |
 | `summarize` | `summarize` |
 | `off` | *(empty)* |
+| `agentdiet` | `format, agentdiet, cachesplit` |
+| `house` | `format, dedup, toon, cmdfilter, searchfold, textclean, extract, cachesplit, toolfilter` |
+| `housellm` | `format, dedup, toon, cmdfilter, searchfold, textclean, extract_llm, extract_llm_sweep, extract, cachesplit, toolfilter` |
 
 Order is deliberate: lossless repack first, then the cheap structural offloaders, then
-anything that costs a model call, cache directives last.
+anything that costs a model call, cache directives last — except in `house` and `housellm`,
+whose order is the operator's on purpose: `dedup` and `cmdfilter` run ahead of the lossless
+pair and `toolfilter` sits after `cachesplit`. That costs per-component attribution in
+`/stats`, never content; the reasons are recorded in
+[`config/config.go`](../design.md#config-registry) and the exemption is noted in the
+[preset reference](../reference/presets.md).
+
+The last three rows are not options in the chooser above. `house` and `housellm` are the
+**service** configs — what a hosted account runs unless it asks otherwise — and `agentdiet`
+reproduces a published baseline for A/B comparison, not a recommendation. They are in the
+table so it lists every preset that exists; pick from the table above this one.
 
 ## Notes on the ones people pick