diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 07f37fb..8ff0801 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -22,14 +22,58 @@ jobs:
 
       - uses: actions/setup-go@v7
         with:
-          go-version: '1.27.3'
+          # ⛔ 1.27.4 BECAUSE INSTALLING A FLEET TOOL REQUIRES IT. fleettools
+          # declares `go >= 1.27.4`, so 1.27.3 could not install aptneed at
+          # all: "requires go >= 1.27.4 (running go 1.27.3;
+          # GOTOOLCHAIN=local)". GOTOOLCHAIN is left alone on purpose — a
+          # runner that silently fetched a newer toolchain would measure one
+          # nobody chose — so the pin is what has to move.
+          #
+          # ⛔ SECOND OCCURRENCE IN TWO DAYS: go-pdfkit/ops hit the identical
+          # line on 2026-11-13. Any repository in this fleet pinning below
+          # 1.27.4 fails the moment it installs a fleettools command, and the
+          # failure names both versions, so it is at least legible.
+          go-version: '1.27.4'
           check-latest: true
           cache: true
 
+      # ⛔⛔ THE FOREIGN JUDGE HAD NEVER RUN ON ANY LANE. Measured on run
+      # 43595391186: "qpdf" appears ZERO times in the whole log, and this job
+      # reported `ok 0.197s` where the same suite takes 0.758s on a machine
+      # that has qpdf. Every test that agrees with qpdf — the sweep over 42
+      # generated files, and the control that an ordinary file is REFUSED —
+      # skipped, and `go test` without -v says nothing about a skip, so
+      # nothing in the log could have told anyone. Coverage stayed at 100%
+      # the whole time: the same statements are reached by the tests that
+      # need no qpdf, so that gate cannot see this and never could.
+      #
+      # ⛔ This repository already holds the opposite standard one job down,
+      # about a missing qemu emulator: "A lane that reports success for an
+      # architecture it never ran is the one outcome this matrix exists to
+      # rule out."
+      #
+      # aptneed because a mirror outage must not read as a missing judge:
+      # go-pdfkit/ops#90 was four red runs in half an hour on a third
+      # party's DNS. --need is the binary, not the package: apt saying yes is
+      # not qpdf being on PATH.
+      - name: Install qpdf, the foreign judge the linearization tests print by
+        run: |
+          GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install github.com/go-fleettools/fleettools/cmd/aptneed@latest
+          sudo aptneed --need qpdf qpdf
+
+      # Printed on purpose: the version is in the log, so "which qpdf agreed"
+      # is answerable after the fact rather than assumed.
+      - name: Say which qpdf will judge
+        run: qpdf --version
+
       - name: go vet
         run: go vet ./...
 
+      # REQUIRE_QPDF makes a missing judge FAIL here instead of skipping. It
+      # is set on this lane only, because this is the lane that installs it.
       - name: Test with coverage
+        env:
+          REQUIRE_QPDF: "1"
         run: go test -covermode=set -coverprofile=coverage.out ./...
 
       - name: Assert exact 100% statement coverage
@@ -94,7 +138,7 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v7
       - uses: actions/setup-go@v7
         with:
-          go-version: '1.27.3'
+          go-version: '1.27.4'
       # ⛔ `qemu-user-static` is a VIRTUAL package on Ubuntu 26.04, which
       # `ubuntu-latest` became on 2026-10-19, and apt refuses to choose between its
       # two providers:
@@ -157,5 +201,5 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v7
       - uses: actions/setup-go@v7
         with:
-          go-version: '1.27.3'
+          go-version: '1.27.4'
       - run: go test ./...
diff --git a/linearized_test.go b/linearized_test.go
index 960856e..c1e37c9 100644
--- a/linearized_test.go
+++ b/linearized_test.go
@@ -938,10 +938,43 @@ func TestCheckLinearizedAgreesWithQpdfAcrossPageCountsAndShapes(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// qpdfOrSkip finds the foreign judge, and REFUSES TO SKIP IT UNDER CI.
+//
+// ⛔⛔ IT SKIPPED EVERYWHERE, AND NOWHERE MORE QUIETLY THAN IN CI. Measured on
+// run 43595391186: the word "qpdf" appears ZERO times in the whole log, and
+// the suite reports `ok 0.197s` where the same suite takes 0.758s on a
+// workstation that has qpdf. Every test that agrees with qpdf — the sweep
+// across 42 generated files, and the negative control that an ordinary file
+// is refused — has never run on any lane, and `go test` without -v prints
+// nothing about a skip, so the log could not say so either. Coverage stayed
+// at 100% throughout, because the same statements are reached by the tests
+// that need no qpdf: that gate cannot see this and never could.
+//
+// ⛔ THIS REPOSITORY ALREADY HOLDS THE OPPOSITE STANDARD, one job away. Of a
+// missing qemu emulator its own workflow says: "A missing emulator FAILS this
+// lane. A lane that reports success for an architecture it never ran is the
+// one outcome this matrix exists to rule out." A missing foreign judge is the
+// same outcome for a different reason, and go-pdfkit/ops already does this
+// for pdftoppm — its render tests t.Fatal when CI is set.
+//
+// ⛔ IT KEYS ON REQUIRE_QPDF AND NOT ON CI, because not every lane CAN run it
+// and a rule that demands the impossible gets deleted. Under qemu-user the
+// test binary is emulated and an `execve` of the host's x86-64 qpdf is not
+// something the emulator can carry out; the Windows lane has no apt. So ONE
+// lane installs qpdf and sets REQUIRE_QPDF, and on that lane a missing judge
+// is a failure. The others skip, which is now a stated design rather than an
+// accident nobody could see.
+//
+// Off CI it skips too: a contributor without qpdf should be able to run the
+// suite, and that skip is visible to them because they chose it.
 func qpdfOrSkip(t *testing.T) string {
 	t.Helper()
 	path, err := exec.LookPath("qpdf")
 	if err != nil {
+		if os.Getenv("REQUIRE_QPDF") != "" {
+			t.Fatal("REQUIRE_QPDF is set and qpdf is not installed: the foreign judge is the whole " +
+				"point of this test, and a lane that skips it reports success for an agreement it never checked")
+		}
 		t.Skip("qpdf is not installed, so there is no independent linearizer to agree with")
 	}
 	return path