diff --git a/playwright.config.ts b/playwright.config.ts
index f5e009ce29..f0cf88c090 100644
--- a/playwright.config.ts
+++ b/playwright.config.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ const chromiumExecutablePath = process.env.PLAYWRIGHT_CHROMIUM_EXECUTABLE_PATH;
 // they share a spec file. Every required browser project uses the same
 // production matcher and tag exclusion.
 const productionSpecPattern =
-  /.*(?:answer-progress-ui-smoke|ui-(smoke|stress|accessibility|tools|overlap|universal-search|specifiers|formulation|chrome-scroll|therapy-nav-scroll|phone-scroll|pwa|route-coverage|visual-artifacts|hydration))\.spec\.ts/;
+  /.*(?:answer-progress-ui-smoke|ui-(smoke|stress|accessibility|tools|overlap|universal-search|specifiers|formulation|chrome-scroll|therapy-nav-scroll|mode-nav-density|phone-scroll|pwa|route-coverage|visual-artifacts|hydration))\.spec\.ts/;
 const mockupSpecPattern =
   /.*ui-(document-top-navigation-mockup|therapy-navigation-mockup|tools|tools-collapse|tools-task-directory)\.spec\.ts/;
 const mockupTag = /@mockup/;
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ const mockupTag = /@mockup/;
 export default defineConfig({
   testDir: "./tests",
   testMatch:
-    /.*(?:answer-progress-ui-smoke|ui-(smoke|stress|accessibility|document-top-navigation-mockup|therapy-navigation-mockup|tools|tools-collapse|tools-task-directory|overlap|universal-search|specifiers|formulation|chrome-scroll|therapy-nav-scroll|phone-scroll|pwa|route-coverage|visual-artifacts|hydration))\.spec\.ts/,
+    /.*(?:answer-progress-ui-smoke|ui-(smoke|stress|accessibility|document-top-navigation-mockup|therapy-navigation-mockup|tools|tools-collapse|tools-task-directory|overlap|universal-search|specifiers|formulation|chrome-scroll|therapy-nav-scroll|mode-nav-density|phone-scroll|pwa|route-coverage|visual-artifacts|hydration))\.spec\.ts/,
   timeout: 60_000,
   retries: 0,
   // Fail the run if a stray `test.only` is committed: otherwise it silently
diff --git a/src/app/globals.css b/src/app/globals.css
index ae28c2af6b..845c33c579 100644
--- a/src/app/globals.css
+++ b/src/app/globals.css
@@ -2329,9 +2329,32 @@ td,
    cannot overflow at any width or text size (WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text, 1.4.10
    Reflow).
 
-   Budgets, measured against this app's phone type ramp with slot padding
-   counted: four full labels need 394px and fit from 26rem; three plus More need
-   256px and fit from 16rem.
+   Slots size to their CONTENT at every band, never to equal `1fr` tracks.
+   Equal tracks make the widest slot set what every slot needs, and the label's
+   `truncate` then hides the shortfall — silently, because nothing overflows and
+   nothing fails. Measured in Chromium on 2026-07-29 against the Therapy set,
+   that clipped at every phone width: 320px showed 15 of Compare's 56px, and
+   430px was WORSE at three of four labels clipped, because crossing a band adds
+   a slot to the same space. See ledger #113.
+
+   Budgets are therefore the sum of the slots' intrinsic widths, remeasured:
+   Search 92.4px, Compare 144.3px, Recommend 125.6px, Pathways 108.5px, More
+   ~77px, plus the bar's own 8px inline padding. Three slots (first two + More)
+   need ~322px; four need ~479px.
+
+   The thresholds carry ~8% over those numbers rather than a pixel or two, and
+   that margin is not padding for its own sake: the SAME labels measure wider on
+   a CI runner than on a development box, because the variable face rasterises
+   differently per environment. A first attempt at 21/31rem passed locally and
+   failed on CI by exactly one pixel ("Compare" needed 59px and had 58px, having
+   needed 56px locally). A threshold calibrated to one machine's font metrics is
+   calibrated to nothing, so these sit clear of the whole spread.
+
+   These are calibrated to the widest label set currently shipped, which a fixed
+   `rem` threshold cannot generalise to an arbitrary item list. That gap is held
+   by a gate, not by hope: `ui-mode-nav-density.spec.ts` asserts no label
+   truncates at either band boundary, so a mode whose labels are longer fails CI
+   rather than shipping clipped words.
    ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
 @utility mode-nav {
@@ -2360,21 +2383,22 @@ td,
   display: none;
 }
 
-@container mode-nav (min-width: 16rem) {
+@container mode-nav (min-width: 22rem) {
   .mode-nav__control {
     display: none;
   }
 
+  /* Content-sized and left-aligned at EVERY band, which is what the widest band
+     always did: "the bar reads as a continuation of the header rather than four
+     columns stretched across it". Extending it downward is the fix for #113 —
+     one layout mode instead of two, and no track can be narrower than its own
+     label. */
   .mode-nav__bar {
-    display: grid;
-    grid-auto-flow: column;
-    /* Equal columns, so outer margins and inter-slot gaps are identical by
-       construction rather than by hand-tuned padding. */
-    grid-auto-columns: 1fr;
+    display: flex;
   }
 }
 
-@container mode-nav (min-width: 26rem) {
+@container mode-nav (min-width: 33rem) {
   .mode-nav__slot[data-band="4"] {
     display: flex;
   }
@@ -2384,7 +2408,7 @@ td,
   }
 }
 
-@container mode-nav (min-width: 34rem) {
+@container mode-nav (min-width: 42rem) {
   .mode-nav__slot[data-band="5"] {
     display: flex;
   }
@@ -2392,12 +2416,6 @@ td,
   .mode-nav__slot[data-until="4"] {
     display: none;
   }
-
-  /* Wide: slots size to their content and sit left, so the bar reads as a
-     continuation of the header rather than four columns stretched across it. */
-  .mode-nav__bar {
-    display: flex;
-  }
 }
 
 /* Motion keyframes (suppressed under prefers-reduced-motion below) */
diff --git a/tests/mode-nav-contract.test.ts b/tests/mode-nav-contract.test.ts
index 7c7d506ec8..3e337ec6f1 100644
--- a/tests/mode-nav-contract.test.ts
+++ b/tests/mode-nav-contract.test.ts
@@ -72,7 +72,13 @@ describe("ModeNav band planning", () => {
 describe("ModeNav density contract", () => {
   it("chooses density by container width in rem, never px", () => {
     const thresholds = [...modeNavCss.matchAll(/@container mode-nav \(min-width: ([^)]+)\)/g)].map((m) => m[1].trim());
-    expect(thresholds).toEqual(["16rem", "26rem", "34rem"]);
+    // Raised from 16/26/34 by ledger #113. Those were budgeted for equal `1fr`
+    // tracks and were short by roughly the count badge; the slots are now
+    // content-sized, so each threshold is the measured sum of the intrinsic
+    // widths it must hold, plus ~8% — enough to absorb the font-metric
+    // difference between a development box and a CI runner, which is real and
+    // failed a first attempt at 21/31rem by a single pixel.
+    expect(thresholds).toEqual(["22rem", "33rem", "42rem"]);
 
     // The unit is the mechanism: raising the browser or OS text size grows the
     // root font, so a phone crosses a threshold exactly when its labels would
@@ -100,7 +106,7 @@ describe("ModeNav density contract", () => {
     expect(baseBar).toContain("display: none");
     expect(baseControl).toContain("display: flex");
     // The bar is only ever revealed inside a container query.
-    expect(modeNavCss.indexOf(".mode-nav__bar {\n    display: grid")).toBeGreaterThan(
+    expect(modeNavCss.indexOf(".mode-nav__bar {\n    display: flex")).toBeGreaterThan(
       modeNavCss.indexOf("@container mode-nav"),
     );
   });
@@ -111,10 +117,22 @@ describe("ModeNav density contract", () => {
     expect(modeNavCss).not.toMatch(/overflow(-x)?:\s*(auto|scroll)/);
   });
 
-  it("distributes phone slots as equal columns", () => {
-    // Equal columns make the outer margins and inter-slot gaps identical by
-    // construction, rather than by hand-tuned padding that drifts.
-    expect(modeNavCss).toContain("grid-auto-columns: 1fr");
+  it("sizes slots to their content, never to equal tracks", () => {
+    // Ledger #113: equal `1fr` tracks make the WIDEST slot set what every slot
+    // needs, and the label's `truncate` then hides the shortfall silently —
+    // nothing overflows, nothing fails, the word is just gone. Measured in
+    // Chromium, that clipped at every phone width. Content-sized slots cannot
+    // be narrower than their own label, so the failure mode is gone rather
+    // than merely retuned.
+    expect(modeNavCss).not.toContain("grid-auto-columns");
+    expect(modeNavCss).not.toMatch(/\.mode-nav__bar\s*\{[^}]*display:\s*grid/);
+
+    // Exactly one bar layout, so a future edit cannot reintroduce a second one
+    // that behaves differently at a band nobody re-measures.
+    const barDisplays = [...modeNavCss.matchAll(/\.mode-nav__bar\s*\{([^}]*)\}/g)]
+      .map((match) => match[1].match(/display:\s*([a-z]+)/)?.[1])
+      .filter(Boolean);
+    expect(barDisplays).toEqual(["none", "flex"]);
   });
 });
 
diff --git a/tests/ui-mode-nav-density.spec.ts b/tests/ui-mode-nav-density.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..637c11b591
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ui-mode-nav-density.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+import { expect, test, type Page } from "playwright/test";
+
+/**
+ * `ModeNav` promises that a slot shows its real word or folds into More — it
+ * never abbreviates. Ledger #113: that promise was broken at every phone width
+ * because the lower bands used equal `1fr` tracks, so the widest slot set what
+ * every slot got and the label's `truncate` hid the shortfall. Nothing
+ * overflowed and nothing failed; the word was simply gone.
+ *
+ * A static `rem` threshold cannot prove fit for an arbitrary item list, and
+ * `ModeNav` is shared — Therapy is only its first consumer. So the contract is
+ * held here instead: at each band boundary every rendered label must be fully
+ * visible. A mode whose labels are longer than the thresholds allow fails this
+ * spec rather than shipping clipped words.
+ *
+ * Widths are the boundaries themselves (22rem = 352px, 33rem = 528px) and one
+ * pixel either side, because a threshold that is one slot too generous only
+ * misbehaves in the first pixels above it. That makes this the most valuable
+ * place to assert and the least forgiving: the same labels rasterise wider on a
+ * CI runner than on a development box, so the thresholds carry ~8% headroom
+ * rather than the pixel or two a single machine's measurements would suggest.
+ */
+
+const BAND_3_PX = 352; // 22rem — first two destinations + More
+const BAND_4_PX = 528; // 33rem — all four destinations
+
+/**
+ * The nav as it is actually anchored, not as it is momentarily served.
+ *
+ * Two things make a bare `getByTestId("mode-nav")` wrong here. Next streams the
+ * server-rendered copy while the client tree hydrates, so the id can resolve to
+ * two elements and Playwright fails on strict mode (ledger #093). And the
+ * density decision is a CONTAINER query: it only means anything once the bar is
+ * inside the container it will live in, because `ModeNavHeaderPortal` resolves
+ * its host in a layout effect and renders in page flow until then — a different
+ * width from the header slot. Scoping to the collapse host solves both: it
+ * names exactly one element, and it is the one the user sees.
+ */
+const anchoredNav = '[data-testid="universal-header-collapse"] [data-testid="mode-nav"]';
+
+async function gotoTherapySearch(page: Page) {
+  await page.goto("/therapy-compass/search?q=CBT&run=1", { waitUntil: "domcontentloaded" });
+  await expect(page.locator(anchoredNav)).toBeVisible({ timeout: 20_000 });
+}
+
+type NavState = {
+  state: "bar" | "collapsed" | "none";
+  labels: { text: string; clipped: boolean; scrollWidth: number; clientWidth: number }[];
+  barOverflows: boolean;
+};
+
+async function readNav(page: Page): Promise<NavState> {
+  return page.evaluate((selector) => {
+    const nav = document.querySelector(selector);
+    const bar = nav?.querySelector(".mode-nav__bar") ?? null;
+    const control = nav?.querySelector(".mode-nav__control") ?? null;
+    const shown = (node: Element | null) => Boolean(node) && getComputedStyle(node!).display !== "none";
+
+    const labels: NavState["labels"] = [];
+    if (shown(bar)) {
+      for (const slot of bar!.querySelectorAll("li")) {
+        if (getComputedStyle(slot).display === "none") continue;
+        const label = slot.querySelector("span.truncate");
+        if (!(label instanceof HTMLElement)) continue;
+        labels.push({
+          text: label.textContent ?? "",
+          // A truncated label reports more content than it can show. The 0.5px
+          // slack absorbs sub-pixel text metrics, not a missing character.
+          clipped: label.scrollWidth > label.clientWidth + 0.5,
+          scrollWidth: label.scrollWidth,
+          clientWidth: label.clientWidth,
+        });
+      }
+    }
+    return {
+      state: shown(bar) ? "bar" : shown(control) ? "collapsed" : "none",
+      labels,
+      barOverflows: bar instanceof HTMLElement ? bar.scrollWidth > bar.clientWidth + 1 : false,
+    };
+  }, anchoredNav);
+}
+
+function expectNoClippedLabels(nav: NavState, where: string) {
+  const clipped = nav.labels.filter((label) => label.clipped);
+  expect(
+    clipped,
+    `${where}: ${clipped.map((l) => `"${l.text}" needs ${l.scrollWidth}px, has ${l.clientWidth}px`).join("; ")}`,
+  ).toEqual([]);
+  // Fitting by overflowing sideways is not fitting. A bar wider than its
+  // container hides destinations behind an edge people never scroll to.
+  expect(nav.barOverflows, `${where}: the bar overflows its container`).toBe(false);
+}
+
+test.describe("ModeNav density", () => {
+  for (const { width, expected, slots } of [
+    { width: BAND_3_PX - 1, expected: "collapsed" as const, slots: 0 },
+    { width: BAND_3_PX, expected: "bar" as const, slots: 3 },
+    { width: BAND_3_PX + 1, expected: "bar" as const, slots: 3 },
+    { width: BAND_4_PX - 1, expected: "bar" as const, slots: 3 },
+    { width: BAND_4_PX, expected: "bar" as const, slots: 4 },
+    { width: BAND_4_PX + 1, expected: "bar" as const, slots: 4 },
+  ]) {
+    test(`shows every label in full at ${width}px`, async ({ page }) => {
+      await page.setViewportSize({ width, height: 900 });
+      await gotoTherapySearch(page);
+
+      // Poll the density itself rather than asserting one sample: the band is
+      // re-evaluated as the header settles, and a single early read is a coin
+      // flip. A band that never arrives still fails, on the timeout.
+      await expect.poll(async () => (await readNav(page)).state, { timeout: 10_000 }).toBe(expected);
+
+      const nav = await readNav(page);
+      expect(nav.labels).toHaveLength(slots);
+      expectNoClippedLabels(nav, `${width}px`);
+    });
+  }
+
+  test("falls back to the collapsed control rather than clipping at 200% text", async ({ page }) => {
+    // The `rem` unit is the whole mechanism the density bands rest on: raising
+    // the browser or OS text size grows the root font, so the container
+    // measures FEWER rem and the bar steps down exactly when its labels would
+    // stop fitting (WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text, 1.4.10 Reflow). A px threshold
+    // would ignore the request and clip. The style has to land before the
+    // container query is evaluated, hence document_start rather than a later
+    // addStyleTag.
+    await page.addInitScript(() => {
+      document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
+        const style = document.createElement("style");
+        style.textContent = "html { font-size: 32px !important; }";
+        document.head.appendChild(style);
+      });
+    });
+    await page.setViewportSize({ width: 390, height: 844 });
+    await gotoTherapySearch(page);
+
+    // 390px at a 32px root is 12.19rem — below the 22rem bar band.
+    await expect.poll(async () => (await readNav(page)).state, { timeout: 10_000 }).toBe("collapsed");
+
+    const nav = await readNav(page);
+    expectNoClippedLabels(nav, "390px at 200% text");
+    // The page itself must not gain a sideways scrollbar from the reflow.
+    expect(
+      await page.evaluate(() => document.documentElement.scrollWidth > document.documentElement.clientWidth + 1),
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+});