diff --git a/.github/workflows/sonar.yml b/.github/workflows/sonar.yml
index 6169fa6..90abe87 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/sonar.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/sonar.yml
@@ -57,6 +57,23 @@ on:
         description: 'Override when the repository does not install with a frozen pnpm lockfile.'
         type: string
         default: ''
+      coverage-artifact:
+        description: |
+          Name of an artifact an earlier job in this same run uploaded, holding the lcov files the
+          caller's `sonar-project.properties` names. Downloaded into `coverage/` INSTEAD of running
+          the tests again.
+
+          Use it when reproducing the coverage run here would mean reproducing its whole
+          environment — theokit needs a sibling repository checked out and built, native bindings
+          rebuilt and bubblewrap installed before its suite loads. Re-deriving that recipe here
+          would be a second copy of it, free to drift from the first.
+
+          It is also the more honest number: what Sonar reports is then literally what the caller's
+          own coverage gate measured, not a second run that could disagree with it.
+
+          Mutually exclusive with `coverage-command`.
+        type: string
+        default: ''
       build-command:
         description: |
           Run before the coverage command. A workspace whose packages import each other through
@@ -128,6 +145,21 @@ jobs:
         with:
           node-version: ${{ inputs.node-version }}
 
+      # Fail fast rather than letting one silently win: a caller that sets both holds a belief
+      # about which coverage the report describes, and half of that belief would be wrong.
+      - name: Refuse a caller that asks for coverage twice
+        if: inputs.coverage-command != '' && inputs.coverage-artifact != ''
+        run: |
+          echo "::error title=SonarQube Cloud::coverage-command and coverage-artifact are mutually exclusive."
+          exit 1
+
+      - name: Download the coverage the caller already measured
+        if: steps.token.outputs.present == 'true' && inputs.coverage-artifact != ''
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@37930b1c2abaa49bbe596cd826c3c89aef350131 # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          name: ${{ inputs.coverage-artifact }}
+          path: coverage
+
       - name: Install
         if: steps.token.outputs.present == 'true' && inputs.coverage-command != ''
         env:
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 62cdab8..0d0f4eb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -23,6 +23,15 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   matrix of `['22.12', '22']`. The condition was never true, the step reported `skipped` on every
   run for two months, and a skipped step is indistinguishable from a passing one in the checks list.
 
+- `sonar.yml` inputs `build-command` and `coverage-artifact`, both for the same defect: a scan that
+  passes while measuring nothing. `theokit-sdk`'s first run reported `No coverage information will
+  be saved because all LCOV files cannot be found` — its packages import each other through their
+  published entry points, so nine suites failed to load before `pnpm build` had run.
+  `build-command` runs first; `coverage-artifact` downloads coverage an earlier job already
+  uploaded, for callers whose suite needs an environment (a sibling repository built from source,
+  native bindings, bubblewrap) that reproducing here would only duplicate. The two coverage inputs
+  are mutually exclusive and the workflow refuses a caller that sets both.
+
 ## [dep-check 0.9.1] - 2026-08-27
 
 ### Fixed