diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0387ea8e..00d6ff3e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@ Every PR that bumps `package.json` moves its entries from **Unreleased** into a
 new version heading in the same commit.
 
 ## [Unreleased]
+
+## [0.461.1] - 2026-10-13
+### Fixed
+- **`drift-nudge-test` no longer fails the deploy gate on a loaded box.** It waited a flat 150ms for the
+  background drift judge, which makes three HTTP round trips to its stub. On a 2 GB droplet at load ~22
+  that lost the race on every `make-live` run, while the same test passed when run alone. It now awaits the
+  judge's real promises.
 ### Docs
 - `docs/code-graph-plan.md` — parked research on a code-graph for coding agents (fleet exploration
   share, tool landscape, evidence, and the A/B to run), plus `scripts/code-exploration-share.mjs`, the
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 39da1b00..1636c444 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "agent-os",
-  "version": "0.461.0",
+  "version": "0.461.1",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "agent-os",
-      "version": "0.461.0",
+      "version": "0.461.1",
       "license": "MIT",
       "bin": {
         "agent-os": "bin/agent-os"
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index bab65f38..68609e73 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "agent-os",
-  "version": "0.461.0",
+  "version": "0.461.1",
   "description": "A generic, governed operating system for running autonomous agents safely across brands. Ships with a local web console.",
   "license": "MIT",
   "type": "commonjs",
diff --git a/scripts/drift-nudge-test.cjs b/scripts/drift-nudge-test.cjs
index 1e621e60..1e824b0c 100644
--- a/scripts/drift-nudge-test.cjs
+++ b/scripts/drift-nudge-test.cjs
@@ -209,7 +209,20 @@ for (const t of ['drift.judged', 'drift.judge_failed', 'drift.nudged', 'drift.es
     { kind: 'activity', tool: 'Bash', label: 'Ran a command', detail: 'cat .github/workflows/ci.yml', status: 'ok', ts: 2 },
     { kind: 'assistant', text: 'The CI cache key looks wrong, let me rework the whole cache layer.', ts: 3 },
   ] });
-  const settle = () => new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 150));
+  // Wait for the judgements the gate fired in the background — the REAL promises, not a guessed sleep.
+  // It used to be a flat 150ms, which three stub round-trips lose on a loaded box (a 2 GB droplet at load
+  // ~22 failed the deploy gate on every run while the same test passed alone).
+  const inFlight = new Set();
+  const runJudge = tm.runDriftJudge.bind(tm);
+  tm.runDriftJudge = (...a) => {
+    const p = Promise.resolve(runJudge(...a)).finally(() => inFlight.delete(p));
+    inFlight.add(p);
+    return p;
+  };
+  const settle = async () => {
+    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 10));
+    while (inFlight.size) await Promise.allSettled([...inFlight]);
+  };
   let cmdSeq = 0;
   const bash = (sid, agent, n) => {
     const out = [];