diff --git a/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad.go b/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad.go
index 684ade63..c2dee062 100644
--- a/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad.go
+++ b/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package specialist
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -28,11 +29,23 @@ import (
 //     keys on precisely `!planReadOnlyTools[name]`, so adding a write tool would
 //     silently make every scratchpad-using plan demand a git worktree.
 //
-// So NO TASK WRITES HERE. The EXECUTOR does, single-threaded, as each result
-// comes back — and dependents read with the read_file they already hold. Write
-// contention is not locked against; it cannot arise, because there is exactly
-// one writer. The excerpt stops being lossy and becomes a summary with the whole
-// thing one tool call behind it.
+// So tasks are not ASKED to write here. The EXECUTOR records each result,
+// single-threaded, as it comes back — and dependents read with the read_file
+// they already hold. The excerpt stops being lossy and becomes a summary with
+// the whole thing one tool call behind it.
+//
+// WHAT IS AND IS NOT GUARANTEED. The directory sits under the OS temp dir, which
+// is a default sandbox write root, so a task granted a write tool CAN write here:
+// it can list the directory, and edit or delete a record after the executor
+// wrote it. Nothing binds a record to the task that produced it, so this is not
+// an integrity boundary — the dependent's prompt still carries the real excerpt
+// inline, and a task holding write_file over the shared worktree already holds a
+// larger target. A read-only plan's tasks cannot write here at all.
+//
+// What IS guaranteed is that the executor — the unsandboxed parent — never
+// writes through something a task planted: Record creates each file with
+// O_EXCL, so a file, symlink or hard link already at a task's destination makes
+// the record fail instead of redirecting the write.
 //
 // DISPOSABLE, and deliberately not memory: memory is durable, user-facing and
 // believed by later sessions. This is one plan's working notes and it is deleted
@@ -93,9 +106,20 @@ func (pad *Scratchpad) Record(taskID, output string) (string, error) {
 		return "", nil
 	}
 	path := filepath.Join(pad.root, taskID+".md")
-	if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(output), 0o600); err != nil {
+	// EXCLUSIVE CREATE. Each task is recorded exactly once, so anything already
+	// at the destination was put there by someone else — and following it would
+	// let a planted symlink or hard link aim the parent's write at any file it
+	// can reach. O_EXCL refuses every such case, a dangling symlink included.
+	file, err := os.OpenFile(path, os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREATE|os.O_EXCL, 0o600)
+	if err != nil {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("record task %q output: %w", taskID, err)
 	}
+	_, writeErr := file.WriteString(output)
+	closeErr := file.Close()
+	if writeErr != nil || closeErr != nil {
+		_ = os.Remove(path)
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("record task %q output: %w", taskID, errors.Join(writeErr, closeErr))
+	}
 	return path, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad_test.go b/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad_test.go
index 28beffe4..9dc6c1ed 100644
--- a/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad_test.go
+++ b/internal/specialist/plan_scratchpad_test.go
@@ -290,3 +290,75 @@ func TestACancelledTasksPartialOutputIsStillRecorded(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("recorded outside the scratchpad: %s", path)
 	}
 }
+
+// RECORD NEVER WRITES THROUGH SOMETHING ALREADY AT THE DESTINATION. The pad is
+// listable and, for a write-capable task, writable; a link planted under a
+// not-yet-recorded task's id would otherwise aim the unsandboxed parent's write
+// at a file of the planter's choosing.
+func TestRecordRefusesAnythingAlreadyAtTheDestination(t *testing.T) {
+	pad, err := NewScratchpad("p")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer pad.Release()
+
+	victimDir := t.TempDir()
+	const original = "victim settings"
+	newVictim := func(name string) string {
+		path := filepath.Join(victimDir, name)
+		if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original), 0o600); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		return path
+	}
+	assertUntouched := func(path string) {
+		t.Helper()
+		got, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if string(got) != original {
+			t.Fatalf("Record wrote through a planted link: %s now holds %q", path, got)
+		}
+	}
+	refuses := func(id string) {
+		t.Helper()
+		path, err := pad.Record(id, "model-chosen content")
+		if err == nil || path != "" {
+			t.Fatalf("Record(%q) = %q, %v; it must refuse an occupied destination", id, path, err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	symlinkVictim := newVictim("symlinked.json")
+	if err := os.Symlink(symlinkVictim, filepath.Join(pad.Root(), "via_symlink.md")); err != nil {
+		t.Logf("symlinks unsupported here, skipping that case: %v", err)
+	} else {
+		refuses("via_symlink")
+		assertUntouched(symlinkVictim)
+	}
+
+	// A dangling symlink must not be created-through either.
+	dangling := filepath.Join(victimDir, "not-yet.json")
+	if err := os.Symlink(dangling, filepath.Join(pad.Root(), "via_dangling.md")); err == nil {
+		refuses("via_dangling")
+		if _, err := os.Lstat(dangling); !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			t.Fatalf("Record created the dangling symlink's target: %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	hardVictim := newVictim("hardlinked.json")
+	if err := os.Link(hardVictim, filepath.Join(pad.Root(), "via_hardlink.md")); err != nil {
+		t.Logf("hard links unsupported here, skipping that case: %v", err)
+	} else {
+		refuses("via_hardlink")
+		assertUntouched(hardVictim)
+	}
+
+	// And a plain file already there is not overwritten.
+	planted := filepath.Join(pad.Root(), "via_file.md")
+	if err := os.WriteFile(planted, []byte(original), 0o600); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	refuses("via_file")
+	assertUntouched(planted)
+}