diff --git a/src/core/budget/budget-tracker.ts b/src/core/budget/budget-tracker.ts
index d5bf44e21..7404b4279 100644
--- a/src/core/budget/budget-tracker.ts
+++ b/src/core/budget/budget-tracker.ts
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import { mkdirSync, appendFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { dirname } from 'node:path';
 import { gbrainPath } from '../config.ts';
 import { ANTHROPIC_PRICING, type ModelPricing } from '../anthropic-pricing.ts';
+import { canonicalLookup } from '../model-pricing.ts';
 import { EMBEDDING_PRICING, lookupEmbeddingPrice } from '../embedding-pricing.ts';
 import { splitProviderModelId } from '../model-id.ts';
 import { isoWeekFilename, resolveAuditDir } from '../audit-week-file.ts';
@@ -201,6 +202,12 @@ function lookupPricing(modelId: string, kind: BudgetKind): ModelPricing | null {
   if (kind === 'rerank' && providerId && FREE_LOCAL_RERANK_PROVIDERS.has(providerId)) {
     return { input: 0, output: 0 };
   }
+  // Fall back to the full canonical pricing table so non-Anthropic chat
+  // models with a known price (openai:*, google:*, deepseek:*) resolve under
+  // --max-cost instead of TX2 no_pricing hard-failing at $0. ANTHROPIC_PRICING
+  // above is only the bare-keyed Claude view.
+  const canon = canonicalLookup(modelId);
+  if (canon) return canon;
   return null;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/core/pglite-engine.ts b/src/core/pglite-engine.ts
index f74e4e964..a8204a8aa 100644
--- a/src/core/pglite-engine.ts
+++ b/src/core/pglite-engine.ts
@@ -5962,6 +5962,9 @@ export class PGLiteEngine implements BrainEngine {
       );
     }
 
+    // Exclude dream/synthesize-generated pages (parity with postgres-engine).
+    where.push(`(p.frontmatter ->> 'dream_generated') IS DISTINCT FROM 'true'`);
+
     const orderKey = ENRICH_ORDER_SQL[opts.order] ? opts.order : 'inbound-links';
     const orderBy = ENRICH_ORDER_SQL[orderKey];
 
diff --git a/src/core/postgres-engine.ts b/src/core/postgres-engine.ts
index 6deaad784..7a9cfdde3 100644
--- a/src/core/postgres-engine.ts
+++ b/src/core/postgres-engine.ts
@@ -6255,6 +6255,12 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
           )`
       : sql``;
 
+    // Exclude dream/synthesize-generated pages (reflections, originals, cycle
+    // logs carrying frontmatter dream_generated:true). enrich develops ENTITY
+    // stubs; running it on a generated essay/log creates circular self-citation
+    // and drops the H1. IS DISTINCT FROM 'true' keeps NULL/'false' rows.
+    const dreamCondition = sql`AND (p.frontmatter ->> 'dream_generated') IS DISTINCT FROM 'true'`;
+
     // Whitelisted ORDER BY (no injection — enum maps to a literal fragment).
     const orderKey = ENRICH_ORDER_SQL[opts.order] ? opts.order : 'inbound-links';
     const orderBy = sql.unsafe(ENRICH_ORDER_SQL[orderKey]);
@@ -6278,6 +6284,7 @@ export class PostgresEngine implements BrainEngine {
         AND (char_length(p.compiled_truth) + char_length(COALESCE(p.timeline, ''))) < ${threshold}
         ${sourceCondition}
         ${recencyCondition}
+        ${dreamCondition}
       ORDER BY ${orderBy}
       LIMIT ${limit}
     `;
diff --git a/src/core/write-through.ts b/src/core/write-through.ts
index 02f792a3f..dc9510e85 100644
--- a/src/core/write-through.ts
+++ b/src/core/write-through.ts
@@ -146,7 +146,12 @@ export async function writePageThrough(
       frontmatterOverrides: opts.frontmatterOverrides,
     });
 
-    mkdirSync(dirname(filePath), { recursive: true });
+    // On Bun + Windows, mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true }) can still throw
+    // EEXIST when the directory already exists (POSIX no-ops it). That aborts
+    // the put_page / enrich / capture write-through whenever the prefix dir
+    // already exists, silently leaving the DB and the .md file plane out of sync.
+    const targetDir = dirname(filePath);
+    if (!existsSync(targetDir)) mkdirSync(targetDir, { recursive: true });
 
     // Atomic write: unique temp sibling + rename. Unique name (pid + random)
     // so two concurrent saves to the same target can't clobber each other's