diff --git a/src/scribe/mcp/tools/tasks.py b/src/scribe/mcp/tools/tasks.py
index be75685..d3fcbb7 100644
--- a/src/scribe/mcp/tools/tasks.py
+++ b/src/scribe/mcp/tools/tasks.py
@@ -152,6 +152,9 @@ async def create_task(
         priority: One of: low, medium, high, or 'none'. Omit (empty string) to leave unset.
         project_id: Associate with a project (0 = no project).
         milestone_id: Place within a project milestone (0 = no milestone).
+            When the work belongs to an active plan — a milestone in
+            enter_project's lists or found by search(content_type=
+            "milestone") — pass its id, so the plan shows all of its work.
         parent_id: Make this a sub-task of another task (0 = top-level).
         tags: List of plain-string tags without # prefix.
         kind: 'work' (default), 'issue', or 'spike'.
@@ -462,6 +465,8 @@ async def create_records(
         project_id: The project every record belongs to (0 = none, or taken
             from milestone_id).
         milestone_id: File every record under this existing milestone (0 = none).
+            This is how steps are added to a plan that already exists,
+            including one start_planning handed back as `existing_milestone`.
         force: Bypass the near-duplicate gate for the whole batch. By default
             the first record that near-duplicates an existing one BLOCKS the
             batch, and its existing id comes back so you can update it instead.
@@ -553,7 +558,7 @@ async def start_planning(
         match = await dedup_svc.plan_gate(
             uid, project_id, title,
             dedup_svc.plan_candidate_text(
-                body=body, step_texts=[f"{i.title}\n{i.body or ''}" for i in items],
+                body=body, steps=[(i.title, i.body) for i in items],
             ),
         )
         if match is not None:
diff --git a/src/scribe/services/dedup.py b/src/scribe/services/dedup.py
index 45d3e01..dfa0cc9 100644
--- a/src/scribe/services/dedup.py
+++ b/src/scribe/services/dedup.py
@@ -767,16 +767,17 @@ async def get_plan_match_threshold(user_id: int) -> float:
 def plan_candidate_text(
     description: str | None = None,
     body: str | None = None,
-    step_texts: list[str] | None = None,
+    steps: list[tuple[str | None, str | None]] | None = None,
 ) -> str:
     """What a plan that doesn't exist yet says about itself, for the gate.
 
     The steps belong in it: a plan passed with steps and no design is still
     recognisable by them, and what its steps say is most of what makes two
-    plans the same plan.
+    plans the same plan. Each step is (title, body), joined by embedding_text
+    like every other record that becomes embedded text (#2486).
     """
     parts = [(description or "").strip(), (body or "").strip()]
-    parts += [t.strip() for t in (step_texts or [])]
+    parts += [embeddings_svc.embedding_text(t, b) for t, b in (steps or [])]
     return "\n\n".join(p for p in parts if p)
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_services_dedup.py b/tests/test_services_dedup.py
index d71e89b..ae9a9e1 100644
--- a/tests/test_services_dedup.py
+++ b/tests/test_services_dedup.py
@@ -408,8 +408,9 @@ async def test_a_bad_threshold_setting_falls_back_to_the_default():
 
 
 def test_plan_candidate_text_carries_the_steps():
-    text = plan_candidate_text(description=None, body="  design ", step_texts=["Step one\n", ""])
-    assert text == "design\n\nStep one"
+    text = plan_candidate_text(description=None, body="  design ",
+                               steps=[("Step one", None), ("Step two", "with a body"), (None, None)])
+    assert text == "design\n\nStep one\n\nStep two\nwith a body"
 
 
 def test_plan_match_response_points_at_adding_steps_not_a_second_plan():