diff --git a/src/scribe/mcp/tools/search.py b/src/scribe/mcp/tools/search.py
index 20cd999..bccd208 100644
--- a/src/scribe/mcp/tools/search.py
+++ b/src/scribe/mcp/tools/search.py
@@ -169,10 +169,12 @@ async def retrieval_telemetry(days: int = 30) -> dict:
     `avg_result_count` and `p90_duration_ms`.
 
     THE NUMBER TO READ FIRST IS `near_misses.p90`, AGAINST THE THRESHOLD IN
-    FORCE FOR THAT SURFACE. It is measured only on the calls that returned
-    NOTHING, on the best score the ranker reached before the bar rejected it —
-    so it is the one figure here that says something the bar cannot make true
-    by construction. A bar at 0.72 turning away a stream of 0.71s is set too
+    FORCE FOR THAT SURFACE. It is measured on the calls the BAR turned away —
+    zero-result calls, minus the ones whose zero was a repeat the reader had
+    already been shown — using the best score the ranker reached before the bar
+    rejected it. So it is the one figure here that says something the bar
+    cannot make true by construction, and `max` is always below the threshold:
+    an above-bar candidate nobody excluded would have been returned. A bar at 0.72 turning away a stream of 0.71s is set too
     high by a hair and the surface is losing hits it should have had. The same
     bar turning away 0.30s is working, and the corpus simply had nothing. Both
     render as a zero-result call, and nothing else in this readout tells them
diff --git a/src/scribe/services/retrieval_telemetry.py b/src/scribe/services/retrieval_telemetry.py
index 18e94df..577aac8 100644
--- a/src/scribe/services/retrieval_telemetry.py
+++ b/src/scribe/services/retrieval_telemetry.py
@@ -360,15 +360,45 @@ async def retrieval_summary(user_id: int | None, *, days: int = 30) -> dict:
     }
 
     zero = case((RetrievalLog.result_count == 0, 1), else_=0)
-    # THE NEAR-MISS POPULATION: calls that returned nothing AND recorded what
-    # the bar turned away. Both conditions matter. Restricting to zero-result
-    # calls is what makes the number say something the bar cannot fix by
-    # construction — on a call that returned something, `best_available_score`
-    # equals `top_score` and adds nothing. Requiring the column to be non-null
-    # keeps rows written before #3670 out of the sample rather than letting
-    # them read as scoreless declines.
-    declined = (RetrievalLog.result_count == 0) & (
-        RetrievalLog.best_available_score.isnot(None)
+    # THE NEAR-MISS POPULATION: calls that returned nothing BECAUSE THE BAR
+    # TURNED SOMETHING AWAY, and recorded what it was. Three conditions, and
+    # the third was missing for one deploy (#3739).
+    #
+    # Zero-result only: on a call that returned something,
+    # `best_available_score` equals `top_score` and adds nothing.
+    #
+    # Non-null only: rows written before #3670 genuinely do not know, and must
+    # not read as scoreless declines.
+    #
+    # AND NOT A REPEAT. A zero-result call is two unrelated events — the ranker
+    # found nothing above the bar, or it found only what this session had
+    # already been shown — and just the first says anything about the bar. That
+    # is the whole of #3497, and #3670 reintroduced the conflation one level up:
+    # the rule arms filter exclusions in PYTHON, after the search, so a rule
+    # that cleared the bar and was dropped as a repeat still reported a high
+    # `best_available_score` on a zero-result row. Live proof, first read after
+    # deploy: pre_tool_rule's near-miss max was 0.7457 while the lowest score it
+    # ever RETURNED was 0.7204 — a "rejection" that outscored acceptances.
+    #
+    # The NULL arm is principled, not permissive: `suppressed_count IS NULL`
+    # means the caller passed its exclusions INTO the search, which is exactly
+    # the case where the reported score is already post-exclusion and cannot be
+    # contaminated. Note arms stay measured; rule arms get cleaned.
+    #
+    # Deliberately conservative: a call carrying both a repeat and a lower
+    # genuine miss is dropped whole, losing that point. It undercounts; it
+    # cannot corrupt — the right way round for a number read against a bar.
+    #
+    # This also makes `near_misses.max < threshold` true BY CONSTRUCTION. An
+    # above-bar candidate that was not excluded would have been returned, so
+    # its call is not in this population at all.
+    declined = (
+        (RetrievalLog.result_count == 0)
+        & (RetrievalLog.best_available_score.isnot(None))
+        & (
+            RetrievalLog.suppressed_count.is_(None)
+            | (RetrievalLog.suppressed_count == 0)
+        )
     )
     miss = case((declined, 1), else_=0)
     # `best_available_score` only for those rows; NULL elsewhere, and
diff --git a/tests/test_services_retrieval_telemetry.py b/tests/test_services_retrieval_telemetry.py
index ff5b8fd..243744c 100644
--- a/tests/test_services_retrieval_telemetry.py
+++ b/tests/test_services_retrieval_telemetry.py
@@ -994,6 +994,17 @@ async def test_the_near_miss_distribution_is_a_query_postgres_accepts(_dispose_e
         user_id=UID, source="pre_tool_rule", query="ls", threshold=0.72,
         limit=1, project_id=None, is_task=None, results=[], duration_ms=4.0,
     ))
+    # THE CASE WHOSE ABSENCE LET THIS GUARD PASS OVER BROKEN CODE (#3739).
+    # A zero-result call whose zero was a REPEAT, not a rejection: the ranker
+    # cleared the bar at 0.9 and the session had already been shown that rule,
+    # so the arm dropped it in Python after the search. Without the suppression
+    # arm of the predicate this row lands in the near-miss population and drags
+    # `max` to 0.9 — above the very threshold the field is read against.
+    await _insert_retrieval_log(_build_payload(
+        user_id=UID, source="pre_tool_rule", query="git commit", threshold=0.72,
+        limit=1, project_id=None, is_task=None, results=[], duration_ms=4.0,
+        best_available=0.9, suppressed=1,
+    ))
 
     try:
         out = await retrieval_summary(UID, days=30)
@@ -1002,22 +1013,28 @@ async def test_the_near_miss_distribution_is_a_query_postgres_accepts(_dispose_e
             "zeros everywhere, which is #2663 exactly"
         )
         src = out["sources"]["pre_tool_rule"]
-        assert src["calls"] == 5
-        assert src["zero_result_calls"] == 4
+        assert src["calls"] == 6
+        assert src["zero_result_calls"] == 5
 
         nm = src["near_misses"]
         assert nm is not None, "the near-miss block did not survive the query"
         assert nm["measured_calls"] == 3, (
-            "the population is declines that RECORDED a score: three measured, "
-            "one unmeasured (excluded, not counted as a scoreless decline), and "
-            "one call that showed something (excluded — its best-available is "
-            "just its top score and says nothing about the bar)"
+            "the population is declines the BAR caused, that recorded a score. "
+            "Three qualify. Excluded: the unmeasured row (predates the column, "
+            "not a scoreless decline), the call that showed something (its "
+            "best-available is just its top score), and the REPEAT — a zero "
+            "the reader caused, not the bar (#3739)"
         )
         assert nm["max"] == pytest.approx(0.7189, abs=1e-4), (
             "the closest thing the bar turned away — 0.7189 against a 0.72 "
             "threshold, which is the reading the whole field exists to give"
         )
-        assert nm["max"] < 0.72, "a near miss that cleared the bar is not a miss"
+        assert nm["max"] < 0.72, (
+            "a rejection that outscores the bar is not a rejection. This is "
+            "structural once the suppression arm is in the predicate: an "
+            "above-bar candidate that was not excluded would have been "
+            "RETURNED, so its call cannot be in this population (#3739)"
+        )
         assert 0.70 <= nm["p50"] <= 0.7189
     finally:
         async with async_session() as s: