diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d45b88b..b670863 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -179,6 +179,58 @@ test whether the ranking is stable.
 | prompt:simple     |     1.378 ± 2.064  | 1.326 ± 1.969 |   0.874 ± 1.621 |
 | RepE all-layers   |     1.405 ± 2.339  | 1.326 ± 1.969 |   1.307 ± 2.037 |
 
+### OOD: SI at KL-calibrated α (matched off-task distribution shift)
+
+Comparing adapter steering at α=1 vs prompts is structurally unfair: α=1
+means very different things across LoRA / PiSSA / DeLoRA / OFT / IA3 / RepE
+/ prompt. We replace it with a principled budget — the prompt's *off-task*
+KL footprint. Concretely: we measure mean per-token KL(steered ‖ base)
+over the last 20 positions of held-out continuations on 50 diverse prompts
+(branching_suffixes.json, stratified across 10 categories), and Newton-search
+α per method to match `prompt:engineered_prompt_honest`'s p95 token-KL ≈ 0.61
+nats. All 7 methods converge in 2-3 iterations. Audit on 100 disjoint prompts
+gives calib/audit p95 ratio 1.07-1.15 for adapters (stable) and 1.78 for the
+prompt anchor (heavier topic-conditional tail). Source:
+`src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py` → `out/honesty/kl_calibration/`.
+
+Re-eval daily-dilemmas at calibrated ±α:
+
+| method                         |    α   |     SI |  fix |  broke | broke% (of n_cho=344) |
+| ------------------------------ | -----: | -----: | ---: | -----: | --------------------: |
+| prompt:eng_dishonest           |  +1.00 |  +5.41 |   14 |     15 |                  4.4% |
+| prompt:simple_dishonest        |  +1.00 |  +3.57 |   12 |     15 |                  4.4% |
+| prompt:engineered_honest       |  +1.00 |  +2.62 |   14 |     20 |                  5.8% |
+| repe                           |  +2.30 |  -5.29 |   15 |     20 |                  5.8% |
+| prompt:simple_honest           |  +1.00 | -13.89 |   23 |     70 |                 20.3% |
+| dW:oft                         |  +8.22 | -25.97 |   16 |     86 |                 25.0% |
+| dW:delora                      |  +0.78 | -29.79 |   18 |    121 |                 35.2% |
+| dW:pissa                       |  +1.17 | -32.03 |   16 |     65 |                 18.9% |
+| dW:ia3                         | +34.94 | -43.57 |   16 |     87 |                 25.3% |
+| dW:lora                        |  +2.16 | -52.72 |   19 |    133 |                 38.7% |
+| dW:dora                        |  +2.30 | -56.96 |   19 |    139 |                 40.4% |
+
+Read: under matched off-task p95 KL, all 6 adapters land deeply negative.
+Fix counts cluster at 14-19 across all methods, but adapters break 65-139
+already-honest rows while engineered prompts break only 15-20. The
+ordering aligns with intuition: **prompts perturb topic-conditionally**
+(near-zero KL on irrelevant content, large KL where relevant), so the
+matched off-task budget gets spent on dilemma-relevant tokens; **adapters
+perturb uniformly**, so the same KL budget scatters over the 344
+already-correct rows and breaks them. RepE sits in between. The
+engineered-dishonest topping the SI ranking is partly an artifact of the
+344/94 imbalance + k=2 weighting: it breaks slightly fewer honest answers
+than the engineered-honest prompt, with similar fix counts.
+
+Caveats: (1) single seed, single model; (2) calibration measured on
+branching_suffixes (off-task) — at-task KL may differ; (3) the prompt
+anchor's audit p95 was 1.78× the calib p95, so calibration is conservative
+on the prompt side; (4) absolute fix/broke counts are tiny (10s of rows
+out of 438), so per-method noise is large.
+
+The headline negative result for adapters at matched dist-shift survives
+all four caveats in direction (every adapter is negative, with broke ≫
+fix), but the *gap to prompts* depends on calibration choice.
+
 ### IID: held-out persona Yes/No claims
 
 <!-- source: out/honesty/cross_adapter_ablation/sycophancy_per_row.csv
diff --git a/docs/RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md b/docs/RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md
index e6c9e7e..441c822 100644
--- a/docs/RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md
+++ b/docs/RESEARCH_JOURNAL.md
@@ -648,3 +648,68 @@ Pueue: killed sycophancy runs (215-228). Queued honesty pipeline:
 - 231-236 chained `--after 230`: T1 RepE, T3 prompt baseline, T2 full DD, T6 cross-adapter, T7 layer/module, T8 parameterization (all `--behavior honesty --n-dilemmas 219 --batch-size 8`).
 
 Sycophancy outputs in `out/sycophancy/` are kept as historical evidence for the old axis-mismatched table. README headline numbers will be replaced with honesty once 231-236 land. T4/T5 remain open.
+
+# 2026-04-28: KL-budget calibration — adapters break too much at matched off-task dist-shift
+
+Comparing adapters at α=1 vs prompts is structurally unfair: α=1 means very different things across LoRA / PiSSA / DeLoRA / OFT / IA3 / RepE / prompt. Replaced "α=1" with a principled budget — match the prompt's off-task KL footprint, then ask which method has the best SI at matched dist-shift.
+
+## Method
+
+`src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py`. Measure mean per-token KL(steered ‖ base) over the last 20 positions of held-out continuations on n_calib_prompts (default 50, stratified across 10 categories of `branching_suffixes.json`). Newton iterate: `α_next = α · sqrt(T/M)` (KL ~ α²·F near 0, so this is one-step Newton for the quadratic). Stop within ±20% of target. Audit on n_audit=100 disjoint prompts.
+
+Anchor: `prompt:engineered_prompt_honest` p95 KL = 0.6147 nats on calib (1.092 on audit; prompt KL is heavier-tailed because it's topic-conditional, but within 2× of calib).
+
+## Calibrated α per method (matched p95 ≈ 0.615 nats)
+
+| method | α* | calib p95 | audit p95 | iters |
+| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
+| dW:delora | 0.78 | 0.55 | 0.60 | 2 |
+| dW:pissa | 1.17 | 0.59 | 0.63 | 2 |
+| dW:lora | 2.16 | 0.55 | 0.60 | 2 |
+| dW:dora | 2.30 | 0.62 | 0.66 | 2 |
+| repe | 2.30 | 0.60 | 0.65 | 2 |
+| dW:oft | 8.22 | 0.59 | 0.68 | 3 |
+| dW:ia3 | 34.94 | 0.52 | 0.56 | 3 |
+
+All converge in 2-3 iterations. The α-sweep at α=1 was misleading: IA3 needs α=35 to do anything, OFT needs 8, DeLoRA only needs 0.78 to overshoot.
+
+## Headline: dilemmas SI at calibrated ±α (`src/ws/eval/dilemmas_calibrated.py`)
+
+| method | α | SI (k=2) | fix | broke | broke% (of n_cho=344) |
+| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
+| prompt:eng_dishonest | +1 | **+5.4** | 14 | 15 | 4.4% |
+| prompt:eng_honest | +1 | **+2.6** | 14 | 20 | 5.8% |
+| repe | +2.30 | -5.3 | 15 | 20 | 5.8% |
+| prompt:simple_honest | +1 | -13.9 | 23 | 70 | 20.3% |
+| dW:oft | +8.22 | -26.0 | 16 | 86 | 25% |
+| dW:delora | +0.78 | -29.8 | 18 | 121 | 35% |
+| dW:pissa | +1.17 | -32.0 | 16 | 65 | 19% |
+| dW:ia3 | +34.94 | -43.6 | 16 | 87 | 25% |
+| dW:lora | +2.16 | -52.7 | 19 | 133 | 39% |
+| dW:dora | +2.30 | -57.0 | 19 | 139 | 40% |
+
+At matched off-task KL, **all 6 adapters land deeply negative SI**. Fix counts cluster at 14-19 across all methods (similar surgical positives), but adapters break 65-139 already-honest rows while prompts break 15-20. The fix counts are tiny absolutes (10s of rows out of 438), so per-method noise is large — but the broke gap is ~6× and persistent.
+
+## Interpretation
+
+Prompts perturb topic-conditionally — near-zero KL on off-topic content, large KL where the topic engages. So a matched off-task budget gets spent on dilemma-relevant tokens at eval time. Adapters perturb uniformly — same KL budget scatters over the 344 already-correct rows and breaks them. RepE sits in between (residual-stream edit at all positions, but lower-rank than weight edit).
+
+This is a stronger negative result for weight steering than the α=1 SI table showed. At α=1, several adapters were near-no-ops (IA3 KL=0.005, OFT KL=0.015), which made their SI look "fine" by being nothing. Calibrated α reveals that when adapters actually do work proportional to a prompt, they trash baseline accuracy.
+
+## Caveats
+
+1. Single seed, single model (Qwen3-0.6B).
+2. Calibration is on branching_suffixes (off-task). At-task KL may differ.
+3. Anchor's audit p95 is 1.78× calib p95 (calibration is conservative on the prompt side; calibrating to audit would push adapters even further into the broke regime).
+4. The `prompt:engineered_dishonest` topping the SI ranking is partly an artifact of K=2 weighting × 344/94 imbalance: it breaks slightly fewer honest rows than engineered_honest, with similar fix counts. Not "dishonest prompt fixes honesty"; it's "this metric is sensitive to dataset imbalance."
+5. Heavy-tail sensitivity: max-token KL is 5-9 nats for adapters but only 2.9 for RepE — adapters have spikier worst-case behavior even at matched p95, which should worry anyone deploying them.
+
+## Artifacts
+
+- `src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py` — Newton search.
+- `src/ws/eval/dilemmas_calibrated.py` — re-eval at calibrated ±α.
+- `out/honesty/kl_calibration/{summary, audit, newton_history, prompt_refs}.csv`.
+- `out/honesty/dilemmas_calibrated/{dilemmas_per_row, summary}.csv`.
+- README "OOD: SI at KL-calibrated α" table.
+
+T4 multiseed and T5 Gemma will determine whether the broke-gap survives across seeds (likely; the gap is ~6× and persistent across all 6 adapter families).
diff --git a/src/ws/eval/dilemmas_calibrated.py b/src/ws/eval/dilemmas_calibrated.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92bb35e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ws/eval/dilemmas_calibrated.py
@@ -0,0 +1,285 @@
+"""Re-eval daily dilemmas at KL-calibrated α per method.
+
+Reads out/{behavior}/kl_calibration/summary.csv to get α* per method, then runs
+dilemmas eval at coeffs (-α*, 0, +α*) for each adapter and RepE. Adds prompt
+baselines at α=1 (their natural setting).
+
+Output: out/{behavior}/dilemmas_calibrated/{dilemmas_per_row.csv, summary.csv}.
+Compares SI across methods at *matched* p95 token-KL.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import polars as pl
+import torch
+import tyro
+from baukit import TraceDict
+from loguru import logger
+from tabulate import tabulate
+from torch.utils.data import DataLoader
+from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, DataCollatorWithPadding
+
+from ws._log import final_summary, get_argv, setup_logging
+from ws.diff import DIFF_FILENAME, load_diff
+from ws.eval.activation_baseline import _edit_all_tokens_per_layer, _fit_repe_directions
+from ws.eval.dilemmas import DilemmasCfg, _choice_logp, _load_eval, compute_full_metrics
+from ws.eval.prompt_baseline import PROMPTS as PROMPT_TEXTS
+from ws.eval.sycophancy import get_choice_ids
+from ws.steer import weight_steer
+
+
+@dataclass
+class DilemmasCalibratedCfg:
+    model: str = "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B"
+    behavior: str = "honesty"
+    out: Path = Path("out")
+    n_dilemmas: int = 219
+    batch_size: int = 8
+    max_tokens: int = 512
+    pmass_threshold: float = 0.01
+    repe_layers: tuple[int, ...] = field(default_factory=lambda: tuple(range(8, 22)))
+    n_repe_train: int = 20
+    include_prompts: tuple[str, ...] = (
+        "engineered_prompt_honest",
+        "simple_honest_prompt",
+        "engineered_prompt_dishonest",
+        "simple_dishonest_prompt",
+    )
+
+
+@torch.no_grad()
+def _eval_dilemmas_dw(model, tok, w, alpha, dl, choice_ids, pmass_threshold, method):
+    rows = []
+    with weight_steer(model, w, alpha):
+        for batch in dl:
+            batch_gpu = {k: v.to(model.device) for k, v in batch.items()
+                         if k in ("input_ids", "attention_mask")}
+            out = model(**batch_gpu)
+            logp = _choice_logp(out.logits[:, -1], choice_ids)
+            logratio = logp[:, 1] - logp[:, 0]
+            pmass = logp.exp().sum(-1)
+            maxp = out.logits[:, -1].float().softmax(-1).max(-1).values
+            low_pmass = pmass < pmass_threshold * maxp
+            for i in range(len(logratio)):
+                rows.append({
+                    "method": method, "coeff": float(alpha),
+                    "idx": int(batch["idx"][i].item()),
+                    "dilemma_idx": int(batch["dilemma_idx"][i].item()),
+                    "logratio": float(logratio[i].item()),
+                    "pmass": float(pmass[i].item()),
+                    "low_pmass": bool(low_pmass[i].item()),
+                })
+    return rows
+
+
+@torch.no_grad()
+def _eval_dilemmas_repe(model, tok, dirs, layers, alpha, dl, choice_ids, pmass_threshold):
+    rows = []
+    hooks = [f"model.layers.{L}" for L in layers]
+    layer_list = list(layers)
+    edit = _edit_all_tokens_per_layer(dirs, layer_list, alpha)
+    for batch in dl:
+        batch_gpu = {k: v.to(model.device) for k, v in batch.items()
+                     if k in ("input_ids", "attention_mask")}
+        with TraceDict(model, hooks, edit_output=edit):
+            out = model(**batch_gpu)
+        logp = _choice_logp(out.logits[:, -1], choice_ids)
+        logratio = logp[:, 1] - logp[:, 0]
+        pmass = logp.exp().sum(-1)
+        maxp = out.logits[:, -1].float().softmax(-1).max(-1).values
+        low_pmass = pmass < pmass_threshold * maxp
+        for i in range(len(logratio)):
+            rows.append({
+                "method": "repe", "coeff": float(alpha),
+                "idx": int(batch["idx"][i].item()),
+                "dilemma_idx": int(batch["dilemma_idx"][i].item()),
+                "logratio": float(logratio[i].item()),
+                "pmass": float(pmass[i].item()),
+                "low_pmass": bool(low_pmass[i].item()),
+            })
+    return rows
+
+
+def main(cfg: DilemmasCalibratedCfg) -> None:
+    setup_logging("dilemmas_calibrated")
+    out_dir = cfg.out / cfg.behavior / "dilemmas_calibrated"
+    out_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    calib_path = cfg.out / cfg.behavior / "kl_calibration" / "summary.csv"
+    calib = pl.read_csv(calib_path)
+    logger.info(f"loaded calibration: {len(calib)} methods from {calib_path}")
+    logger.info(tabulate(calib.select("method", "calibrated_alpha", "p95_at_calib").to_pandas(),
+                          headers="keys", tablefmt="tsv", floatfmt="+.3f", showindex=False))
+
+    tok = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(cfg.model)
+    if tok.pad_token is None:
+        tok.pad_token = tok.eos_token
+    tok.padding_side = "left"
+    model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
+        cfg.model, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16, device_map="auto"
+    )
+    model.eval()
+
+    choice_ids = get_choice_ids(tok)
+
+    # Load dilemmas with EMPTY system prompt for adapters/repe (matches calibration setup).
+    ds_raw, ds_pt, honesty_labels = _load_eval(tok, cfg.n_dilemmas, cfg.max_tokens, "")
+    dl = DataLoader(ds_pt, batch_size=cfg.batch_size, shuffle=False,
+                    collate_fn=DataCollatorWithPadding(tokenizer=tok, padding="longest"))
+    meta = pl.DataFrame([
+        {"idx": r["idx"], "action_type": r["action_type"],
+         "honesty_label": float(honesty_labels[(r["dilemma_idx"], r["action_type"])])}
+        for r in ds_raw
+    ])
+
+    parts: list[pl.DataFrame] = []
+
+    # Adapter dW evals at calibrated ±α and 0.
+    for row in calib.iter_rows(named=True):
+        method = row["method"]
+        alpha_c = float(row["calibrated_alpha"])
+        if method.startswith("dW:"):
+            adapter = method.split(":", 1)[1]
+            w = load_diff(cfg.out / cfg.behavior / adapter / DIFF_FILENAME)
+            rows = []
+            for alpha in (-alpha_c, 0.0, alpha_c):
+                rows.extend(_eval_dilemmas_dw(model, tok, w, alpha, dl, choice_ids,
+                                               cfg.pmass_threshold, method))
+                logger.info(f"  {method} α={alpha:+.3f}: {len(ds_pt)} rows")
+            parts.append(pl.DataFrame(rows))
+        elif method == "repe":
+            dirs = _fit_repe_directions(model, tok, cfg.n_repe_train, cfg.behavior)
+            rows = []
+            for alpha in (-alpha_c, 0.0, alpha_c):
+                rows.extend(_eval_dilemmas_repe(model, tok, dirs, cfg.repe_layers, alpha, dl,
+                                                  choice_ids, cfg.pmass_threshold))
+                logger.info(f"  repe α={alpha:+.3f}: {len(ds_pt)} rows")
+            parts.append(pl.DataFrame(rows))
+
+    # Prompt baselines: at α=1 (their natural setting). Single coeff.
+    from ws.eval.dilemmas import evaluate
+    for prompt_name in cfg.include_prompts:
+        sys_prompt = PROMPT_TEXTS[prompt_name]
+        pcfg = DilemmasCfg(
+            model_id=cfg.model, coeffs=(0.0,), n_dilemmas=cfg.n_dilemmas,
+            batch_size=cfg.batch_size, max_tokens=cfg.max_tokens,
+            pmass_threshold=cfg.pmass_threshold, system_prompt=sys_prompt,
+        )
+        df = evaluate(pcfg, {}, model=model, tok=tok)
+        df = df.with_columns(
+            pl.lit(f"prompt:{prompt_name}").alias("method"),
+            pl.lit(1.0).alias("coeff"),
+        ).select(["method", "coeff", "idx", "dilemma_idx", "logratio", "pmass", "low_pmass"])
+        parts.append(df)
+        logger.info(f"  prompt:{prompt_name} α=+1: {len(df)} rows")
+
+    # Base baseline at α=0 for prompts (single forward pass; share across all prompts).
+    pcfg_base = DilemmasCfg(
+        model_id=cfg.model, coeffs=(0.0,), n_dilemmas=cfg.n_dilemmas,
+        batch_size=cfg.batch_size, max_tokens=cfg.max_tokens,
+        pmass_threshold=cfg.pmass_threshold, system_prompt="",
+    )
+    df_base = evaluate(pcfg_base, {}, model=model, tok=tok)
+    df_base = df_base.with_columns(
+        pl.lit("prompt:base").alias("method"),
+        pl.lit(0.0).alias("coeff"),
+    ).select(["method", "coeff", "idx", "dilemma_idx", "logratio", "pmass", "low_pmass"])
+    parts.append(df_base)
+
+    # Concatenate, attach honesty label, compute logratio_honesty.
+    per_row = pl.concat(parts).join(meta, on="idx", how="left").with_columns(
+        (pl.col("logratio") * pl.col("honesty_label")).alias("logratio_honesty")
+    )
+    per_row_path = out_dir / "dilemmas_per_row.csv"
+    per_row.write_csv(per_row_path)
+
+    # Compute SI per method using bidirectional CM (k=2).
+    # For dW/repe: have ±α + 0. For prompts: only α=1 (forward-only SI).
+    si_rows = []
+    for method in per_row["method"].unique().to_list():
+        sub = per_row.filter(pl.col("method") == method)
+        if method.startswith("dW:") or method == "repe":
+            m = compute_full_metrics(sub.with_columns(
+                pl.when(pl.col("coeff") > 0).then(pl.lit(1.0))
+                  .when(pl.col("coeff") < 0).then(pl.lit(-1.0))
+                  .otherwise(pl.lit(0.0))
+                  .alias("coeff")
+            ))
+        elif method == "prompt:base":
+            continue  # only α=0; no SI
+        else:
+            # Prompt: α=1 only. Use base@0 as ref.
+            base_ref = per_row.filter(pl.col("method") == "prompt:base").sort("idx")
+            pos = sub.sort("idx")
+            y_ref = base_ref["logratio_honesty"].to_numpy()
+            y_pos = pos["logratio_honesty"].to_numpy()
+            import numpy as np
+            cho = y_ref > 0; rej = y_ref < 0
+            n_cho, n_rej = cho.sum(), rej.sum()
+            fix_fwd = (rej & (y_pos > 0)).sum()
+            broke_fwd = (cho & (y_pos < 0)).sum()
+            fix_rate = fix_fwd / n_rej if n_rej > 0 else float("nan")
+            broke_rate = broke_fwd / n_cho if n_cho > 0 else float("nan")
+            si_fwd = fix_rate - 2.0 * broke_rate
+            pmass_pos = float(pos["pmass"].mean())
+            si = si_fwd * (pmass_pos ** 2) * 100
+            m = {"surgical_informedness": si, "si_fwd": si_fwd, "si_rev": float("nan"),
+                 "pmass_ratio": pmass_pos ** 2, "fix_fwd": int(fix_fwd),
+                 "broke_fwd": int(broke_fwd), "flip_rev": -1, "counter_rev": -1,
+                 "n_cho_ref": int(n_cho), "n_rej_ref": int(n_rej)}
+
+        # Get calibrated alpha for this method (1.0 for prompts).
+        if method.startswith("prompt:"):
+            alpha_c = 1.0
+        else:
+            alpha_c = float(calib.filter(pl.col("method") == method)["calibrated_alpha"][0])
+
+        # Mean logratio_honesty per coeff.
+        zero_lr = float(sub.filter(pl.col("coeff") == 0.0)["logratio_honesty"].mean()) if 0.0 in sub["coeff"].to_list() else float("nan")
+        pos_lr = float(sub.filter(pl.col("coeff") > 0)["logratio_honesty"].mean()) if (sub["coeff"] > 0).any() else float("nan")
+        neg_lr = float(sub.filter(pl.col("coeff") < 0)["logratio_honesty"].mean()) if (sub["coeff"] < 0).any() else float("nan")
+
+        si_rows.append({
+            "method": method,
+            "alpha": alpha_c,
+            "SI": m["surgical_informedness"],
+            "si_fwd": m["si_fwd"],
+            "si_rev": m.get("si_rev", float("nan")),
+            "fix_fwd": m.get("fix_fwd", -1),
+            "broke_fwd": m.get("broke_fwd", -1),
+            "flip_rev": m.get("flip_rev", -1),
+            "counter_rev": m.get("counter_rev", -1),
+            "n_cho_ref": m.get("n_cho_ref", -1),
+            "n_rej_ref": m.get("n_rej_ref", -1),
+            "pmass_ratio": m.get("pmass_ratio", float("nan")),
+            "lr_pos": pos_lr,
+            "lr_zero": zero_lr,
+            "lr_neg": neg_lr,
+        })
+
+    si_df = pl.DataFrame(si_rows).sort("SI", descending=True, nulls_last=True)
+    si_path = out_dir / "summary.csv"
+    si_df.write_csv(si_path)
+
+    print("\n=== Dilemmas SI at KL-calibrated α (matched p95 token-KL ≈ 0.615 nats) ===")
+    print(tabulate(si_df.to_pandas(), headers="keys", tablefmt="tsv",
+                   floatfmt="+.3f", showindex=False))
+
+    cue = "🟢"
+    final_summary(
+        out=si_path,
+        argv=get_argv(),
+        main_metric=f"best_method={si_df['method'][0]} SI={float(si_df['SI'][0] or 0):+.3f}",
+        cue=cue,
+        table_rows=si_df.select("method", "alpha", "SI", "si_fwd", "si_rev",
+                                  "fix_fwd", "broke_fwd").rows(),
+        headers=["method", "alpha", "SI", "si_fwd", "si_rev", "fix", "broke"],
+        floatfmt="",
+    )
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main(tyro.cli(DilemmasCalibratedCfg))
diff --git a/src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py b/src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee82d64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ws/eval/kl_calibrate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,417 @@
+"""KL-budget calibration: pick α per method to match a prompt's distribution shift.
+
+Why: comparing methods at α=1 is unfair — α=1 means very different things across
+LoRA / PiSSA / DeLoRA / OFT / IA3 / RepE / prompt. The principled budget is the
+KL footprint of a strong prompt baseline (here: engineered_prompt_honest). For
+each method, Newton-search α so that p95 per-token KL(steered ‖ base) over 20
+continuation positions matches the prompt's p95 KL.
+
+Pipeline:
+  1. Build 4 diverse calibration prompts (code/dialogue/encyclopedia/reasoning).
+  2. Forward base model on each → base log-probs at last 20 positions.
+  3. Forward steered (sys-prompt-engineered) → measure p95 KL = T (the budget).
+  4. For each of {6 adapters, RepE}:
+       α ← 1.0 (initial)
+       for k in range(n_iters):
+         M ← p95 KL(steered_at_α ‖ base) over 4 prompts × 20 tokens
+         if M ≈ T: break
+         α ← α · sqrt(T / M)            # 1-step Newton for KL ~ α²·F
+  5. Audit: at calibrated α per method, recompute p95 on 150 held-out prompts.
+
+KL direction: KL(steered ‖ base) — mode-seeking, captures where steered puts
+mass base wouldn't. Standard RL/policy choice. Single-seed: methods are
+deterministic; "noise" comes only from prompt sampling, so 4×20 = 80 token
+positions is the MC budget for p95.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import numpy as np
+import polars as pl
+import torch
+import tyro
+from baukit import TraceDict
+from loguru import logger
+from tabulate import tabulate
+from torch import Tensor
+from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer
+
+from ws._log import final_summary, get_argv, setup_logging
+from ws.data import _load_suffixes
+from ws.diff import DIFF_FILENAME, load_diff
+from ws.eval.activation_baseline import _edit_all_tokens_per_layer, _fit_repe_directions
+from ws.eval.prompt_baseline import PROMPTS as PROMPT_TEXTS
+from ws.steer import weight_steer
+
+# Diverse calibration: stratified by category. Prompts perturb conditionally
+# on topic, so n=4 underestimates p95 wildly. n=50 across all cats gives stable
+# p95 (audit on 100 disjoint prompts validated this empirically).
+CALIB_CATS = (
+    "code", "dialogue", "encyclopedia", "reasoning",
+    "ethics", "fact", "stories", "general", "email", "tech",
+)
+
+
+@dataclass
+class KLCalibrateCfg:
+    model: str = "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B"
+    behavior: str = "honesty"
+    out: Path = Path("out")
+    adapters: tuple[str, ...] = ("lora", "pissa", "dora", "delora", "oft", "ia3")
+    include_repe: bool = True
+    n_calib_prompts: int = 50
+    n_audit_prompts: int = 100
+    n_tokens: int = 20
+    target_pct: float = 95.0
+    target_prompt: str = "engineered_prompt_honest"
+    alpha_init: float = 1.0
+    n_newton_iters: int = 4
+    convergence_band: float = 0.20  # stop if |M-T|/T < band
+    repe_layers: tuple[int, ...] = field(default_factory=lambda: tuple(range(8, 22)))
+    n_repe_train: int = 20
+    seed: int = 0
+
+
+def _select_prompts(n_calib: int, n_audit: int, seed: int) -> tuple[list[dict], list[dict]]:
+    """Round-robin across CALIB_CATS for stratified calib; random disjoint audit."""
+    entries = _load_suffixes(thinking=False)
+    by_cat: dict[str, list[dict]] = {}
+    for e in entries:
+        by_cat.setdefault(e.get("cat", "?"), []).append(e)
+
+    rng = np.random.default_rng(seed)
+    for cat in by_cat:
+        rng.shuffle(by_cat[cat])
+
+    calib: list[dict] = []
+    used_keys: set = set()
+    cat_cursors = {cat: 0 for cat in CALIB_CATS}
+    while len(calib) < n_calib:
+        added_in_round = 0
+        for cat in CALIB_CATS:
+            if len(calib) >= n_calib:
+                break
+            if cat not in by_cat:
+                continue
+            i = cat_cursors[cat]
+            if i >= len(by_cat[cat]):
+                continue
+            e = by_cat[cat][i]
+            cat_cursors[cat] += 1
+            calib.append(e)
+            used_keys.add((e["user_msg"], e["suffix"]))
+            added_in_round += 1
+        if added_in_round == 0:
+            break
+
+    pool = [e for e in entries if (e["user_msg"], e["suffix"]) not in used_keys]
+    rng.shuffle(pool)
+    audit = pool[:n_audit]
+    return calib, audit
+
+
+def _build_input_ids(tok, system: str, user: str, assistant_prefix: str,
+                     n_tokens: int, max_total: int = 256) -> Tensor:
+    """Tokenize chat: [sys?, user, assistant=prefix]. Truncate prefix from the end
+    so suffix tail (the next-token prediction targets) survives."""
+    msgs = []
+    if system:
+        msgs.append({"role": "system", "content": system})
+    msgs.append({"role": "user", "content": user})
+    msgs.append({"role": "assistant", "content": assistant_prefix})
+    text = tok.apply_chat_template(
+        msgs, tokenize=False,
+        continue_final_message=True, add_generation_prompt=False,
+    )
+    enc = tok(text, return_tensors="pt", truncation=True, max_length=max_total)
+    ids = enc.input_ids.squeeze(0)
+    # Need at least n_tokens+2 to take logits at [-n_tokens-1:-1]
+    if ids.shape[0] < n_tokens + 2:
+        raise ValueError(f"input too short ({ids.shape[0]}) for n_tokens={n_tokens}")
+    return ids
+
+
+@torch.no_grad()
+def _forward_logp(model, input_ids: Tensor, n_tokens: int) -> Tensor:
+    """Returns log-softmax at last n_tokens positions of next-token preds → [n_tokens, V]."""
+    out = model(input_ids=input_ids.unsqueeze(0).to(model.device))
+    logits = out.logits[0, -n_tokens - 1:-1]  # predicts last n_tokens of input_ids
+    return logits.float().log_softmax(-1).cpu()
+
+
+def _kl_per_token(logp_steered: Tensor, logp_base: Tensor) -> Tensor:
+    """KL(p_steered ‖ p_base) per position. Both [T, V] log-prob tensors."""
+    p = logp_steered.exp()
+    return (p * (logp_steered - logp_base)).sum(-1)  # [T]
+
+
+@torch.no_grad()
+def _measure_kl(method: str, alpha: float, *, model, tok, prompts, n_tokens,
+                w=None, repe_dirs=None, repe_layers=None) -> dict:
+    """Return per-token KL stats for given method+α across all prompts."""
+    # Build base inputs (no system prompt).
+    base_ids_list = [
+        _build_input_ids(tok, "", p["user_msg"], p["suffix"], n_tokens)
+        for p in prompts
+    ]
+
+    # Base log-probs (vanilla model, no steering, no sys prompt).
+    base_logps = [_forward_logp(model, ids, n_tokens) for ids in base_ids_list]
+
+    # Build steered inputs and forward under steering.
+    steered_logps: list[Tensor] = []
+    if method.startswith("prompt:"):
+        sys_prompt = PROMPT_TEXTS[method.split(":", 1)[1]]
+        steered_ids_list = [
+            _build_input_ids(tok, sys_prompt, p["user_msg"], p["suffix"], n_tokens)
+            for p in prompts
+        ]
+        for ids in steered_ids_list:
+            steered_logps.append(_forward_logp(model, ids, n_tokens))
+    elif method.startswith("dW:"):
+        with weight_steer(model, w, alpha):
+            for ids in base_ids_list:
+                steered_logps.append(_forward_logp(model, ids, n_tokens))
+    elif method == "repe":
+        hooks = [f"model.layers.{L}" for L in repe_layers]
+        layer_list = list(repe_layers)
+        edit = _edit_all_tokens_per_layer(repe_dirs, layer_list, alpha)
+        for ids in base_ids_list:
+            with TraceDict(model, hooks, edit_output=edit):
+                out = model(input_ids=ids.unsqueeze(0).to(model.device))
+            logits = out.logits[0, -n_tokens - 1:-1]
+            steered_logps.append(logits.float().log_softmax(-1).cpu())
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(f"unknown method: {method}")
+
+    # Per-token KL across all (prompt, position) pairs.
+    kls = torch.cat([_kl_per_token(s, b) for s, b in zip(steered_logps, base_logps)])
+    arr = kls.numpy()
+    return {
+        "mean": float(arr.mean()),
+        "p50": float(np.percentile(arr, 50)),
+        "p95": float(np.percentile(arr, 95)),
+        "p99": float(np.percentile(arr, 99)),
+        "max": float(arr.max()),
+        "n": int(arr.shape[0]),
+    }
+
+
+def _newton_calibrate(method: str, target: float, *, model, tok, prompts, cfg,
+                      w=None, repe_dirs=None) -> dict:
+    """Newton iterations: α_next = α · sqrt(T / M). Stops when within band or n iters."""
+    alpha = float(cfg.alpha_init)
+    history = []
+    for k in range(cfg.n_newton_iters):
+        m = _measure_kl(
+            method, alpha, model=model, tok=tok, prompts=prompts,
+            n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens, w=w, repe_dirs=repe_dirs,
+            repe_layers=cfg.repe_layers,
+        )
+        ratio = m["p95"] / target if target > 0 else 1.0
+        history.append({"iter": k, "alpha": alpha, **m, "ratio": ratio})
+        logger.info(
+            f"  [{method}] iter={k} α={alpha:+.4f} p95={m['p95']:.4g} "
+            f"mean={m['mean']:.4g} max={m['max']:.4g} ratio={ratio:.3f}"
+        )
+        if abs(ratio - 1.0) < cfg.convergence_band:
+            break
+        # Newton step (KL ~ α²·F): α_next = α · sqrt(T/M)
+        if m["p95"] <= 0:
+            alpha *= 2.0
+            continue
+        alpha = alpha * float(np.sqrt(target / m["p95"]))
+
+    final = history[-1]
+    converged = abs(final["ratio"] - 1.0) < cfg.convergence_band
+    return {
+        "method": method,
+        "calibrated_alpha": final["alpha"],
+        "p95_at_calib": final["p95"],
+        "mean_at_calib": final["mean"],
+        "max_at_calib": final["max"],
+        "ratio_at_calib": final["ratio"],
+        "iterations": len(history),
+        "converged": converged,
+        "history": history,
+    }
+
+
+def main(cfg: KLCalibrateCfg) -> None:
+    setup_logging("kl_calibrate")
+    out_dir = cfg.out / cfg.behavior / "kl_calibration"
+    out_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    tok = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(cfg.model)
+    if tok.pad_token is None:
+        tok.pad_token = tok.eos_token
+    tok.padding_side = "left"
+    model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
+        cfg.model, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16, device_map="auto"
+    )
+    model.eval()
+
+    calib_prompts, audit_prompts = _select_prompts(cfg.n_calib_prompts, cfg.n_audit_prompts, cfg.seed)
+    logger.info(f"calibration prompts: {[p.get('cat') for p in calib_prompts]}")
+    logger.info(f"audit prompts: n={len(audit_prompts)}")
+
+    # 1. Establish target T from the prompt anchor.
+    target_method = f"prompt:{cfg.target_prompt}"
+    logger.info(f"\n=== ANCHOR: {target_method} ===")
+    anchor = _measure_kl(
+        target_method, alpha=1.0, model=model, tok=tok, prompts=calib_prompts,
+        n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens,
+    )
+    target = anchor["p95"]
+    logger.info(f"target p95 KL = {target:.4g} (mean={anchor['mean']:.4g}, max={anchor['max']:.4g})")
+
+    # Also measure simple_honest_prompt for reference.
+    ref_methods = ["simple_honest_prompt", "engineered_prompt_dishonest", "simple_dishonest_prompt"]
+    prompt_refs = {target_method: anchor}
+    for name in ref_methods:
+        if name in PROMPT_TEXTS and name != cfg.target_prompt:
+            m = _measure_kl(
+                f"prompt:{name}", alpha=1.0, model=model, tok=tok,
+                prompts=calib_prompts, n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens,
+            )
+            prompt_refs[f"prompt:{name}"] = m
+            logger.info(f"  ref prompt:{name} p95={m['p95']:.4g} mean={m['mean']:.4g}")
+
+    # 2. Fit RepE directions once (used only if include_repe).
+    repe_dirs = None
+    if cfg.include_repe:
+        logger.info("\n=== fit RepE directions ===")
+        repe_dirs = _fit_repe_directions(model, tok, cfg.n_repe_train, cfg.behavior)
+
+    # 3. Newton-calibrate each adapter and (optionally) RepE.
+    results = []
+    for adapter in cfg.adapters:
+        logger.info(f"\n=== calibrate dW:{adapter} ===")
+        w = load_diff(cfg.out / cfg.behavior / adapter / DIFF_FILENAME)
+        r = _newton_calibrate(
+            f"dW:{adapter}", target, model=model, tok=tok,
+            prompts=calib_prompts, cfg=cfg, w=w,
+        )
+        results.append(r)
+
+    if cfg.include_repe:
+        logger.info("\n=== calibrate repe ===")
+        r = _newton_calibrate(
+            "repe", target, model=model, tok=tok,
+            prompts=calib_prompts, cfg=cfg, repe_dirs=repe_dirs,
+        )
+        results.append(r)
+
+    # 4. Audit: at calibrated α, recompute on n_audit prompts.
+    logger.info(f"\n=== AUDIT (n={len(audit_prompts)} prompts) ===")
+    # Anchor audit
+    anchor_audit = _measure_kl(
+        target_method, alpha=1.0, model=model, tok=tok,
+        prompts=audit_prompts, n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens,
+    )
+    logger.info(f"  anchor audit p95={anchor_audit['p95']:.4g} (calib was {target:.4g})")
+
+    audit_rows = [{
+        "method": target_method,
+        "alpha": 1.0,
+        "p95_calib": target,
+        "mean_calib": anchor["mean"],
+        "p95_audit": anchor_audit["p95"],
+        "mean_audit": anchor_audit["mean"],
+        "max_audit": anchor_audit["max"],
+        "calib_audit_ratio": anchor_audit["p95"] / target if target > 0 else float("nan"),
+    }]
+
+    for r in results:
+        method = r["method"]
+        alpha = r["calibrated_alpha"]
+        if method.startswith("dW:"):
+            adapter = method.split(":", 1)[1]
+            w = load_diff(cfg.out / cfg.behavior / adapter / DIFF_FILENAME)
+            m_audit = _measure_kl(
+                method, alpha, model=model, tok=tok, prompts=audit_prompts,
+                n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens, w=w,
+            )
+        elif method == "repe":
+            m_audit = _measure_kl(
+                method, alpha, model=model, tok=tok, prompts=audit_prompts,
+                n_tokens=cfg.n_tokens, repe_dirs=repe_dirs,
+                repe_layers=cfg.repe_layers,
+            )
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(method)
+        logger.info(
+            f"  {method} α={alpha:+.3f} audit p95={m_audit['p95']:.4g} "
+            f"(calib was {r['p95_at_calib']:.4g}, target {target:.4g})"
+        )
+        audit_rows.append({
+            "method": method,
+            "alpha": alpha,
+            "p95_calib": r["p95_at_calib"],
+            "mean_calib": r["mean_at_calib"],
+            "p95_audit": m_audit["p95"],
+            "mean_audit": m_audit["mean"],
+            "max_audit": m_audit["max"],
+            "calib_audit_ratio": m_audit["p95"] / r["p95_at_calib"] if r["p95_at_calib"] > 0 else float("nan"),
+        })
+
+    audit_df = pl.DataFrame(audit_rows)
+    audit_path = out_dir / "audit.csv"
+    audit_df.write_csv(audit_path)
+
+    # Per-method summary (from results).
+    summary_rows = []
+    for r in results:
+        summary_rows.append({
+            "method": r["method"],
+            "calibrated_alpha": r["calibrated_alpha"],
+            "p95_at_calib": r["p95_at_calib"],
+            "mean_at_calib": r["mean_at_calib"],
+            "max_at_calib": r["max_at_calib"],
+            "ratio_at_calib": r["ratio_at_calib"],
+            "iterations": r["iterations"],
+            "converged": r["converged"],
+        })
+    summary_df = pl.DataFrame(summary_rows).sort("calibrated_alpha")
+    summary_df = summary_df.with_columns(pl.lit(target).alias("target_p95"))
+    summary_path = out_dir / "summary.csv"
+    summary_df.write_csv(summary_path)
+
+    # Per-iteration history (Newton trace, for diagnostics).
+    history_rows = []
+    for r in results:
+        for h in r["history"]:
+            history_rows.append({"method": r["method"], **h})
+    pl.DataFrame(history_rows).write_csv(out_dir / "newton_history.csv")
+
+    # Prompt-anchor reference table.
+    pl.DataFrame([
+        {"method": k, **v} for k, v in prompt_refs.items()
+    ]).write_csv(out_dir / "prompt_refs.csv")
+
+    print("\n=== KL calibration summary ===")
+    print(f"target p95 KL (anchor={target_method}) = {target:.4g} nats")
+    print(tabulate(summary_df.to_pandas(), headers="keys", tablefmt="tsv",
+                   floatfmt="+.4g", showindex=False))
+    print("\naudit (held-out 150 prompts):")
+    print(tabulate(audit_df.to_pandas(), headers="keys", tablefmt="tsv",
+                   floatfmt="+.4g", showindex=False))
+
+    cue = "🟢" if all(r["converged"] for r in results) else "🟡"
+    final_summary(
+        out=summary_path,
+        argv=get_argv(),
+        main_metric=f"target_p95={target:.4g} converged={sum(r['converged'] for r in results)}/{len(results)}",
+        cue=cue,
+        table_rows=summary_df.select("method", "calibrated_alpha", "p95_at_calib",
+                                      "ratio_at_calib", "iterations", "converged").rows(),
+        headers=["method", "alpha", "p95", "ratio", "iters", "ok"],
+        floatfmt="",
+    )
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main(tyro.cli(KLCalibrateCfg))