diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 138fa55..770cd30 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -19,7 +19,10 @@ jobs:
       plugin_kind: store
       plugin_alias: postgres
       service: postgres
-      busbar_ref: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+      busbar_ref: ${{ github.base_ref || github.ref_name }}
+      # base_ref FIRST: on a pull_request `github.ref_name` is '<number>/merge', not a branch
+      # name, so this asked busbar for a branch called '5/merge' and the sibling checkout died
+      # with an unreadable git error on EVERY pull request to this repo.
       # NOTE: no extra_sibling_test_command here (unlike before this repo's 2-crate-workspace
       # restructure). `extra_sibling_test_command: cargo test -p busbar-store-postgres` used to
       # exercise the monorepo's own copy of the store logic against the sibling busbarAI checkout's
diff --git a/.github/workflows/consumer-verify.yml b/.github/workflows/consumer-verify.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f490bae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/consumer-verify.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+name: consumer-verify
+
+# Does what this repo PUBLISHED actually work when a user gets it?
+#
+# Every other workflow here reports on itself. ci.yml proves the code builds and its tests pass.
+# release.yml's verify-assets proves the upload step believed it succeeded, asserted from inside the
+# run that did the uploading. None of that is evidence about the artifact a user downloads, and the
+# gap is not theoretical: webrequest-hook v1.0.4 published as a zero-asset phantom, and
+# headroom-hook's published bundle could not boot the gateway because its shipped config used shapes
+# busbar 1.5.3 retired. Both were green everywhere. Nothing anywhere noticed.
+#
+# The logic lives in ONE place for the whole fleet, exactly like plugin-ci.yml, so a fix reaches
+# every plugin at once instead of being copied ten times and drifting nine.
+#
+# WHY BOTH TRIGGERS. release: published catches a broken publish immediately, and it fires whether or
+# not the release workflow itself finished happy - which matters, because a verifier that only runs
+# when everything already worked is not a verifier. The daily schedule catches ROT: an artifact that
+# published fine can stop working later when nothing about it changed (a bundle that no longer boots
+# against a newer engine, an asset deleted by hand, a release un-flagged as latest). A
+# publish-time-only check structurally cannot see that class.
+on:
+  release:
+    types: [published]
+  schedule:
+    - cron: " * * *"
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      version:
+        description: "Version to verify (e.g. 1.0.4). Empty means the newest published release."
+        required: false
+        type: string
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+  issues: write
+  actions: read
+
+jobs:
+  consumer:
+    uses: GetBusbar/busbar/.github/workflows/plugin-consumer-verify.yml@dev
+    with:
+      version: ${{ inputs.version || '' }}
+      # Read off the PUBLISHED artifact, not guessed from the crate name: the filename prefix and the
+      # manifest name genuinely differ across this fleet (the store repos drop the trailing -plugin
+      # that the auth repos keep, and store-valkey publishes as busbar-store-redis).
+      asset_prefix: busbar-store-postgres
+      plugin_name: busbar-store-postgres-plugin
+      plugin_alias: postgres
+      plugin_kind: store
+      # This repo publishes a runnable bundle, so the check does not stop at 'the tarball exists':
+      # the image is pulled fresh and the container must BOOT and answer /healthz. That is the
+      # assertion that was missing when the published bundle shipped a config busbar had retired.
+      bundle_image: 43 9
+      bundle_env: ""
+    secrets: inherit
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index a016719..cc402da 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -249,3 +249,40 @@ jobs:
             -f event_type=upstream-release \
             -f "client_payload[repo]=${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}" \
             -f "client_payload[tag]=${GITHUB_REF_NAME}"
+
+  # THE LAST STEP: does what we just published work for a user?
+  #
+  # Everything above verifies what THIS RUN produced, from inside this run. verify-assets asserts the
+  # assets it uploaded are present, which proves the run believed itself. It cannot prove the tarball
+  # downloads for a stranger, unpacks into a plugin busbar will load, or (where a bundle is
+  # published) boots. Those are the failures that shipped: a zero-asset phantom release, and a
+  # published bundle that exits 1 on startup.
+  #
+  # Consumer verification is POST-PUBLICATION by nature - you cannot download an asset that was never
+  # uploaded - so this cannot block the publish and does not pretend to. What it does is make the
+  # verdict impossible to miss: a failure is THIS release run's failure, and the shared workflow also
+  # opens or updates one labelled issue naming the failing check, expected, observed and the run URL.
+  #
+  # !cancelled() because a needs: on a FAILED job skips its dependent by default - the exact shape
+  # that skips a release's own guard precisely when the release is broken.
+  consumer-verification:
+    name: consumer verification (LAST STEP)
+    needs: [verify-assets]
+    if: ${{ !cancelled() }}
+    uses: GetBusbar/busbar/.github/workflows/plugin-consumer-verify.yml@dev
+    with:
+      version: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+      asset_prefix: busbar-store-postgres
+      plugin_name: busbar-store-postgres-plugin
+      plugin_alias: postgres
+      plugin_kind: store
+      # This repo publishes a runnable bundle, so the check does not stop at 'the tarball exists':
+      # the image is pulled fresh and the container must BOOT and answer /healthz. That is the
+      # assertion that was missing when the published bundle shipped a config busbar had retired.
+      bundle_image: 43 9
+      bundle_env: ""
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      issues: write
+      actions: read
+    secrets: inherit