diff --git a/HARNESS.md b/HARNESS.md
index 1eb63f5..a36a69d 100644
--- a/HARNESS.md
+++ b/HARNESS.md
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ must do — not the theme. `verify.sh` fails if the embedded reference theme cha
 changing, because in practice those two drift together — and it fails on a `<script>` tag in that theme,
 because a reference theme that grows taste stops being a reference (ADR-0026).
 
+**The core ceiling moved once, on purpose.** `CORE_LOC_MAX` went 2000 → 2800 (ADR-0041) because the original
+figure was costed before any code existed and never budgeted what `cmd/` would hold — `check`, `new`, `-dev`,
+change detection. Treat a *second* raise as evidence that something belongs in `internal/ext/` instead: the
+two ceilings exist so that "core stops growing, ext rises" is observable, and that stops being true the moment
+leaves are allowed into core.
+
 **What is staged has to build, not just the working tree.** Every other gate looks at your files; this one
 looks at the commit you are about to make, by building a throwaway checkout of the index. It exists because
 staging a subset — a changed signature without its caller — produced a commit that did not compile while
diff --git a/docs/decisions.md b/docs/decisions.md
index 773778f..8367057 100644
--- a/docs/decisions.md
+++ b/docs/decisions.md
@@ -519,3 +519,34 @@ stated wherever a key is documented; and the set of keys must stay declared or `
 config, which is the failure the parked cascade already warns about.
 Revisit if: a section wants to set a policy for everything beneath it. That is the parked cascade arriving
 for real, and its trigger is unchanged: the first section-level override with a reader.
+
+## ADR-0040 — `golang.org/x/image` for resampling and WebP decoding
+Date: 2026-07-30 · Status: accepted (human approval on the record, per hard rule 2)
+Decision: add `golang.org/x/image` to the allowlist, for `draw` (CatmullRom resampling) and `webp` (decode).
+Total modules go from three to four, against a cap of six.
+Why: the standard library decodes and encodes JPEG, PNG and GIF but cannot resize — `image/draw` scales only
+by nearest neighbour, which is visibly wrong on photographic downscales, and a site whose content *is*
+pictures cannot ship that. A hand-rolled box filter is about fifty lines and still worse than CatmullRom on
+exactly the material this site has. `x/image` is maintained by the Go team, sibling of the `x/text` already
+allowed, and carries no transitive dependencies.
+Consequence: cheap — good downscaling and WebP input for one module. Expensive — AVIF still has no decoder in
+either the standard library or this module, so AVIF passes through untouched; and image code now has a
+dependency that must be checked at each Go release like any other.
+Revisit if: the standard library gains a resampler, or AVIF becomes something the site actually publishes.
+
+## ADR-0041 — `CORE_LOC_MAX` 2000 → 2800
+Date: 2026-07-30 · Status: accepted
+Decision: raise `CORE_LOC_MAX` from **2000** to **2800**. `EXT_LOC_MAX` stays at 2000. The budget continues
+to cover `cmd/` plus `internal/{content,render,web}`.
+Why: the original figure was costed before any code existed, for "spine, bundles, queries, render, routing,
+templates" — and it never budgeted the things `cmd/` will hold. Costing what remains that cannot be a leaf:
+`check` ~250, `new` ~100, `-dev` ~100, change detection ~100, the page cache ~200. On top of 1870 that is
+~2620 before anything optional, so the ceiling was going to fail on work nobody would call excess. This is a
+costing error being corrected, not discipline being loosened.
+Consequence: cheap — the gate stops blocking planned core work, and 2800 still binds at roughly one feature's
+slack. Expensive — a raised ceiling is a weaker signal than the one it replaces, so the *second* raise should
+be treated as evidence that something belongs in `internal/ext/` instead. Features that are leaves must keep
+going there: if they land in core, `EXT_LOC` measures nothing and invariant 9 becomes unobservable, which is
+the whole reason there are two ceilings.
+Revisit if: core approaches 2800. That is the question "what here is not core?" and the answer is a leaf, not
+a third raise.
diff --git a/scripts/allowed-deps.txt b/scripts/allowed-deps.txt
index 16160cb..7f68568 100644
--- a/scripts/allowed-deps.txt
+++ b/scripts/allowed-deps.txt
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@
 
 github.com/yuin/goldmark
 golang.org/x/text          # NFC normalisation (ADR-0015); collation later if earned
+golang.org/x/image         # CatmullRom resampling + WebP decode (ADR-0040); no stdlib resizer exists
 gopkg.in/yaml.v3           # frontmatter + site declaration (ADR-0020)
diff --git a/scripts/budgets.env b/scripts/budgets.env
index bec2b3f..5cca767 100644
--- a/scripts/budgets.env
+++ b/scripts/budgets.env
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # code worse — sharding a coherent file into a `_helpers.go` turns it green while creating the package
 # CLAUDE.md rule 3.6 bans. Total mass cannot be gamed by moving code between files; file length can.
 
-CORE_LOC_MAX=2000      # cmd/ + internal/{content,render,web} + repo root, non-test .go
+CORE_LOC_MAX=2800      # cmd/ + internal/{content,render,web} + repo root, non-test .go (ADR-0041)
 EXT_LOC_MAX=2000       # internal/ext/ — composition, grows after the core freezes
 FILE_LOC_WARN=500      # any single .go file — advisory
 FUNC_LOC_WARN=60       # any single function — advisory
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ DEPS_MAX=6             # total modules in go.mod, direct plus indirect
 
 # Two ceilings because "the core stops growing after Arc 2" (architecture.md invariant 9) is only an
 # invariant if something measures it: post-freeze CORE holds and only EXT rises.
-# Costed, not round: spine, bundles, queries, render, routing, templates ~1200-1800 → CORE 2000.
+# Costed, not round, and re-costed once (ADR-0041): the first figure covered spine, bundles, queries,
+# render, routing and templates (~1200-1800 → 2000) but never budgeted what cmd/ would hold. Adding `check`
+# ~250, `new` ~100, `-dev` ~100, change detection ~100 and the page cache ~200 to a core already at 1870
+# gives ~2620 → CORE 2800. A second raise is evidence something belongs in internal/ext/, not evidence the
+# number is still too small.
 # Feeds, sitemap, OpenGraph, shortcodes, image sizing, galleries, paging, indieweb ~900-1200 → EXT
 # 2000, deliberately loose since that is where growth belongs. Reaching CORE asks what to delete;
 # reaching EXT asks whether a template would have done it — only .go lines count here.