diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.test.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b5f27ab7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import { describe, expect, test } from 'bun:test';
+import { dueNudges } from './queries';
+
+describe('dueNudges', () => {
+  // It failed on EVERY tick and the only symptom was a log line nobody was reading: the row sat there
+  // enabled, with sent_count 0, looking perfectly armed. A JS Date bound as a parameter on the left of an
+  // interval subtraction is a type Postgres will not infer, so it refused the whole statement.
+  //
+  // Asserting only that it EXECUTES. The due-ness logic is Postgres arithmetic; what broke was the SQL
+  // being invalid, which no amount of reasoning about intervals would have caught.
+  test('is valid SQL against the real database', async () => {
+    expect(Array.isArray(await dueNudges())).toBe(true);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.ts b/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.ts
index e2e09aff..a993cd10 100644
--- a/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.ts
+++ b/src/databases/officer_db/src/nudges/queries.ts
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ export async function cancelNudge(userId: number, sessionId: string): Promise<vo
  * ago. Whether the session is actually IDLE is not asked here — that lives in the sidecar, not the
  * database, and the scheduler checks it immediately before speaking.
  */
-export async function dueNudges(now: Date = new Date()): Promise<NudgeSelect[]> {
+export async function dueNudges(): Promise<NudgeSelect[]> {
   return db
     .select()
     .from(nudges)
@@ -60,7 +60,10 @@ export async function dueNudges(now: Date = new Date()): Promise<NudgeSelect[]>
         lt(nudges.sentCount, nudges.maxCount),
         or(
           isNull(nudges.lastFiredAt),
-          lt(nudges.lastFiredAt, sql`${now} - (${nudges.everySeconds} * interval '1 second')`),
+          // `now()` in SQL rather than a JS Date bound as a parameter. Postgres cannot infer the type of
+          // a parameter on the left of an interval subtraction and refuses the whole statement — which
+          // failed EVERY tick, silently, with the row sitting there looking armed.
+          lt(nudges.lastFiredAt, sql`now() - (${nudges.everySeconds} * interval '1 second')`),
         ),
       ),
     );