diff --git a/docs/opencode-fork-decision.md b/docs/opencode-fork-decision.md
index d1669fef..14f4ab4b 100644
--- a/docs/opencode-fork-decision.md
+++ b/docs/opencode-fork-decision.md
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 > The conclusion is reversed below. The mistake is written up rather than deleted, because the shape of
 > it is the useful part.
 
-**Decision: the fork is worth taking. Not started, and gated on one open question.**
+**Decision: the fork is worth taking, and it is no longer blocked.** Not started; the blocker turned out
+to be a missing credential and is fixed — see RESOLVED below.
 
 ---
 
@@ -41,7 +42,47 @@ Steer and queue are exactly the two features we hand-built for Claude and that A
 changer. Having them as primitives, plus a resumable per-session cursor that mirrors officer's durable
 replay, is a strong argument for migrating.
 
-## The blocker, now characterised: only free models run
+## RESOLVED — it was a missing credential, not a bug
+
+Andre said he had a paid Zen key working in his terminal and suggested it simply was not set up here. He
+was right, and this is the second wrong conclusion I reached on this page.
+
+**The new pipeline has its own credential store, separate from `auth.json`.** `opencode run`, the CLI and
+the legacy `/session` surface all read `~/.local/share/opencode/auth.json`, which holds the Zen key — so
+they reach paid models. The `/api/*` surface reads integrations instead (`/api/integration`,
+`/api/credential`), and ours had **none connected**. With no credential it silently fell back to what
+needs none, which is exactly the free tier.
+
+The fix was one call, and it persists across a serve restart (verified — a paid model still ran after
+`pm2 restart officer-opencode`):
+
+```
+POST /api/integration/opencode/connect/key   { "key": "<zen key>", "label": "…" }   → 204
+```
+
+Afterwards `claude-sonnet-4-6` and `claude-haiku-4-5` both run on the new pipeline. **The fork is
+unblocked**, and everything the table above promises — steer, queue, interrupt, resumable per-session
+SSE — is available with real models.
+
+Two consequences worth carrying:
+
+- **alpha needs the same one-time connect** before it can use the new pipeline.
+- The sidecar should do this itself at boot rather than relying on someone having run it by hand, since
+  a missing credential degrades to "only free models work" with no error anywhere.
+
+### What the evidence looked like while I was getting it wrong
+
+Recorded because the shape repeats: the failure was **silent and total** for paid models, and the cost
+table drew a perfect line — every cost-0 model ran, every cost>0 model did not. I read that as a billing
+boundary inside a broken pipeline. It was a billing boundary caused by an absent credential, which is a
+far more ordinary explanation and one Andre reached from knowing his own setup rather than from the API.
+
+The tell I had and did not use: the configured default is `opencode/big-pickle`, and a session created
+with no model ran on `ling-3.0-tiny-free` **instead of the default**. A pipeline ignoring its configured
+default is a pipeline that cannot use it — that is a credential symptom, and it was sitting in the
+`/config/providers` output the whole time.
+
+## The original diagnosis, kept for the record: only free models run
 
 It is not sonnet, and it is not `variant`. Swept four models through `POST /api/session/{id}/model`
 followed by a prompt:
diff --git a/docs/opencode-parity.md b/docs/opencode-parity.md
index a4e28387..669f9370 100644
--- a/docs/opencode-parity.md
+++ b/docs/opencode-parity.md
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ is gone. What remains is bucket 1 — capabilities Claude has and OpenCode does
 visible ones (token streaming, mid-turn injection, background tasks, interrupt-without-teardown) are
 downstream of `stdin: 'ignore'` and therefore of the Phase 2 fork.
 
-**The fork is REOPENED and worth taking.** The serve publishes a newer `/api/session/*` surface offering
+**The fork is REOPENED, unblocked, and worth taking.** The serve publishes a newer `/api/session/*` surface offering
 those capabilities natively, and on 1.18.16 **`delivery: "steer"` and `delivery: "queue"` are both
 verified working** — mid-turn injection and queueing, as primitives, plus `/interrupt` and a resumable
 per-session event stream. One blocker remains: `claude-sonnet-4-6` silently does not run on that surface