diff --git a/policy/tells.yaml b/policy/tells.yaml
index a25c117..8789229 100644
--- a/policy/tells.yaml
+++ b/policy/tells.yaml
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@ tells:
     terminal: true
     phrases: ["running now", "currently deployed", "is deployed", "is it live", "it is live", "which version is live", "what version is deployed", "health endpoint", "is * responding", "responding now", "alive now", "live right now", "port * open", "is the * up"]
 
+  # ---- runtime: current/recorded-state qualifier co-occurring with a system/component noun ----
+  # Issue #10: natural phrasings of the core "what is the current/recorded state?" question
+  # class were missed (precision>recall inventory). These are high-precision: each phrase only
+  # fires on a live/recorded-state qualifier tied to a system/component/connector noun, so it is
+  # almost never another family. Deterministic, local; no LLM in the hook loop.
+  - id: runtime-current-state
+    family: runtime
+    terminal: true
+    phrases: ["still * from", "still read", "still ingest", "still file-based", "dependent on", "is our ingest still", "does * still ", "are we dependent", "how does * ingest", "ingest * today", "read * from * today", "still * today", "alive right now", "any more", "currently * any way", "in any way"]
+
 # Clause-scoped exclusions. When a clause contains an exclude phrase, the named family
 # is suppressed FOR THAT CLAUSE only — not a global abstention.
 # e.g. "tell me what we decided, but don't check whether it's deployed" → historical only.
diff --git a/test/runtime-current-state.test.js b/test/runtime-current-state.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fc9036
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/runtime-current-state.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+'use strict';
+
+// Regression tests for issue #10 (router misses natural phrasings of the
+// core "what is the current/recorded state?" question class).
+// These reproduce the reported misses before the deterministic current-state
+// tell family was added. Keep this file green — it encodes the receipt.
+
+const test = require('node:test');
+const assert = require('node:assert/strict');
+const path = require('node:path');
+const { loadPolicy, matchPrompt } = require('../src/matcher');
+
+const policyPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'policy', 'tells.yaml');
+
+function families(prompt) {
+  const policy = loadPolicy(policyPath);
+  return matchPrompt(prompt, policy).map((match) => match.family);
+}
+
+test('routes "is <component> still <verb>ing from <source>?" to runtime (issue #10 case 1)', () => {
+  const f = families('does the store still read sales from the vendor archive folder?');
+  assert.ok(f.includes('runtime'), `expected runtime in ${JSON.stringify(f)}`);
+});
+
+test('routes "are we dependent on <vendor> in any way?" to runtime (issue #10 case 2)', () => {
+  const f = families('are we dependent on the vendor in any way?');
+  assert.ok(f.includes('runtime'), `expected runtime in ${JSON.stringify(f)}`);
+});
+
+test('routes "how does our connector ingest <data> today?" to runtime (issue #10 case 3)', () => {
+  const f = families('how does our connector ingest sales data today?');
+  assert.ok(f.includes('runtime'), `expected runtime in ${JSON.stringify(f)}`);
+});
+
+test('routes "is our ingest still file-based or register-direct?" to runtime (issue #10 case 4)', () => {
+  const f = families('is our ingest still file-based or register-direct?');
+  assert.ok(f.includes('runtime'), `expected runtime in ${JSON.stringify(f)}`);
+});
+
+test('routes custom component noun "fleet-hub alive right now?" to runtime (issue #10 observation)', () => {
+  const f = families('is the fleet-hub alive right now?');
+  assert.ok(f.includes('runtime'), `expected runtime in ${JSON.stringify(f)}`);
+});