diff --git a/scripts/build-components.sh b/scripts/build-components.sh
index f28de21..440fa8b 100755
--- a/scripts/build-components.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-components.sh
@@ -49,8 +49,21 @@ build_component() {
   local dir="$1"
   local wasm_dir="$HERE/wasm/cm/$dir"
   printf "  building %-16s..." "$dir" >&2
-  ( cd "$wasm_dir" && cargo component build --release --target wasm32-wasip2 --no-default-features 2>&1 ) \
-    | grep -E "^error" | sed 's/^/    /' >&2 || true
+  # FAIL LOUD (v1.130): this used to end in `|| true`, so a build error was
+  # printed and then IGNORED — the script fell through to a stale artifact from
+  # a previous build and shipped it. That is exactly how falcon-rate:1.129.0 was
+  # published as a raw CORE MODULE: the no_std wasip2 build failed
+  # ("module does not export a function named `cabi_realloc`"), the failure was
+  # swallowed, and the fallback picked up a pre-componentization module.
+  # A build failure must stop the bundle, not degrade it silently.
+  if ! ( cd "$wasm_dir" && cargo component build --release --target wasm32-wasip2 --no-default-features 2>&1 ) \
+       | tee /tmp/falcon-build-$dir.log | grep -E "^error" | sed 's/^/    /' >&2; then
+    : # grep found no "^error" lines — that is the success path
+  fi
+  if grep -qE "^error" /tmp/falcon-build-$dir.log 2>/dev/null; then
+    echo " ERROR: cargo component build failed for $dir (see above)" >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
   # Prefer the wasip2 path; cargo-component <0.20 emits wasip1.
   local src
   src=$(ls "$wasm_dir"/target/wasm32-wasip2/release/*.wasm 2>/dev/null | head -1 || true)
@@ -66,6 +79,18 @@ build_component() {
   local slug="${dir#falcon-}"
   local dest="$BUNDLE_DIR/falcon-$slug-v$MM.wasm"
   cp "$src" "$dest"
+  # ASSERT the payload really is a Component, not a core module (v1.130).
+  # jess found falcon-rate:1.129.0 shipped as a core module — `meld fuse`
+  # rejected it outright. The OCI config mediaType says "component" regardless
+  # of the bytes, so metadata cannot catch this; check the 8-byte header.
+  #   core module : 00 61 73 6d 01 00 00 00
+  #   component   : 00 61 73 6d 0d 00 01 00
+  magic=$(od -An -tx1 -N8 "$dest" | tr -d ' \n')
+  if [ "$magic" != "0061736d0d000100" ]; then
+    echo " ERROR: $dest is NOT a wasm component (header $magic)" >&2
+    echo "        expected 0061736d0d000100; a core module is 0061736d01000000" >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
   local bytes
   bytes=$(wc -c < "$dest" | tr -d ' ')
   printf " %s bytes\n" "$bytes" >&2
diff --git a/wasm/cm/rate/src/lib.rs b/wasm/cm/rate/src/lib.rs
index 51862d1..9126144 100644
--- a/wasm/cm/rate/src/lib.rs
+++ b/wasm/cm/rate/src/lib.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,40 @@
 static ALLOC: lol_alloc::AssumeSingleThreaded<lol_alloc::FreeListAllocator> =
     unsafe { lol_alloc::AssumeSingleThreaded::new(lol_alloc::FreeListAllocator::new()) };
 
+// The Component-Model canonical ABI requires the guest to export
+// `cabi_realloc`. wit-bindgen-rt provides it ONLY when it can lean on std —
+// its implementation is `#[cfg(not(target_env = "p2"))]`, because on
+// wasm32-wasip2 it expects the std toolchain to supply the symbol. This crate
+// is `no_std` on the cargo-component path, so nothing exported it and
+// `wasm-component-ld` failed with "module does not export a function named
+// `cabi_realloc`" — leaving a raw CORE MODULE where a component was expected.
+// Export it here, backed by the same single-threaded allocator.
+#[cfg(not(feature = "bazel-bindings"))]
+#[unsafe(no_mangle)]
+pub unsafe extern "C" fn cabi_realloc(
+    old_ptr: *mut u8,
+    old_len: usize,
+    align: usize,
+    new_len: usize,
+) -> *mut u8 {
+    use core::alloc::{GlobalAlloc, Layout};
+    unsafe {
+        if old_len == 0 {
+            // Canonical ABI: a zero-size allocation returns the alignment as a
+            // non-null, suitably-aligned dangling pointer.
+            if new_len == 0 {
+                return align as *mut u8;
+            }
+            return ALLOC.alloc(Layout::from_size_align_unchecked(new_len, align));
+        }
+        ALLOC.realloc(
+            old_ptr,
+            Layout::from_size_align_unchecked(old_len, align),
+            new_len,
+        )
+    }
+}
+
 // Bindings generated by cargo-component as src/bindings.rs.
 #[allow(warnings)]
 #[cfg(feature = "bazel-bindings")]