diff --git a/packages/user-intent-kit/src/host-telemetry.js b/packages/user-intent-kit/src/host-telemetry.js
index 5757944..1a741d8 100644
--- a/packages/user-intent-kit/src/host-telemetry.js
+++ b/packages/user-intent-kit/src/host-telemetry.js
@@ -92,6 +92,19 @@ export const defaultSources = {
     return out;
   },
   readThermalZone: (zone) => readFileSync(`${THERMAL_ROOT}/${zone}/temp`, 'utf8'),
+  // The zone's own critical trip point, in millidegrees, or '' when the zone
+  // declares none. A zone advertises several trips (passive, hot, critical);
+  // only 'critical' is the number a reading should be judged against.
+  readThermalCriticalMilli: (zone) => {
+    const dir = `${THERMAL_ROOT}/${zone}`;
+    for (const entry of readdirSync(dir)) {
+      const m = entry.match(/^trip_point_(\d+)_type$/);
+      if (!m) continue;
+      if (readFileSync(`${dir}/${entry}`, 'utf8').trim() !== 'critical') continue;
+      return readFileSync(`${dir}/trip_point_${m[1]}_temp`, 'utf8');
+    }
+    return '';
+  },
 };
 
 /**
@@ -318,17 +331,46 @@ function readLinuxTempC(sources) {
   }
 
   let hottest;
+  let hottestZone;
   for (const zone of zones || []) {
     try {
       const celsius = Number(String(sources.readThermalZone(zone)).trim()) / 1000;
       if (celsius >= TEMP_MIN_C && celsius <= TEMP_MAX_C) {
-        if (hottest === undefined || celsius > hottest) hottest = celsius;
+        if (hottest === undefined || celsius > hottest) {
+          hottest = celsius;
+          hottestZone = zone;
+        }
       }
     } catch {
       // Unreadable zone: skip it, keep whatever the other zones gave us.
     }
   }
-  return hottest === undefined ? undefined : Math.round(hottest * 10) / 10;
+  if (hottest === undefined) return undefined;
+
+  // The limit MUST come from the same zone as the reading. Pairing the
+  // hottest zone's temperature with some other zone's critical point would
+  // produce a headroom figure describing neither.
+  let limitC;
+  try {
+    const raw = String(sources.readThermalCriticalMilli(hottestZone) ?? '').trim();
+    const c = Number(raw) / 1000;
+    // Plausibility is judged on the VALUE ALONE, never against the current
+    // reading. An earlier cut required `c > hottest`, reasoning that a
+    // critical point below the temperature had to be a broken table. It is
+    // the opposite: crossing the critical trip is a protection event the
+    // kernel acts on, so a box reading 105 C against a 100 C critical is in
+    // exactly the trouble a dashboard exists to show. That guard deleted the
+    // limit at the only moment it mattered, and a reader falling back to a
+    // default would have painted a thermally emergency box calmer than it
+    // was. (codexmb, 17 Sep 2026.)
+    if (raw !== '' && Number.isFinite(c) && c >= TEMP_MIN_C && c <= TEMP_MAX_C) {
+      limitC = Math.round(c * 10) / 10;
+    }
+  } catch {
+    // No trip table: publish the reading without a limit.
+  }
+
+  return { tempC: Math.round(hottest * 10) / 10, limitC };
 }
 
 /**
@@ -369,8 +411,16 @@ export function collectHostTelemetry({ machine, kind, model, sources = defaultSo
 
   try {
     if (sources.platform() === 'linux') {
-      const tempC = readLinuxTempC(sources);
-      if (tempC !== undefined) host.temp_c = tempC;
+      const reading = readLinuxTempC(sources);
+      if (reading !== undefined) {
+        host.temp_c = reading.tempC;
+        // Published so a dashboard can colour a temperature against THIS
+        // machine's own limit instead of a guessed scale: 49 C is idle on a
+        // box that trips at 104 and alarming on one that trips at 60. A host
+        // that declares no critical point simply omits this, and the reader
+        // falls back to its own default (petrus, 17 Sep 2026).
+        if (reading.limitC !== undefined) host.temp_limit_c = reading.limitC;
+      }
     }
   } catch {
     // No thermal zones exposed; publish without a temperature.
diff --git a/packages/user-intent-kit/test/host-telemetry.test.js b/packages/user-intent-kit/test/host-telemetry.test.js
index 70584cd..2b9fa82 100644
--- a/packages/user-intent-kit/test/host-telemetry.test.js
+++ b/packages/user-intent-kit/test/host-telemetry.test.js
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import { collectHostTelemetry, modelFromCommandLine } from '../src/host-telemetr
  */
 function sources({ platform = 'linux', load = [1.8, 1.7, 1.6], cpuCount = 4, zones = {},
                    totalMem = 16e9, freeMem = 4e9, availMem = 12e9, commands = {},
-                   processes = [] } = {}) {
+                   processes = [], trips = {} } = {}) {
   return {
     platform: () => platform,
     loadavg: () => load,
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@ function sources({ platform = 'linux', load = [1.8, 1.7, 1.6], cpuCount = 4, zon
       if (value instanceof Error) throw value;
       return value;
     },
+    readThermalCriticalMilli: (zone) => {
+      const value = trips[zone];
+      if (value instanceof Error) throw value;
+      return value ?? '';
+    },
   };
 }
 
@@ -327,3 +332,65 @@ test('a voice stack with lower pids does not become the served model (VTA layout
   // and with the model server gone, the voice stack still is not "the model"
   assert.ok(!('model' in collectHostTelemetry({ sources: sources({ processes: table.slice(0, 3) }) })));
 });
+// --- the machine's own limit, so a dashboard is not guessing a scale ---
+
+test('publishes the critical trip point of the SAME zone the reading came from', () => {
+  const host = collectHostTelemetry({
+    sources: sources({
+      zones: { thermal_zone0: '49000', thermal_zone1: '72000' },
+      // zone1 is the hottest, so zone1's limit is the one that applies.
+      trips: { thermal_zone0: '104000', thermal_zone1: '95000' },
+    }),
+  });
+  assert.equal(host.temp_c, 72);
+  assert.equal(host.temp_limit_c, 95, "paired the reading with another zone's limit");
+});
+
+test('a host that declares no critical point publishes a temperature and no limit', () => {
+  const host = collectHostTelemetry({
+    sources: sources({ zones: { thermal_zone0: '49000' }, trips: {} }),
+  });
+  assert.equal(host.temp_c, 49);
+  assert.ok(!('temp_limit_c' in host), 'invented a limit the machine never declared');
+});
+
+test('an unreadable trip table costs the limit, never the temperature', () => {
+  const host = collectHostTelemetry({
+    sources: sources({
+      zones: { thermal_zone0: '49000' },
+      trips: { thermal_zone0: new Error('EACCES') },
+    }),
+  });
+  assert.equal(host.temp_c, 49);
+  assert.ok(!('temp_limit_c' in host));
+});
+
+test('a critical point is kept when the machine has REACHED it', () => {
+  // The moment the limit matters most. An earlier cut dropped any critical
+  // point at or below the reading as "a broken table", so a box sitting on
+  // its trip published no limit at all and a reader fell back to a calmer
+  // default. Crossing the critical trip is a protection event, not bad data.
+  const at = collectHostTelemetry({
+    sources: sources({ zones: { thermal_zone0: '100000' }, trips: { thermal_zone0: '100000' } }),
+  });
+  assert.equal(at.temp_c, 100);
+  assert.equal(at.temp_limit_c, 100, 'dropped the limit at exactly the trip point');
+
+  const over = collectHostTelemetry({
+    sources: sources({ zones: { thermal_zone0: '105000' }, trips: { thermal_zone0: '100000' } }),
+  });
+  assert.equal(over.temp_c, 105);
+  assert.equal(over.temp_limit_c, 100, 'dropped the limit on a box that is OVER it');
+});
+
+test('a nonsense critical point is dropped rather than published', () => {
+  // Judged on the value alone: unparseable, empty, or hotter than any real
+  // die. Deliberately NOT "below the current reading" - see the test above.
+  for (const bad of ['900000', 'not-a-number', '']) {
+    const host = collectHostTelemetry({
+      sources: sources({ zones: { thermal_zone0: '49000' }, trips: { thermal_zone0: bad } }),
+    });
+    assert.equal(host.temp_c, 49, `temp lost for trip=${bad}`);
+    assert.ok(!('temp_limit_c' in host), `published nonsense limit ${bad}`);
+  }
+});