diff --git a/docs/performance/lab-runbook.md b/docs/performance/lab-runbook.md
index f5273e4..71c15ee 100644
--- a/docs/performance/lab-runbook.md
+++ b/docs/performance/lab-runbook.md
@@ -4,11 +4,13 @@ This runbook separates executable developer evidence from the two physical relea
 
 ## Automated build and transfer gate
 
-Run `npm run build:preview`. The build ends with `npm run check:budgets`, which classifies every shipped file exactly once, measures Brotli transfer bytes (or raw bytes for already-compressed formats), verifies that the live Three.js scene remains behind a dynamic import, and applies the exact section 14 thresholds. Unknown files fail closed. Every non-empty manifest media file is hash-checked and deterministically decoded: Sharp verifies image dimensions and `ffprobe` verifies video dimensions and duration against the manifest. Missing probe evidence, disagreement, or an unprobeable asset fails the gate.
+Run `npm run build:preview`. The build ends with the explicitly named `npm run check:budgets:transfer`, which classifies every shipped file exactly once, measures Brotli transfer bytes (or raw bytes for already-compressed formats), verifies that the live Three.js scene remains behind a dynamic import, and applies the static section 14 thresholds. Unknown files fail closed. Every non-empty manifest media file is hash-checked and deterministically decoded: Sharp verifies image dimensions and `ffprobe` verifies video dimensions and duration against the manifest. Missing probe evidence, disagreement, or an unprobeable asset fails the check. Its report is marked `transfer-only-non-gating` with runtime evidence pending; this static build check is not the full performance budget gate.
 
 Runtime budgets are not read from a hand-edited estimate. The authenticated test build records the actual production `SceneResourceBag`: owned texture dimensions/pixel layout/mipmap state, the byte lengths of unique geometry buffers, live render-target dimensions/attachments/samples, and the production framebuffer. A dedicated production-path capture derives peak image/scene and video concurrency from completed browser Resource Timing intervals. The evaluator recomputes decoded bytes, adds the fixed 32 MB allowance, and enforces the Low/High GPU, concurrency, and 2048-pixel mobile texture caps. Adding a production resource or eager request therefore changes the measured ledger.
 
-Run `npm run capture:runtime-budgets`. It loads the real High scene at a device DPR of 2, verifies that the renderer actually reaches its 1.5 DPR cap, and writes `runtime-budget-trace.v1.json` beneath the ignored Playwright result directory. Then verify that exact capture with `npm run check:budgets -- --runtime-trace <runtime-budget-trace.v1.json>`. The checker rejects the former standalone evidence schema, a tier/profile mismatch, a missing DPR-cap observation, or framebuffer dimensions that do not match the observed viewport. Supplied totals are ignored and recomputed from raw allocations.
+Run `npm run verify:runtime-budgets` for the full executable budget gate. One Node orchestrator runs the authenticated Chromium production-path capture, writes the stable ignored `test-results/runtime-budget-trace.v1.json`, and immediately invokes the full checker with it. It loads the real High scene at a device DPR of 2 and verifies that the renderer actually reaches its 1.5 DPR cap. The checker rejects the former standalone evidence schema, a tier/profile mismatch, a missing DPR-cap observation, or framebuffer dimensions that do not match the observed viewport. Supplied totals are ignored and recomputed from raw allocations. Direct `npm run check:budgets` without `--runtime-trace` fails closed; use `--transfer-only` only through the explicitly non-gating static check.
+
+`npm run verify:phase3` runs this full runtime gate followed by the complete browser suite. It is the Phase 3 release verification command; `build:preview` alone is deliberately not presented as the full runtime gate.
 
 High-tier-only chunks use the `high-tier-*`/`environment-high-*` bucket and are capped separately.
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 85de25b..1d71057 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -18,11 +18,14 @@
     "prepare:assets": "node scripts/prepare-assets.mjs",
     "verify:assets": "node scripts/prepare-assets.mjs --verify",
     "check:budgets": "node scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs dist",
+    "check:budgets:transfer": "node scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs dist --transfer-only",
     "capture:runtime-budgets": "playwright test tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts --project=runtime-budget-desktop --workers=1",
+    "verify:runtime-budgets": "node scripts/verify-runtime-budgets.mjs",
+    "verify:phase3": "npm run verify:runtime-budgets && npm run test:browser",
     "aggregate:performance": "node scripts/aggregate-drive-traces.mjs",
     "sign:performance": "node scripts/sign-drive-trace.mjs",
     "verify:approved-assets": "node scripts/materialize-empty-asset-set.mjs",
-    "build:preview": "npm run verify:approved-assets && npm run typecheck && npm run test:unit && npm run build:client && npm run build:ssr && npm run prerender -- --config config/site.preview.json && npm run verify:artifacts -- --config config/site.preview.json && npm run check:budgets"
+    "build:preview": "npm run verify:approved-assets && npm run typecheck && npm run test:unit && npm run build:client && npm run build:ssr && npm run prerender -- --config config/site.preview.json && npm run verify:artifacts -- --config config/site.preview.json && npm run check:budgets:transfer"
   },
   "keywords": [],
   "author": "",
diff --git a/scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs b/scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs
index c131299..3c5ffb5 100644
--- a/scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs
@@ -10,13 +10,16 @@ import {
   classifyArtifact,
   evaluateBudgetTotals,
   evaluateMediaAssetBudget,
+  resolveBudgetGateMode,
   validateRuntimeBudgetTraceReport,
 } from './lib/bundle-budgets.mjs';
 
 const root = resolve(process.argv[2] ?? 'dist');
+const transferOnly = process.argv.includes('--transfer-only');
 const runtimeTraceIndex = process.argv.indexOf('--runtime-trace');
 const runtimeTracePath = runtimeTraceIndex === -1 ? null : process.argv[runtimeTraceIndex + 1];
 if (runtimeTraceIndex !== -1 && runtimeTracePath === undefined) throw new Error('--runtime-trace requires one explicit drive-trace JSON path.');
+const gateMode = resolveBudgetGateMode({ transferOnly, runtimeTracePath });
 if (!(await stat(root)).isDirectory()) throw new Error('Bundle budget target must be a directory.');
 
 const listFiles = async (directory) => {
@@ -121,8 +124,8 @@ if (!/import\([^)]*environment-/u.test(entrySource)) throw new Error('The live s
 if (/WebGLRenderer|WebGLProgram|ShaderMaterial/u.test(entrySource)) throw new Error('Three.js/live-scene code leaked into the reduced-motion initial chunk.');
 
 let runtime = null;
-if (runtimeTracePath !== null) {
-  const trace = await readJson(resolve(runtimeTracePath), 'Runtime drive trace');
+if (gateMode.kind === 'full') {
+  const trace = await readJson(resolve(gateMode.runtimeTracePath), 'Runtime drive trace');
   runtime = validateRuntimeBudgetTraceReport(trace);
 }
 const violations = [...evaluateBudgetTotals(totals).violations, ...mediaViolations, ...(runtime?.violations ?? [])];
@@ -130,7 +133,9 @@ const report = {
   schema: 'portfolio-bundle-budget/v1',
   compression: 'brotli-quality-11-or-raw-already-compressed',
   totals,
-  runtime: runtime === null ? { status: 'pending-production-path-trace' } : { status: 'verified-production-path-trace', tier: runtime.tier },
+  runtime: runtime === null
+    ? { status: 'transfer-only-non-gating', gating: false, runtimeEvidence: 'pending' }
+    : { status: 'verified-production-path-trace', gating: true, tier: runtime.tier },
   records: records.sort((left, right) => left.path.localeCompare(right.path)),
   violations,
 };
diff --git a/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.d.mts b/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.d.mts
index 86beb1a..b0c62f3 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.d.mts
+++ b/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.d.mts
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 export const PERFORMANCE_BUDGETS: Readonly<Record<string, number>>;
+export function resolveBudgetGateMode(options: {
+  transferOnly: boolean;
+  runtimeTracePath: string | null;
+}): { kind: 'transfer-only' } | { kind: 'full'; runtimeTracePath: string };
 export function classifyArtifact(path: string, source?: string): string;
 export function evaluateBudgetTotals(totals: Readonly<Record<string, number>>): {
   violations: Array<{ budget: string; actual: number; threshold: number }>;
diff --git a/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.mjs b/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.mjs
index 1107cd6..7bd2bfc 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.mjs
+++ b/scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.mjs
@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@ export const PERFORMANCE_BUDGETS = Object.freeze({
   highTierGpuEstimate: 192 * 1024 * 1024,
 });
 
+export const resolveBudgetGateMode = ({ transferOnly, runtimeTracePath }) => {
+  if (transferOnly && runtimeTracePath !== null) throw new Error('Transfer-only mode cannot be combined with runtime evidence.');
+  if (transferOnly) return { kind: 'transfer-only' };
+  if (runtimeTracePath === null) throw new Error('A runtime trace is required for the full performance budget gate. Use --transfer-only only for a non-gating static build check.');
+  return { kind: 'full', runtimeTracePath };
+};
+
 export const classifyArtifact = (path, source = '') => {
   if (path === 'index.html') return 'initial-html';
   if (/^assets\/index-[^/]+\.css$/u.test(path)) return 'critical-css';
diff --git a/scripts/verify-runtime-budgets.mjs b/scripts/verify-runtime-budgets.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2506fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/verify-runtime-budgets.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+import { spawn } from 'node:child_process';
+import { access } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { resolve } from 'node:path';
+
+const repositoryRoot = process.cwd();
+const tracePath = resolve(repositoryRoot, 'test-results/runtime-budget-trace.v1.json');
+
+const runNode = (args) => new Promise((resolveRun, rejectRun) => {
+  const child = spawn(process.execPath, args, {
+    cwd: repositoryRoot,
+    env: process.env,
+    stdio: 'inherit',
+  });
+  child.once('error', rejectRun);
+  child.once('exit', (code, signal) => {
+    if (code === 0) resolveRun();
+    else rejectRun(new Error(`Command failed${signal === null ? ` with exit code ${code}` : ` from signal ${signal}`}.`));
+  });
+});
+
+await runNode([
+  resolve(repositoryRoot, 'node_modules/@playwright/test/cli.js'),
+  'test',
+  'tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts',
+  '--project=runtime-budget-desktop',
+  '--workers=1',
+]);
+await access(tracePath);
+await runNode([
+  resolve(repositoryRoot, 'scripts/check-bundle-budgets.mjs'),
+  'dist',
+  '--runtime-trace',
+  tracePath,
+]);
diff --git a/tests/performance/budgets.test.ts b/tests/performance/budgets.test.ts
index 621ada3..f27a8c8 100644
--- a/tests/performance/budgets.test.ts
+++ b/tests/performance/budgets.test.ts
@@ -8,9 +8,21 @@ import {
   validateRuntimeBudgetTraceReport,
   calculatePeakRequestConcurrency,
   PERFORMANCE_BUDGETS,
+  resolveBudgetGateMode,
 } from '../../scripts/lib/bundle-budgets.mjs';
 
 describe('release budgets', () => {
+  it('fails closed unless the caller explicitly selects a runtime trace or transfer-only mode', () => {
+    expect(() => resolveBudgetGateMode({ transferOnly: false, runtimeTracePath: null }))
+      .toThrow(/runtime trace is required/u);
+    expect(resolveBudgetGateMode({ transferOnly: true, runtimeTracePath: null }))
+      .toEqual({ kind: 'transfer-only' });
+    expect(resolveBudgetGateMode({ transferOnly: false, runtimeTracePath: '/tmp/runtime.json' }))
+      .toEqual({ kind: 'full', runtimeTracePath: '/tmp/runtime.json' });
+    expect(() => resolveBudgetGateMode({ transferOnly: true, runtimeTracePath: '/tmp/runtime.json' }))
+      .toThrow(/cannot be combined/u);
+  });
+
   it('pins every exact section 14 threshold', () => {
     expect(PERFORMANCE_BUDGETS).toMatchObject({
       initialHtmlCriticalCss: 100 * 1024,
diff --git a/tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts b/tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts
index a52e46f..ce2f1ca 100644
--- a/tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/performance/runtime-budget-trace.spec.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { expect, test } from '../helpers/serve-dist';
 import { authorizedPerformanceUrl } from '../helpers/test-build-auth';
 import {
@@ -48,9 +49,13 @@ test('runtime-budget-trace.v1 captures the actual High production allocation at
   };
   const evaluated = validateRuntimeBudgetTraceReport(report);
   expect(evaluated.violations).toEqual([]);
-  await writeFile(testInfo.outputPath('runtime-budget-trace.v1.json'), `${JSON.stringify({
+  const serialized = `${JSON.stringify({
     ...report,
     runtimeBudgetSummary: evaluated.tier,
     violations: evaluated.violations,
-  }, null, 2)}\n`);
+  }, null, 2)}\n`;
+  await Promise.all([
+    writeFile(testInfo.outputPath('runtime-budget-trace.v1.json'), serialized),
+    writeFile(resolve('test-results/runtime-budget-trace.v1.json'), serialized),
+  ]);
 });