diff --git a/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index da6c546..d3aee35 100644
--- a/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
+++ b/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
 	"name": "inference-arbitrage",
-	"version": "0.6.2",
+	"version": "0.6.3",
 	"description": "Audits a Claude Code plugin's definitions and usage transcripts to find steps that should be a deterministic script instead of raw LLM inference, and files the well-evidenced ones as issues on the target repo.",
 	"author": {
 		"name": "oleks"
diff --git a/bin/audit-snapshot b/bin/audit-snapshot
index 9036fdb..6634ecb 100755
--- a/bin/audit-snapshot
+++ b/bin/audit-snapshot
@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ def build_snapshot(target, inventory, scan, classified, issue_map, explicit, run
             "weighted_tokens": scan_total.get("weighted_tokens", 0),
             "invocations": scan_total.get("invocations", 0),
             "share_mechanical": scan_total.get("mechanical_share", 0.0),
+            "invocation_caveat": scan_total.get("invocation_caveat"),
         },
         "candidates": [snapshot_candidate(c, scan, explicit, issue_map) for c in filed],
         "boundary_questions": [snapshot_candidate(c, scan, explicit, issue_map) for c in questions],
@@ -452,6 +453,12 @@ def render_run(snap, diffdoc):
         f"- Mechanical share of audited spend: {(snap['totals'].get('share_mechanical') or 0):.1%}",
         f"- Rubric v{snap.get('rubric_version')}, inference-arbitrage "
         f"v{snap.get('tool_versions', {}).get('inference-arbitrage')}",
+    ]
+    invocation_caveat = snap["totals"].get("invocation_caveat")
+    if invocation_caveat:
+        lines.append(f"- Note: {invocation_caveat}, so per-invocation figures below are "
+                     "correspondingly inflated")
+    lines += [
         "",
         "## Candidates",
         "",
diff --git a/bin/offload-scan b/bin/offload-scan
index a3b4f38..c4b0740 100755
--- a/bin/offload-scan
+++ b/bin/offload-scan
@@ -750,6 +750,17 @@ def main():
             "mechanical_share": round(
                 sum(1 for t in turns if classify(t, catalog) == "mechanical")
                 / len(turns), 3) if turns else 0.0,
+            # reconstruct_invocations() only sees already-attributed turns and
+            # splits on a wall-clock idle gap; it has no signal for unrelated
+            # activity between two genuinely separate same-skill calls, so
+            # back-to-back invocations closer together than the gap collapse
+            # into one reported invocation. Counts here are a LOWER BOUND on
+            # the true invocation count, and per-invocation figures derived
+            # from them (e.g. cost/invocation) are correspondingly inflated.
+            "invocation_caveat": (
+                "invocation counts are a lower bound: two same-skill calls "
+                f"within {int(th['idle_gap_minutes'])} minutes of each other on the wall "
+                "clock are merged into one reported invocation"),
         },
         "skills": skills,
         "agents": agents,
diff --git a/tests/scan.test.sh b/tests/scan.test.sh
index 9da6889..aecd8c3 100755
--- a/tests/scan.test.sh
+++ b/tests/scan.test.sh
@@ -43,6 +43,16 @@ check "agent attributed via attributionAgent" "d['agents'][0]['agent'] == 'fixtu
 # --- 3.2 invocation reconstruction ----------------------------------------
 check "idle gap splits mine-me into 3 invocations" "$(skill mine-me)['invocations'] == 3"
 check "think-hard is one contiguous invocation" "$(skill think-hard)['invocations'] == 1"
+# kotkan/claude-plugin-inference-arbitrage#12: reconstruct_invocations() only
+# sees already-attributed turns and splits on wall-clock idle gap alone, so
+# it cannot tell two genuinely separate same-skill calls apart from one
+# contiguous call if they land inside the gap. The emitted totals must say so
+# rather than let the headline invocation/cost-per-invocation figures imply
+# more confidence than the reconstruction can support.
+check "totals carry a lower-bound caveat naming the idle gap threshold" "
+    'lower bound' in d['totals']['invocation_caveat']
+    and '10 minutes' in d['totals']['invocation_caveat']
+"
 
 # --- 3.3 turn classification ----------------------------------------------
 check "mine-me is wholly mechanical" "$(skill mine-me)['mtr'] == 1.0"
diff --git a/tests/snapshot.test.sh b/tests/snapshot.test.sh
index 92a449c..c7395d6 100755
--- a/tests/snapshot.test.sh
+++ b/tests/snapshot.test.sh
@@ -317,6 +317,32 @@ else
 	fail=1
 fi
 
+echo "== kotkan/claude-plugin-inference-arbitrage#12: scan's invocation_caveat reaches the summary page =="
+store6=$tmp/store6
+inventory "$tmp/inv6.json" 1.0.0 steady
+scan "$tmp/scan6.json" 10000000 "steady:20:2000000:list_issues,issue_read"
+python3 -c "
+import json
+d = json.load(open('$tmp/scan6.json'))
+d['totals']['invocation_caveat'] = ('invocation counts are a lower bound: two same-skill '
+    'calls within 10 minutes of each other on the wall clock are merged into one reported '
+    'invocation')
+json.dump(d, open('$tmp/scan6.json', 'w'))
+"
+classified "$tmp/cls6.json" "synth/steady/a:steady:2000000:0.20:file"
+$BIN --store "$store6" write --target synth --run-id 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z \
+	--from "$tmp/inv6.json" "$tmp/scan6.json" --classified "$tmp/cls6.json" >/dev/null
+check "invocation_caveat stored in totals" "$(python3 -c "
+import json
+s=[json.loads(l) for l in open('$store6/Data/synth/snapshots.jsonl')][0]
+print('lower bound' in s['totals']['invocation_caveat'])")" "True"
+if grep -qF "lower bound" "$store6/Audits/synth/2026-07-01.md"; then
+	echo "  ok   invocation caveat rendered in the audit page"
+else
+	echo "  FAIL invocation caveat missing from the audit page" >&2
+	fail=1
+fi
+
 echo "== a re-run of the same run_id is refused =="
 if $BIN --store "$store" write --target synth --run-id 2026-07-08T00:00:00Z \
 	--from "$tmp/inv2.json" "$tmp/scan2.json" --classified "$tmp/cls2.json" >/dev/null 2>&1; then