diff --git a/cc-ci-plan/plan.md b/cc-ci-plan/plan.md
index a7c4d70..8ff5404 100644
--- a/cc-ci-plan/plan.md
+++ b/cc-ci-plan/plan.md
@@ -716,6 +716,14 @@ the *specific* thing. Three cases:
    min e2e gets 5 short cache-warm polls, not one 25-min cache-cold blackout. The wakeup that wakes
    you mid-task is *cheap* (one cache hit, one quick status check); the value of catching a deploy
    that died at minute 4 of a 25-min budget is large. Keep polling *it*, don't treat it as idle.
+   - **Recommended pattern for long deploys/convergence (builder, 2026-05-30):** **arm a `Monitor`**
+     that polls the node every ~30s and **wakes you on convergence OR failure**, with a **longer
+     fallback heartbeat** (`ScheduleWakeup`) as a backstop if the Monitor never fires. This proceeds
+     the *instant* the deploy converges (no over-waiting if it finishes early) and surfaces a failure
+     promptly, while the heartbeat bounds the wait if the condition is never met. Size the convergence
+     timeout sanely — longer than a few minutes if a recipe genuinely needs it, but **never absurd**
+     (e.g. the ~40-min ghost timeout was excessive). Beats both a single big blind sleep and a fixed
+     coarse poll.
 2. **Blocked on the *other* loop** — Builder parked at a `CLAIMED` gate awaiting the Adversary, or
    Adversary waiting for the Builder to fix an `[adversary]` finding. **You don't need to busy-poll
    here: the watchdog signals across the handoff.** The moment the Builder writes a `CLAIMED` gate,