diff --git a/.github/pi/pr-review.prompt.md b/.github/pi/pr-review.prompt.md
index 952ba4c428..8f46813507 100644
--- a/.github/pi/pr-review.prompt.md
+++ b/.github/pi/pr-review.prompt.md
@@ -4,3 +4,14 @@
 - Return a markdown PR comment starting with `## Pi Review`.
 - Tag each finding with a severity (P0 / P1 / P2), file path, and line number when known confidently.
 - Output ONLY the final review markdown — no preamble, no thinking, no tool transcripts.
+
+# Before you settle on a verdict
+
+`REVIEW.md` tells you to discard findings you are not confident in. That rule exists to suppress noise, not to license a quick approval. Review in two passes:
+
+1. Enumerate every candidate defect you notice, without judging any of them yet.
+2. Take each candidate and try to prove it is real: read the surrounding code, check the caller, check the error path. Keep it, or dismiss it for a specific reason.
+
+A "Good to merge" verdict must be accompanied by a "Considered and dismissed" section listing each candidate from pass 1 with the concrete reason it is not a finding. If that section would be empty, pass 1 was skipped: go back and do it.
+
+Facts cut both ways. If you notice that a cached value can be multiple megabytes, that a lock is held across an await, or that a new parameter is caller-controlled, that observation is a candidate for pass 2 even when the surrounding code looks deliberate. Do not narrate such a fact as evidence that the code is fine without first checking whether it is a bug.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pi-pr-review.yml b/.github/workflows/pi-pr-review.yml
index a5d8d6e6f1..9b536b6ed5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pi-pr-review.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pi-pr-review.yml
@@ -212,7 +212,9 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Install Pi CLI
         if: steps.pi_config.outputs.enabled == 'true' && steps.pr.outputs.skip != 'true'
-        run: npm install --global @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
+        # Pinned: this job holds DEEPSEEK_API_KEY and PR write access, and an
+        # unpinned reviewer also makes verdicts non-reproducible across runs.
+        run: npm install --global @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent@0.84.1
 
       - name: Pre-fetch base and head refs for the PR
         if: steps.pi_config.outputs.enabled == 'true' && steps.pr.outputs.skip != 'true'
@@ -362,13 +364,14 @@ jobs:
           # The context file lives in RUNNER_TEMP (outside the checkout); tell the
           # agent its absolute path.
           printf '\nReview context file (absolute path): %s\n' "$CTX" >> /tmp/pi-prompt.md
-          # DeepSeek exposes only two reasoning levels; pi's default (medium) is
-          # unsupported for this model and silently clamps to reasoning_effort=high.
-          # xhigh is the only way to reach "max", which is what a review needs.
+          # DeepSeek's reasoning_effort accepts low/high/max and silently maps both
+          # medium and xhigh onto high. Set the level explicitly rather than letting
+          # pi's default clamp onto it, so a change to either the default or the
+          # clamping is a visible diff here instead of a silent shift in review depth.
           pi -p \
             --provider deepseek \
             --model deepseek-v4-pro \
-            --thinking xhigh \
+            --thinking high \
             --tools "$PI_TOOLS" \
             "${PI_HARDEN_FLAGS[@]}" \
             --mode json \
@@ -403,6 +406,14 @@ jobs:
             | (.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text)
           ' "$OUT_DIR/pi-events.jsonl" > "$OUT_DIR/pi-final-message.md"
 
+          # The final message often opens with chatter ("Now I have all the context
+          # I need..."), which would land above the verdict in the posted comment.
+          # Keep the trim conditional: without the heading there is nothing to cut
+          # and the range expression would empty the file.
+          if grep -q '^## Pi Review' "$OUT_DIR/pi-final-message.md"; then
+            sed -i -n '/^## Pi Review/,$p' "$OUT_DIR/pi-final-message.md"
+          fi
+
       - name: Post Pi review comment
         if: steps.pi_config.outputs.enabled == 'true' && steps.pr.outputs.skip != 'true'
         uses: actions/github-script@v7