diff --git a/docs/port/HANDOFF.md b/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
index a2802263..845d535f 100644
--- a/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
+++ b/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
@@ -17,6 +17,37 @@ delivered.
 
 
 
+
+## ✅ 2026-08-31 — menu focus does NOT survive a reboot; your `NEW GAME` is a fresh-start value
+
+**Measured without spending a boot.** Six runs had already captured the *first*
+menu entry of a fresh boot. All six read **`NEW GAME`** — and three of them follow
+a session that ended with the cursor somewhere else:
+
+| session ended on | next boot opened on |
+|---|---|
+| inside `EXTRAS` | `NEW GAME` |
+| `OPTIONS` | `NEW GAME` |
+| `OPTIONS` | `NEW GAME` |
+
+So your authored `NEW GAME` is correct **for a fresh start**, and is not an
+artefact of whatever the previous session left behind.
+
+⚠️ **The reach matters here more than the result.** Every one of these sessions
+ends with the emulator being **killed**, not shut down cleanly. A game that writes
+menu state on a clean exit would never get the chance, so this measures *"does not
+survive a killed session"*. This harness cannot exercise a clean-exit path, so if
+you ever see a real console remember a cursor across a power cycle, that is not a
+contradiction of this.
+
+✅ **And a refutation attempt on your `extras/initial_focus: ptbtn11` — it
+survives.** Your value is right only if `ptbtn11` is the top button on that screen,
+and the disc says it is (`ptbtn11` y282, `ptbtn12` y362, `ptbtn13` y442), with the
+main menu as a control where `ptbtn01` is top and is known to be `NEW GAME`.
+
+[data](../re/data/focus-does-not-survive-a-reboot.txt)
+
+
 ## ✅ 2026-08-31 — SETTLED: reset goes to the item a screen OPENS on, not to its top item
 
 **Your question, answered.** `DIFFICULTY` opens on `NORMAL` (second of four), and