diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 0984715..10ca8d5 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -66,7 +66,12 @@ the user's Unraid home server. Server-side project directory is still named
   than a variation:
   1. **No in-between tone.** There are eight colours (the teletext
      primaries). A mid-grey is an ordered dither of two of them, never a
-     ninth colour.
+     ninth colour — except `--tt-orange`, the one deliberate, acknowledged
+     break in `base.css`, added when the fastext nav ran out of legible
+     colours for its eighth destination (Activity) and dithering the
+     word itself proved illegible. Treat a *second* ninth colour showing
+     up as the regression this discipline warns about; this one is a
+     one-time, explained exception, not a precedent.
   2. **No enclosure.** Nothing is surrounded by a border or a box. There is
      zero `border-radius` in the codebase. Grouping is a coloured field row
      (`.tt-field`), indentation, and weight. This is the single thing the
@@ -106,23 +111,27 @@ the user's Unraid home server. Server-side project directory is still named
     other nav, so it needs no scroll to reach. The index overrides it
     with `HOME_FASTEXT`, the original four-entry row, as its own closing
     line, since its body already lists every destination once. Every
-    destination gets its own distinct mark. Six get a flat colour, text
-    and swatch both: Index/Library/Discover/System keep their `r`/`g`/
-    `y`/`c` shortcut; Requests gets magenta/`--pending` with no
-    shortcut (a deliberate fit — Requests already is "waiting on a
-    human" everywhere else magenta appears); Watch gets blue (`.k-blue`)
-    with no shortcut. Blue is a known exception to the app's own 4.5:1
+    destination gets its own distinct flat colour, text and swatch
+    both: Index/Library/Discover/System keep their `r`/`g`/`y`/`c`
+    shortcut; Requests gets magenta/`--pending` with no shortcut (a
+    deliberate fit — Requests already is "waiting on a human"
+    everywhere else magenta appears); Watch gets blue (`.k-blue`) with
+    no shortcut. Blue is a known exception to the app's own 4.5:1
     text-contrast bar (it clears ~2.4:1 on black) — kept anyway, at the
     visitor's request, over the alternative of a swatch-only accent
-    that read as unfinished next to six fully-coloured neighbours.
-    Activity gets an ordered-dither swatch (`.k-dither`, same mechanism
-    as `--dither-mid`) instead of a flat colour — the one other legal
-    way to get a distinct mark without a ninth hue. Settings alone
-    keeps plain ink with no swatch treatment — deliberately, as the one
-    page with no live status of its own. Whichever entry matches the
-    current page renders as a `.fastext-here` span instead of a link —
-    a page linking to itself did nothing, so it isn't offered as a
-    click.
+    that read as unfinished next to its fully-coloured neighbours.
+    Activity gets `--tt-orange` (`.k-orange`) — a genuine ninth colour,
+    the one destination that breaks "eight colours, no ninth"
+    outright, defined and explained in `base.css` right after the
+    locked eight. It's there because the palette ran out at six
+    (dithering a swatch alone read as unfinished, and dithering the
+    word itself renders illegible) and the visitor wanted every
+    destination to look different, not merely as different as eight
+    colours allow. Settings alone keeps plain ink — deliberately, as
+    the one page with no live status of its own. Whichever entry
+    matches the current page renders as a `.fastext-here` span instead
+    of a link — a page linking to itself did nothing, so it isn't
+    offered as a click.
   - **Nothing is clipped, hidden, or sticky.** All seven page numbers and
     every fastext entry stay visible at every width, reflowing to another
     row rather than scrolling, truncating, or folding into a menu. No
diff --git a/DESIGN.md b/DESIGN.md
index ecaf3e4..58273d9 100644
--- a/DESIGN.md
+++ b/DESIGN.md
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ Teletext had exactly eight colours, at full saturation, and the product's semant
 
 ### Named Rules
 
-**The Locked Eight Rule.** Eight colours exist. Adding a ninth hue, or desaturating one of the eight to make it sit more politely, is a regression rather than a variation. If a new state needs a colour, it takes one of the eight and inherits that colour's meaning.
+**The Locked Eight Rule.** Eight colours exist. Adding a ninth hue, or desaturating one of the eight to make it sit more politely, is a regression rather than a variation. If a new state needs a colour, it takes one of the eight and inherits that colour's meaning. **One acknowledged exception:** `--tt-orange` in `base.css`, added for the fastext nav's eighth destination once the locked eight ran out of colours legible as text on black — a one-time, explained break, not a precedent for a second.
 
 **The Dither Rule.** A mid-tone is an ordered dither of two of the eight at cell scale — a checkerboard or a repeating gradient stepped at `--dither-size: 2px` or at `--bar-cell-w` — exactly how a 16-colour screen faked a gradient. It is never a ninth colour smuggled into the palette. The two derived greys are the sanctioned exception, and they derive from white by `color-mix`, not by hand.
 
diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index 1ff1171..69f014c 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -1304,20 +1304,22 @@ def service_urls():
 
 
 # Every destination, for the top of every page but the index, each
-# with its own distinct treatment. Order matches nav_items. Six of the
-# eight get a flat colour, text and swatch both: the four with a real
-# keyboard shortcut (r/g/y/c), plus magenta for Requests (the same
-# --pending magenta a request already shows once approved elsewhere —
-# Requests IS "waiting on a human") and blue for Watch. Blue is ~2.4:1
-# contrast on black, well under the 4.5:1 every other body text here
-# clears — a known, deliberate exception, not an oversight; it's set
-# this way because coloured-icon-only for Watch read as unfinished
-# next to six fully-coloured neighbours. Activity gets an ordered
-# dither swatch instead of a flat colour, the one other legal way to
-# get a distinct mark out of this palette without smuggling in a ninth
-# hue. Settings alone keeps plain ink — deliberately, as the one page
-# with no live status of its own, so it's the one that gets no colour
-# rather than an arbitrary leftover.
+# with its own distinct colour. Order matches nav_items. The four
+# with a real keyboard shortcut (r/g/y/c) keep their original colours;
+# Requests gets magenta (the same --pending magenta a request already
+# shows once approved elsewhere — Requests IS "waiting on a human");
+# Watch gets blue, ~2.4:1 contrast on black versus the 4.5:1 every
+# other body text here clears — a known, deliberate exception, kept
+# anyway because a swatch-only accent read as unfinished next to six
+# fully-coloured neighbours. That's every colour the locked eight
+# palette has to give (black's invisible on black); Activity's colour,
+# --tt-orange, is a genuine ninth on top of it — a dithered swatch
+# alone read as unfinished, and dithering the word itself renders
+# illegible, so it's a deliberate, acknowledged break from "eight
+# colours, no ninth" rather than a fix that stays inside it. Settings
+# alone keeps plain ink — deliberately, as the one page with no live
+# status of its own, so it's the one that gets no colour rather than
+# an arbitrary leftover.
 FULL_FASTEXT = [
     ("k-red",     "r", "100", "Index",    "/"),
     ("k-blue",    "",  "101", "Watch",    "/watch"),
@@ -1325,7 +1327,7 @@ FULL_FASTEXT = [
     ("k-yellow",  "y", "103", "Discover", "/discover"),
     ("k-magenta", "",  "104", "Requests", "/requests"),
     ("k-cyan",    "c", "105", "System",   "/system"),
-    ("k-dither",  "",  "106", "Activity", "/activity"),
+    ("k-orange",  "",  "106", "Activity", "/activity"),
     ("",          "",  "900", "Settings", "/settings"),
 ]
 
diff --git a/static/css/base.css b/static/css/base.css
index 634ca04..69780b8 100644
--- a/static/css/base.css
+++ b/static/css/base.css
@@ -61,6 +61,14 @@
   --tt-cyan:    #00ffff;
   --tt-white:   #ffffff;
 
+  /* A deliberate, acknowledged ninth: the fastext nav has eight
+     destinations and only five of the locked eight read as legible
+     text on black once red/green/yellow/cyan/magenta/blue are already
+     spoken for (Activity ran out — a dithered swatch alone read as
+     unfinished, and dithering the word itself was tried and found
+     illegible). Not "one of the eight" — used nowhere else. */
+  --tt-orange:  #ff8000;
+
   /* ── Roles ─────────────────────────────────────────────
      Each colour means one thing across all nine pages. */
   --ink:      var(--tt-white);   /* body text */
diff --git a/static/css/teletext.css b/static/css/teletext.css
index 19def98..a8b6b4a 100644
--- a/static/css/teletext.css
+++ b/static/css/teletext.css
@@ -533,9 +533,7 @@ a.tt-row:focus-visible .tt-row-sub { color: var(--tt-black); }
   text-overflow: ellipsis;
 }
 /* The key's identity is carried by a cell at its head — the physical
-   coloured button on the remote. Solid for most; k-blue and k-dither
-   override its background below, since a flat swatch can't carry
-   every one of the eight destinations without repeating a colour. */
+   coloured button on the remote. */
 .fastext a > span, .fastext-here > span {
   min-width: 0;
   overflow: hidden;
@@ -564,10 +562,9 @@ a.tt-row:focus-visible .tt-row-sub { color: var(--tt-black); }
    other body text in this app clears — but the word carries the
    colour like every other key here, at the visitor's request. */
 .fastext .k-blue { color: var(--field); }
-/* The one other legal way to get a distinct mark out of eight colours
-   without a ninth: an ordered dither, same mechanism as --dither-mid,
-   in place of a flat swatch. */
-.fastext .k-dither::before { background: var(--dither-mid); }
+/* --tt-orange is a genuine ninth colour, not one of the locked eight —
+   see its definition in base.css for why the palette ran out here. */
+.fastext .k-orange { color: var(--tt-orange); }
 .fastext a:hover, .fastext a:focus-visible {
   background: currentColor;
   outline: none;