diff --git a/.github/workflows/docs-pages.yml b/.github/workflows/docs-pages.yml
index 3c2badd8..59e74636 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docs-pages.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docs-pages.yml
@@ -166,6 +166,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Verify current machine-readable documentation
         working-directory: docs/site
         run: npm run check:llms:built
+        env:
+          DOCS_DIST_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/docs/site/dist/dev
+          DOCS_PUBLIC_BASE: /dev/
 
       - name: Verify assembled documentation tree
         working-directory: docs/site
diff --git a/docs/site/scripts/check-evidence-links.test.mjs b/docs/site/scripts/check-evidence-links.test.mjs
index 50b49310..2d1b37ae 100644
--- a/docs/site/scripts/check-evidence-links.test.mjs
+++ b/docs/site/scripts/check-evidence-links.test.mjs
@@ -245,12 +245,20 @@ test('Pages authenticates an exact release before build and smokes one assembled
   const docsBuild = workflow.indexOf('Build protected main at /dev/');
   const archiveAssembly = workflow.indexOf('npm run assemble:archives');
   const rootStaging = workflow.indexOf('npm run stage:production-docsets');
+  const llmsCheck = workflow.indexOf('Verify current machine-readable documentation');
+  const assembledCheck = workflow.indexOf('Verify assembled documentation tree');
   const localSmoke = workflow.indexOf('npm run smoke:deployment');
   const upload = workflow.indexOf('actions/upload-pages-artifact');
   const liveSmoke = workflow.lastIndexOf('smoke-docs-deployment.mjs');
   assert.ok(dispatchValidation >= 0);
   assert.ok(dispatchValidation < docsBuild);
   assert.ok(rootStaging > archiveAssembly);
+  assert.ok(llmsCheck > rootStaging);
+  assert.match(
+    workflow.slice(llmsCheck, assembledCheck),
+    /DOCS_DIST_DIR: \$\{\{ github\.workspace \}\}\/docs\/site\/dist\/dev/,
+  );
+  assert.match(workflow.slice(llmsCheck, assembledCheck), /DOCS_PUBLIC_BASE: \/dev\//);
   assert.ok(localSmoke > rootStaging);
   assert.ok(upload > localSmoke);
   assert.ok(liveSmoke > upload);
diff --git a/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.mjs b/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.mjs
index 0e7d7f27..45b83091 100644
--- a/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.mjs
+++ b/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.mjs
@@ -88,8 +88,8 @@ export async function smokeDocsDeployment({
   if (canonicalFromHtml(devHtml) !== `${productionOrigin}/dev/`) {
     throw new Error('/dev/ is not canonical at the protected-main mount');
   }
-  if (canonicalFromHtml(versionHtml) !== `${productionOrigin}/`) {
-    throw new Error(`${versionPath} is not an unchanged root-canonical release copy`);
+  if (canonicalFromHtml(versionHtml) !== `${productionOrigin}${versionPath}`) {
+    throw new Error(`${versionPath} is not canonical at the immutable version route`);
   }
   if (!rootHtml.includes(versionPath)) {
     throw new Error(`/ does not expose version navigation to ${versionPath}`);
diff --git a/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.test.mjs b/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.test.mjs
index 1d891610..5b38cb38 100644
--- a/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.test.mjs
+++ b/docs/site/scripts/smoke-docs-deployment.test.mjs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ function fixture(overrides = {}) {
     ],
     ['/start/quickstart/', html(`${origin}/start/quickstart/`)],
     ['/dev/', html(`${origin}/dev/`)],
-    ['/v/1.2.3/', html(`${origin}/`)],
+    ['/v/1.2.3/', html(`${origin}/v/1.2.3/`)],
     ['/pagefind/pagefind.js', Buffer.from('search')],
     ['/pagefind/pagefind-entry.json', Buffer.from('{}')],
     ['/sitemap-index.xml', Buffer.from('<sitemapindex/>')],