diff --git a/ops/ax/smoke-run.sh b/ops/ax/smoke-run.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..60babd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/ax/smoke-run.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Render the end-to-end smoke Run with the current runner digest and execute it through the reconciler on ax.
+set -euo pipefail
+export PATH="$HOME/go/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
+SRC="${OUSAST_AX_SRC:-$HOME/.cache/ousast/ax-src}"
+RUNNER_IMAGE="$(cat "$SRC/runner-image")"; export RUNNER_IMAGE
+KIND_GW="$(docker network inspect kind --format '{{range .IPAM.Config}}{{if .Gateway}}{{.Gateway}} {{end}}{{end}}' | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -m1 '\.')"
+export OUSAST_ARTIFACT_HOST="${OUSAST_ARTIFACT_HOST:-$KIND_GW}"   # sandboxes reach the host via the kind gateway
+envsubst < "$(dirname "$0")/smoke-run.yaml.tmpl" > "$SRC/smoke-run.yaml"
+REPO="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.." && pwd)"
+"$REPO/.venv/bin/ousast" plane run "$SRC/smoke-run.yaml" "$@"
+"$REPO/.venv/bin/ousast" plane status ax-e2e-smoke
diff --git a/ops/ax/smoke-run.yaml.tmpl b/ops/ax/smoke-run.yaml.tmpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ca87a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/ax/smoke-run.yaml.tmpl
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# End-to-end smoke of the plane on ax: `ousast plane run` submits one model-free repo-facts Task, resumes it,
+# starts it through Substrate's router and receives its artifacts on the host. Rendered by ops/ax/smoke-run.sh.
+apiVersion: ax.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Workspace
+metadata:
+  name: ousast-e2e-ws
+  atespace: default
+spec:
+  files:
+    - path: "app/views.py"
+      content: "from app.db import run_query\n\ndef handler(request):\n    return run_query(request.args['q'])\n"
+    - path: "app/db.py"
+      content: "def run_query(sql):\n    return cursor.execute(sql)\n"
+---
+apiVersion: ax.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Task
+metadata:
+  name: ousast-e2e-facts
+  atespace: default
+spec:
+  image: "${RUNNER_IMAGE}"
+  command: ["repo-facts"]
+  resources:
+    requests: {cpu: "250m", memory: "512Mi"}
+    limits: {cpu: "1", memory: "1Gi"}
+  workspaces:
+    - name: ousast-e2e-ws
+      path: "/workspace/case"
+---
+apiVersion: openultrasast.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Run
+metadata:
+  name: ax-e2e-smoke
+spec:
+  tasks:
+    - name: facts
+      task: ousast-e2e-facts
+      outputs: [facts.json, summary.json]
+      budget: {usd: 0, calls: 0}
diff --git a/src/openultrasast/plane/reconciler.py b/src/openultrasast/plane/reconciler.py
index bfd23d3..387e370 100644
--- a/src/openultrasast/plane/reconciler.py
+++ b/src/openultrasast/plane/reconciler.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ def render_task(run: Run, entry: RunTask, manifests: Manifests, base: Path, arti
         spec["workspaces"] = bindings
     if task.debug:
         spec["debug"] = True
-    return [_doc("Task", ax_name, spec, task.metadata.atespace), *docs]
+    return [*docs, _doc("Task", ax_name, spec, task.metadata.atespace)]  # ax snapshots bound Workspaces at Task create
 
 
 class Ax:
diff --git a/tests/test_plane_increment.py b/tests/test_plane_increment.py
index a9b9b6e..95d6db9 100644
--- a/tests/test_plane_increment.py
+++ b/tests/test_plane_increment.py
@@ -73,8 +73,9 @@ def test_validation_run_resolves_and_renders_every_task(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
             assert not non_ax_fields(doc["spec"], AX_FIELDS[doc["kind"]], doc["kind"])
             assert set(doc["metadata"]) <= {"name", "atespace"}
             assert len(doc["metadata"]["name"]) <= 63, doc["metadata"]["name"]
-        assert docs[0]["metadata"]["name"] not in ax_names
-        ax_names.add(docs[0]["metadata"]["name"])
+        assert docs[-1]["kind"] == "Task"
+        assert docs[-1]["metadata"]["name"] not in ax_names
+        ax_names.add(docs[-1]["metadata"]["name"])
 
 
 def test_inputs_carry_the_validation_set() -> None:
diff --git a/tests/test_plane_reconciler.py b/tests/test_plane_reconciler.py
index baa24c6..ced96e7 100644
--- a/tests/test_plane_reconciler.py
+++ b/tests/test_plane_reconciler.py
@@ -365,18 +365,20 @@ def test_chain_runs_in_order_with_inputs_env_and_model(fake: Fake, tmp_path: Pat
     assert env["OUSAST_MODEL"] == "deepseek-flash"
     assert json.loads(env["OUSAST_MODEL_PARAMS"]) == {"cache_hit_per_m": 0.07, "input_per_m": 0.27, "output_per_m": 1.1}
     kinds = [(d["kind"], d["metadata"]["name"]) for d in verify["docs"]]
-    assert kinds == [("Task", "chain-verify"), ("Model", "deepseek-flash"), ("Workspace", "case-pin"), ("Workspace", "chain-verify-inputs")]
-    inputs_ws = verify["docs"][3]
+    assert kinds == [("Model", "deepseek-flash"), ("Workspace", "case-pin"), ("Workspace", "chain-verify-inputs"), ("Task", "chain-verify")]
+    inputs_ws = next(d for d in verify["docs"] if d["metadata"]["name"] == "chain-verify-inputs")
     assert inputs_ws["spec"]["files"] == [{"path": "repo-facts/facts.json", "content": json.dumps({"a.py": {"functions": ["f"]}})}]
-    assert verify["docs"][0]["spec"]["workspaces"][-1] == {"name": "chain-verify-inputs", "path": "/workspace/.ousast-in/verify"}
-    assert "annotations" not in verify["docs"][0]["metadata"], "ax's ObjectMeta has no annotations"
+    assert verify["docs"][-1]["spec"]["workspaces"][-1] == {"name": "chain-verify-inputs", "path": "/workspace/.ousast-in/verify"}
+    assert "annotations" not in verify["docs"][-1]["metadata"], "ax's ObjectMeta has no annotations"
     assert json.loads(env["OUSAST_GIT_PINS"]) == {"case-pin/repo": PIN}, "the Workspace annotation reaches the task as env"
-    assert verify["docs"][2]["spec"]["git"] == [{"name": "repo", "repo": "https://example.invalid/repo.git", "dir": "src", "depth": 1}]
-    assert verify["docs"][2]["metadata"] == {"name": "case-pin", "atespace": "default"}
+    assert next(d for d in verify["docs"] if d["metadata"]["name"] == "case-pin")["spec"]["git"] == [
+        {"name": "repo", "repo": "https://example.invalid/repo.git", "dir": "src", "depth": 1}
+    ]
+    assert next(d for d in verify["docs"] if d["metadata"]["name"] == "case-pin")["metadata"] == {"name": "case-pin", "atespace": "default"}
     assert "OUSAST_GIT_PINS" not in fake.applied("chain", "agree")["env"], "no bound workspace, no pins"
     facts = fake.applied("chain", "repo-facts")
     assert "OUSAST_MODEL" not in facts["env"] and "OUSAST_BUDGET_USD" not in facts["env"]
-    assert facts["docs"][0]["spec"]["image"] == "ousast-runner:dev"
+    assert facts["docs"][-1]["spec"]["image"] == "ousast-runner:dev"
     delivered = reconciler.run_dir("chain") / "verify" / "agreed.json"
     assert json.loads(delivered.read_text()) == {"agreed": ["a.py:f"]}
     assert state_of("chain")["tasks"]["verify"]["usd"] == 0.5 and state_of("chain")["tasks"]["verify"]["model"] == "deepseek-flash"
@@ -505,7 +507,7 @@ def test_start_is_sent_once_after_resume_with_the_models_credential(fake: Fake,
     for s in starts:
         name = s["body"]["task"]
         assert accepted[name] < s["at"] < delivered[name.removeprefix("sig-")], f"{name}: resume, then start, then delivery"
-    verify_model = fake.applied("sig", "verify")["docs"][1]
+    verify_model = next(d for d in fake.applied("sig", "verify")["docs"] if d["kind"] == "Model")
     assert verify_model["spec"]["secretKey"] == {"name": "deepseek", "key": "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"}, "the manifest names the key"
     assert "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" not in fake.applied("sig", "verify")["env"], "the rendered Task carries no credential"
     rendered = str(reconciler.run_dir("sig") / "verify" / "task.yaml")
@@ -696,6 +698,18 @@ def test_rendered_documents_carry_only_ax_fields(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
         assert "openultrasast.io/" not in yaml.safe_dump(rendered["metadata"]), where
 
 
+def test_the_task_is_applied_after_everything_it_binds(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    """ax copies the bound Workspaces into the task at create time: a Task applied before its Workspace ran with
+    an empty AX_WORKSPACES_YAML on the live cluster (2026-09-29). The Task is the last document of each apply."""
+    (tmp_path / "repo-facts").mkdir()
+    (tmp_path / "repo-facts" / "facts.json").write_text("{}", encoding="utf-8")
+    run, manifests = reconciler.load_run(write_run(tmp_path, "order"))
+    for entry in run.tasks:
+        docs = reconciler.render_task(run, entry, manifests, tmp_path, "http://h:1/")
+        assert [d["kind"] for d in docs].count("Task") == 1
+        assert docs[-1]["kind"] == "Task", [d["kind"] for d in docs]
+
+
 def test_reconciler_is_under_500_lines_and_holds_no_pipeline_logic() -> None:
     text = RECONCILER.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
     assert len(text.splitlines()) < 500, "Req 3.4: the reconciler stays under 500 lines"
diff --git a/tests/test_plane_runner.py b/tests/test_plane_runner.py
index d9e7df4..ca4112d 100644
--- a/tests/test_plane_runner.py
+++ b/tests/test_plane_runner.py
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@ def test_git_commits_annotation_round_trips_to_the_checkout(
         "apiVersion: openultrasast.io/v1alpha1\nkind: Run\nmetadata: {name: rt}\nspec: {tasks: [{name: stub, task: stub}]}\n"
     )
     run, manifests = reconciler.load_run(manifest)
-    task_doc, *rest = reconciler.render_task(run, run.tasks[0], manifests, tmp_path, "unused")
+    *rest, task_doc = reconciler.render_task(run, run.tasks[0], manifests, tmp_path, "unused")
     assert rest[0]["metadata"] == {"name": "case"}, "annotations are stripped before ax"
     assert rest[0]["spec"]["git"] == [{"name": "code", "repo": repo.as_uri(), "branch": "main"}], "no commit for ax"
     overrides = {"OUSAST_OUTPUT_DIR": str(output)}