diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f3a8420807..c74a93a67e 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ observations, not commitments or a service-level guarantee — reviews happen wh
 **One-shot, merge-ready as-is.** We do not request changes or iterate on contributor PRs — a PR is
 merged exactly as it stands or it is closed; there is no "changes requested" back-and-forth. Before CI
 we rebase your branch onto `main` with a **merge commit**, then review **after** CI completes — so a
-rebase conflict, or any red CI (including **~97% patch coverage, branch-counted, enforced by Codecov**),
+rebase conflict, or any red CI (including **~99% patch coverage, branch-counted, enforced by Codecov**),
 closes the PR. Recover by opening a **fresh, corrected PR**. PRs touching guarded paths (CI config, the
 review engine, migrations, and similar — the set varies) are held for manual review rather than
 auto-acted.
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ npm audit --audit-level=moderate
 ```
 
 `npm run test:ci` runs the normal combined gate. The coverage requirement is **patch coverage**:
-every line your PR adds or changes must be **97%+ covered** (statements, branches, functions, lines).
+every line your PR adds or changes must be **99%+ covered** (statements, branches, functions, lines).
 This is enforced by Codecov's `codecov/patch` status check, which looks only at your diff — so it
 depends solely on your own changes and is unaffected by what else merges. Run `npm run test:coverage`
 locally when you change behavior and make sure your new branches, fallback paths, and sanitizer rules
diff --git a/test/unit/codecov-policy.test.ts b/test/unit/codecov-policy.test.ts
index ac4423a719..a858a71c03 100644
--- a/test/unit/codecov-policy.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/codecov-policy.test.ts
@@ -34,6 +34,16 @@ describe("Codecov policy", () => {
     expect(project.informational).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("keeps CONTRIBUTING patch-coverage guidance aligned with codecov.yml", () => {
+    const contributing = readFileSync("CONTRIBUTING.md", "utf8");
+    const patchTarget = nestedRecord(readYaml("codecov.yml"), ["coverage", "status", "patch", "default"]).target;
+    expect(patchTarget).toBe("99%");
+    expect(contributing).toMatch(/~99% patch coverage/i);
+    expect(contributing).toMatch(/99%\+ covered/i);
+    expect(contributing).not.toMatch(/~97% patch coverage/i);
+    expect(contributing).not.toMatch(/\b97%\+ covered/i);
+  });
+
   it("fails closed when the backend coverage report is missing or cannot upload", () => {
     const workflow = readYaml(".github/workflows/ci.yml");
     const validateCode = nestedRecord(workflow, ["jobs", "validate-code"]);