diff --git a/packages/gittensory-engine/src/miner/iterate-loop.ts b/packages/gittensory-engine/src/miner/iterate-loop.ts
index ef54da30c..29ef021dc 100644
--- a/packages/gittensory-engine/src/miner/iterate-loop.ts
+++ b/packages/gittensory-engine/src/miner/iterate-loop.ts
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@
 // pretooluse-hook append-failure handling elsewhere in this package).
 
 import type { CodingAgentDriver, CodingAgentDriverResult, CodingAgentDriverTask } from "./coding-agent-driver.js";
-import type { CodingAgentExecutionMode } from "./coding-agent-mode.js";
+import { codingAgentModeExecutes, type CodingAgentExecutionMode } from "./coding-agent-mode.js";
+import { invokeCodingAgentDriver } from "./coding-agent-invoke.js";
 import type { AttemptLogEvent, AttemptLogEventType } from "./attempt-log.js";
 import { runSelfReview, type AttemptDiffState, type SelfReviewAdapterDeps, type SelfReviewContext, type SelfReviewVerdict } from "./self-review-adapter.js";
 import { decideNextActionWithReason, deriveSelfReviewOutcome, type IterateLoopDecision, type HandoffPacket, type IterationState, type SelfReviewOutcome } from "./iterate-policy.js";
@@ -139,10 +140,16 @@ function evaluateSelfReviewOutcome(input: IterateLoopInput, driverResult: Coding
 }
 
 /** A thrown driver error is normalized into the same `{ ok: false }` shape a driver returning gracefully would
- *  produce, so {@link evaluateSelfReviewOutcome} has exactly one failure path to handle, not two. */
-async function runDriverSafely(driver: CodingAgentDriver, task: CodingAgentDriverTask): Promise<CodingAgentDriverResult> {
+ *  produce, so {@link evaluateSelfReviewOutcome} has exactly one failure path to handle, not two. Non-live modes
+ *  are also resolved here, at the driver boundary, so paused/dry-run attempts never spawn the underlying agent. */
+async function runDriverSafely(input: IterateLoopInput, deps: IterateLoopDeps, task: CodingAgentDriverTask): Promise<CodingAgentDriverResult> {
+  if (!codingAgentModeExecutes(input.mode)) {
+    return invokeCodingAgentDriver(deps.driver, input.mode, task, {
+      append: (event) => safeAppendAttemptLogEvent(deps, event),
+    });
+  }
   try {
-    return await driver.run(task);
+    return await deps.driver.run(task);
   } catch (error) {
     return { ok: false, changedFiles: [], summary: "", error: `driver_threw: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)}` };
   }
@@ -257,7 +264,7 @@ export async function runIterateLoop(input: IterateLoopInput, deps: IterateLoopD
   let totalTurnsUsed = 0;
 
   for (let iterationNumber = 1; iterationNumber <= maxIterations; iterationNumber += 1) {
-    const driverResult = await runDriverSafely(deps.driver, {
+    const driverResult = await runDriverSafely(input, deps, {
       attemptId: input.attemptId,
       workingDirectory: input.workingDirectory,
       acceptanceCriteriaPath: input.acceptanceCriteriaPath,
diff --git a/packages/gittensory-engine/test/iterate-loop.test.ts b/packages/gittensory-engine/test/iterate-loop.test.ts
index 360d54bb1..13d1189b5 100644
--- a/packages/gittensory-engine/test/iterate-loop.test.ts
+++ b/packages/gittensory-engine/test/iterate-loop.test.ts
@@ -106,6 +106,34 @@ test("immediate abandon: maxIterations <= 0 abandons before ever invoking the dr
   assert.equal(events[0]?.eventType, "attempt_aborted");
 });
 
+test("paused mode: does not invoke the coding-agent driver (regression for pause gate bypass)", async () => {
+  let driverCalled = false;
+  const { deps, events } = collectingDeps({ driver: { async run() { driverCalled = true; return okResult(); } } });
+  const result = await runIterateLoop(passingInput({ mode: "paused", maxIterations: 1 }), deps);
+
+  assert.equal(driverCalled, false, "paused is a kill switch and must not call driver.run");
+  assert.equal(result.outcome, "abandon");
+  assert.equal(result.finalDecision.abandonReason, "self_review_ambiguous");
+  assert.equal(result.iterationsUsed, 1);
+  assert.equal(result.totalTurnsUsed, 0);
+  assert.equal(result.iterations[0]?.driverResult.error, "coding_agent_paused");
+  assert.equal(events.some((event) => event.eventType === "attempt_aborted" && event.actionClass === "codegen" && event.reason === "coding_agent_paused"), true);
+});
+
+test("dry_run mode: records a shadow coding-agent invocation without calling the driver (regression for dry-run gate bypass)", async () => {
+  let driverCalled = false;
+  const { deps, events } = collectingDeps({ driver: { async run() { driverCalled = true; return okResult(); } } });
+  const result = await runIterateLoop(passingInput({ mode: "dry_run", maxIterations: 1 }), deps);
+
+  assert.equal(driverCalled, false, "dry-run must not spawn the underlying coding-agent session");
+  assert.equal(result.outcome, "handoff");
+  assert.equal(result.iterationsUsed, 1);
+  assert.equal(result.totalTurnsUsed, 0);
+  assert.equal(result.iterations[0]?.driverResult.ok, true);
+  assert.match(result.iterations[0]?.driverResult.summary ?? "", /dry-run: would invoke coding agent/);
+  assert.equal(events.some((event) => event.eventType === "attempt_shadow" && event.actionClass === "codegen" && event.mode === "dry_run"), true);
+});
+
 test("handoff: a clean predicted-gate pass on the first iteration hands off, with a full HandoffPacket", async () => {
   const { deps, events } = collectingDeps({ driver: driverReturning(okResult(["src/upload.ts"], 5)) });
   const result = await runIterateLoop(passingInput({ maxIterations: 3 }), deps);