diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5f4968d..0217bb6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -66,6 +66,20 @@ notes for each version.
   `forbidden`, `insufficient_credits`) keep their existing classes, which
   catch on both surfaces. `Retry-After` pacing is keyed on the status and
   survives unchanged.
+- A `409` whose body names no error code at all now raises a plain
+  `ComfyError` carrying `http_status == 409`, instead of `HashMismatch`. The
+  status table that decoded it is consulted only when the response named no
+  code of its own, so it never sees the compliant envelope surface — it sees
+  Router-shaped `{detail, error_type}` bodies and intermediaries, which can
+  answer a `409` for anything, and the contract itself already spells `409`
+  two ways (`hash_mismatch` on `POST /assets`, `asset_in_use` on
+  `DELETE /assets/{id}`). Guessing `HashMismatch` told those callers to
+  re-upload bytes over a conflict that was never about bytes. Enveloped
+  responses are unaffected: an `error.code` of `hash_mismatch` still raises
+  `HashMismatch`, as does the `409` `POST /assets` documents, and a `409`
+  carrying a Router bucket still keeps that bucket. Any `Retry-After` on the
+  response still reaches the caller on `.retry_after`. `422` and `429` keep
+  their status-derived codes.
 - A Router `409` now keeps the bucket the contract names instead of decoding
   to `HashMismatch` off the status table. The synced contract declares two
   `409`s on the run route — `invalid_input` for a key that cannot serve this
diff --git a/src/comfy_low/errors.py b/src/comfy_low/errors.py
index 3cac931..355bb73 100644
--- a/src/comfy_low/errors.py
+++ b/src/comfy_low/errors.py
@@ -180,11 +180,14 @@ def error_from_envelope(
     ``invalid_input`` into ``invalid_workflow`` (failing every reachability
     probe), and its ``403`` ``not_enabled`` into ``forbidden`` (so ``except
     NotEnabled`` — the one handler every pre-launch caller writes — never
-    fired). Retyping only happens on responses that carry a bucket, which only
-    Router sends, and there the bucket IS the truth; a v2 envelope carries
-    ``error.code`` and no top-level ``error_type``, and an intermediary's
-    reject carries neither, so both keep exactly the classes integrators
-    already catch.
+    fired). ``409`` has since been dropped from the table outright (see the
+    admission rule on :data:`_CODE_BY_STATUS`), so the first of those three no
+    longer needs this ordering as its second line of defence; the ordering
+    still decides the other two. Retyping only happens on responses that carry
+    a bucket, which only Router sends, and there the bucket IS the truth; a v2
+    envelope carries ``error.code`` and no top-level ``error_type``, and an
+    intermediary's reject carries neither, so both keep exactly the classes
+    integrators already catch.
     """
     err = (body or {}).get("error") if isinstance(body, dict) else None
     code = (err or {}).get("code") if isinstance(err, dict) else None
@@ -216,12 +219,37 @@ def error_from_envelope(
     )
 
 
+#: The last resort: a code guessed from the status, consulted only when the
+#: response named none of its own — no envelope ``error.code``, no Router
+#: bucket. That is exactly the population this table must be sized for, and it
+#: is not the compliant surface: the producers of a code-less body are Router
+#: (whose error body is ``{detail, error_type}``, with no ``error.code``) and
+#: the intermediaries between the caller and either surface, and neither is
+#: bound by what any route documents for the status.
+#:
+#: **Admission rule for a new status: only a status with ONE meaning across
+#: every documented surface gets a typed guess.** A status the contract itself
+#: spells two ways cannot be guessed, because the guess is not "unknown, but
+#: roughly this" — it is a class the caller catches and acts on.
+#:
+#: ``409`` is the worked example of exclusion, and it was removed from this
+#: table for that reason: the contract uses it for both ``hash_mismatch``
+#: (``POST /assets``) and ``asset_in_use`` (``DELETE /assets/{id}``), so even
+#: on the compliant surface the status alone does not say which. A code-less
+#: ``409`` therefore stays a bare ``ApiError`` carrying the real status, and
+#: surfaces to the caller as a plain ``ComfyError``. A real hash mismatch is
+#: unaffected: it always arrives enveloped, and ``error.code`` wins outright.
+#:
+#: ``422`` and ``429`` are kept deliberately, and the rule is what keeps them:
+#: their possible misreadings stay inside the right *action class*. A ``422``
+#: read as ``invalid_workflow`` is still a terminal refusal to fix the request;
+#: a ``429`` read as ``queue_full`` is still back-off-and-retry. ``HashMismatch``
+#: is the one that failed the rule — it tells the caller to re-upload bytes.
 _CODE_BY_STATUS: dict[int, str] = {
     401: "unauthorized",
     402: "insufficient_credits",
     403: "forbidden",
     404: "not_found",
-    409: "hash_mismatch",
     422: "invalid_workflow",
     429: "queue_full",
 }
diff --git a/tests/test_error_mapping.py b/tests/test_error_mapping.py
index fd9ddd8..69a58db 100644
--- a/tests/test_error_mapping.py
+++ b/tests/test_error_mapping.py
@@ -1,15 +1,23 @@
 """How an error response on the wire becomes a typed exception.
 
-`to_sdk_error` mapping the server's 404 codes to the typed `NotFound`, and
-`error_from_envelope` reading the two body shapes this API answers in.
+`to_sdk_error` mapping the server's 404 codes to the typed `NotFound`,
+`error_from_envelope` reading the two body shapes this API answers in, and
+which statuses may be decoded to a typed code when the response named none.
 """
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import pytest
 
-from comfy_low.errors import ApiError, QueueFull, error_from_envelope
-from comfy_sdk.exceptions import NotFound, to_sdk_error
+from comfy_low.errors import (
+    ApiError,
+    HashMismatch,
+    QueueFull,
+    Unauthorized,
+    error_from_envelope,
+)
+from comfy_sdk.exceptions import ComfyError, NotFound, to_sdk_error
+from comfy_sdk.exceptions import HashMismatch as SdkHashMismatch
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("code", ["not_found", "job_not_found", "asset_not_found"])
@@ -96,6 +104,55 @@ def test_a_bucketless_429_still_means_queue_full() -> None:
     assert err.retry_after == 3
 
 
+# --- which statuses the status table may decode, and which it may not ---
+#
+# The table is consulted only for a response that named no code of its own, so
+# it never sees the compliant envelope surface -- it sees Router-shaped bodies
+# and intermediaries, which can answer a status for anything. A typed guess is
+# therefore admissible only for a status with ONE meaning across every
+# documented surface. 409 is not one: the contract itself spells it both
+# `hash_mismatch` (POST /assets) and `asset_in_use` (DELETE /assets/{id}).
+
+
+def test_a_bucketless_409_is_not_guessed_to_be_a_hash_mismatch() -> None:
+    err = error_from_envelope(409, None)
+    assert type(err) is ApiError
+    assert not isinstance(err, HashMismatch)
+    assert err.code == "error"
+    assert err.http_status == 409
+    # `HashMismatch` tells the caller to re-upload bytes, which is why this
+    # status cannot be guessed: it is a distinct action, not a vaguer wording
+    # of the same one.
+    sdk_err = to_sdk_error(err)
+    assert type(sdk_err) is ComfyError
+    assert not isinstance(sdk_err, SdkHashMismatch)
+    assert sdk_err.http_status == 409
+
+
+def test_a_bucketless_409_still_carries_the_pace_the_server_named() -> None:
+    # Dropping the code must not drop the header: a conflict that named a
+    # `Retry-After` is still telling the caller when to ask again.
+    err = error_from_envelope(409, None, retry_after=7)
+    assert err.retry_after == 7
+    assert to_sdk_error(err).retry_after == 7
+
+
+def test_an_enveloped_409_is_still_a_hash_mismatch() -> None:
+    # The assets path is unaffected: a real hash mismatch always arrives
+    # enveloped, and `error.code` wins outright.
+    err = error_from_envelope(409, {"error": {"code": "hash_mismatch", "message": "m"}})
+    assert type(err) is HashMismatch
+    assert err.code == "hash_mismatch"
+    assert type(to_sdk_error(err)) is SdkHashMismatch
+
+
+def test_a_bodyless_401_still_maps_to_unauthorized() -> None:
+    # Only 409 was dropped -- the rest of the table decodes exactly as before.
+    err = error_from_envelope(401, None)
+    assert err.code == "unauthorized"
+    assert isinstance(err, Unauthorized)
+
+
 def test_a_router_validation_body_degrades_rather_than_coercing_its_detail() -> None:
     # Router's per-field validation body is the FastAPI `detail[]` shape. A
     # list is not a message: stringifying it would put a Python repr in front of