diff --git a/scripts/reboot-recovery/agent99-live-preflight.ps1 b/scripts/reboot-recovery/agent99-live-preflight.ps1
index 7159a7474..52009db19 100644
--- a/scripts/reboot-recovery/agent99-live-preflight.ps1
+++ b/scripts/reboot-recovery/agent99-live-preflight.ps1
@@ -242,9 +242,10 @@ function Get-AgentBoundedNewestFiles {
     [int]$CandidateWindow = 32
   )
 
-  # Agent99 evidence names contain a fixed sortable timestamp and are immutable.
-  # Keep only the lexically newest bounded window in a native .NET set so a
-  # large evidence directory never becomes a PowerShell object-sort workload.
+  # Evidence freshness is authoritative from filesystem UTC mtime. Some
+  # evidence names are stable aliases and are not chronologically sortable.
+  # Keep only the newest bounded window in a native .NET set so a large
+  # evidence directory never becomes a PowerShell object-sort workload.
   $selected = [Collections.Generic.SortedSet[string]]::new(
     [StringComparer]::OrdinalIgnoreCase
   )
@@ -256,16 +257,25 @@ function Get-AgentBoundedNewestFiles {
       [IO.SearchOption]::TopDirectoryOnly
     )) {
       $enumeratedCount += 1
-      $null = $selected.Add($candidatePath)
+      $candidate = [IO.FileInfo]::new($candidatePath)
+      $sortKey = (
+        $candidate.LastWriteTimeUtc.Ticks.ToString(
+          "D19",
+          [Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture
+        ) + "|" + $candidate.FullName
+      )
+      $null = $selected.Add($sortKey)
       if ($selected.Count -gt $CandidateWindow) {
         $null = $selected.Remove($selected.Min)
       }
     }
   }
+  $selectedKeys = [string[]]@($selected)
+  [Array]::Reverse($selectedKeys)
 
   return [pscustomobject]@{
-    files = @($selected | Sort-Object -Descending | ForEach-Object {
-      [IO.FileInfo]::new($_)
+    files = @($selectedKeys | ForEach-Object {
+      [IO.FileInfo]::new($_.Substring(20))
     })
     enumeratedCount = [int]$enumeratedCount
     candidateWindow = [int]$CandidateWindow
@@ -685,7 +695,11 @@ function Get-EvidenceReadback {
     $deferredCandidates.Count -eq $candidates.Count
   )
   $ageMinutes = if ($file) { [math]::Round(((Get-Date) - $file.LastWriteTime).TotalMinutes, 1) } else { $null }
-  $fresh = [bool]($file -and $ageMinutes -le $MaxAgeMinutes)
+  $fresh = [bool](
+    $file -and
+    $ageMinutes -ge 0 -and
+    $ageMinutes -le $MaxAgeMinutes
+  )
   $freshnessHeadroomMinutes = if ($file) { [math]::Round($MaxAgeMinutes - $ageMinutes, 1) } else { $null }
   $freshnessReserveReady = [bool](
     $fresh -and
diff --git a/scripts/reboot-recovery/tests/test_agent99_live_preflight_decision.py b/scripts/reboot-recovery/tests/test_agent99_live_preflight_decision.py
index 17cf2cfd3..e182cf040 100644
--- a/scripts/reboot-recovery/tests/test_agent99_live_preflight_decision.py
+++ b/scripts/reboot-recovery/tests/test_agent99_live_preflight_decision.py
@@ -156,6 +156,11 @@ def test_warning_receipt_is_visible_without_weakening_integrity_blockers() -> No
     assert "deferredCandidateCount = [int]$deferredCandidates.Count" in source
     assert "[IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles(" in source
     assert "[Collections.Generic.SortedSet[string]]::new(" in source
+    assert "$candidate.LastWriteTimeUtc.Ticks.ToString(" in source
+    assert "[Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture" in source
+    assert "[IO.FileInfo]::new($_.Substring(20))" in source
+    assert "[Array]::Reverse($selectedKeys)" in source
+    assert "$ageMinutes -ge 0" in source
     assert "$null = $selected.Remove($selected.Min)" in source
     assert "candidateWindowExhausted = $candidateWindowExhausted" in source
     assert "function Get-AgentControlLoopMaintenanceReadback" in source
@@ -278,6 +283,141 @@ Get-EvidenceReadback 'self_check' 'agent99-SelfCheck-*.json' 20 $true |
     assert malformed_payload["healthy"] is False
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("name", "pattern", "stale_alias", "fresh_file"),
+    [
+        (
+            "status",
+            "agent99-Status-*.json",
+            "agent99-Status-same-run-status-{index:02d}.json",
+            "agent99-Status-20260722-133422.json",
+        ),
+        (
+            "performance",
+            "agent99-Perf-*.json",
+            "agent99-Perf-latest-summary-{index:02d}.json",
+            "agent99-Perf-20260722-133722.json",
+        ),
+    ],
+)
+def test_evidence_selection_uses_mtime_when_stable_aliases_sort_after_timestamps(
+    tmp_path: Path,
+    name: str,
+    pattern: str,
+    stale_alias: str,
+    fresh_file: str,
+) -> None:
+    powershell = shutil.which("pwsh") or shutil.which("powershell")
+    if powershell is None:
+        pytest.skip("PowerShell runtime is not installed on this macOS verifier")
+
+    evidence = tmp_path / "evidence"
+    evidence.mkdir()
+    fresh = evidence / fresh_file
+    fresh.write_text(json.dumps({"mode": name}), encoding="utf-8")
+    base_time = fresh.stat().st_mtime
+    for index in range(40):
+        alias = evidence / stale_alias.format(index=index)
+        alias.write_text(json.dumps({"mode": name}), encoding="utf-8")
+        stale_time = base_time - 3600 - index
+        os.utime(alias, (stale_time, stale_time))
+    os.utime(fresh, (base_time, base_time))
+
+    agent_root = str(tmp_path).replace("'", "''")
+    command = f"""
+{_evidence_function_source()}
+$AgentRoot = '{agent_root}'
+Get-EvidenceReadback '{name}' '{pattern}' 20 $true |
+  ConvertTo-Json -Depth 8 -Compress
+"""
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [powershell, "-NoProfile", "-NonInteractive", "-Command", command],
+        check=False,
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stdout + result.stderr
+    payload = json.loads(
+        next(line for line in reversed(result.stdout.splitlines()) if line.startswith("{"))
+    )
+    assert payload["file"] == fresh.name
+    assert payload["fresh"] is True
+    assert payload["candidateWindowTruncated"] is True
+
+
+def test_evidence_selection_rejects_future_mtime(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
+    powershell = shutil.which("pwsh") or shutil.which("powershell")
+    if powershell is None:
+        pytest.skip("PowerShell runtime is not installed on this macOS verifier")
+
+    evidence = tmp_path / "evidence"
+    evidence.mkdir()
+    future = evidence / "agent99-Status-20260722-140000.json"
+    future.write_text(json.dumps({"mode": "Status"}), encoding="utf-8")
+    future_time = future.stat().st_mtime + 120
+    os.utime(future, (future_time, future_time))
+
+    agent_root = str(tmp_path).replace("'", "''")
+    command = f"""
+{_evidence_function_source()}
+$AgentRoot = '{agent_root}'
+Get-EvidenceReadback 'status' 'agent99-Status-*.json' 20 $true |
+  ConvertTo-Json -Depth 8 -Compress
+"""
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [powershell, "-NoProfile", "-NonInteractive", "-Command", command],
+        check=False,
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stdout + result.stderr
+    payload = json.loads(
+        next(line for line in reversed(result.stdout.splitlines()) if line.startswith("{"))
+    )
+    assert payload["file"] == future.name
+    assert payload["ageMinutes"] < 0
+    assert payload["fresh"] is False
+    assert payload["usable"] is False
+    assert payload["healthy"] is False
+
+
+def test_evidence_selection_equal_mtime_uses_ordinal_path_tie_break(
+    tmp_path: Path,
+) -> None:
+    powershell = shutil.which("pwsh") or shutil.which("powershell")
+    if powershell is None:
+        pytest.skip("PowerShell runtime is not installed on this macOS verifier")
+
+    evidence = tmp_path / "evidence"
+    evidence.mkdir()
+    lower = evidence / "agent99-Status-equal-a.json"
+    higher = evidence / "agent99-Status-equal-z.json"
+    lower.write_text(json.dumps({"mode": "Status"}), encoding="utf-8")
+    higher.write_text(json.dumps({"mode": "Status"}), encoding="utf-8")
+    equal_time = lower.stat().st_mtime
+    os.utime(lower, (equal_time, equal_time))
+    os.utime(higher, (equal_time, equal_time))
+
+    agent_root = str(tmp_path).replace("'", "''")
+    command = f"""
+{_evidence_function_source()}
+$AgentRoot = '{agent_root}'
+Get-EvidenceReadback 'status' 'agent99-Status-*.json' 20 $true |
+  ConvertTo-Json -Depth 8 -Compress
+"""
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [powershell, "-NoProfile", "-NonInteractive", "-Command", command],
+        check=False,
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stdout + result.stderr
+    payload = json.loads(
+        next(line for line in reversed(result.stdout.splitlines()) if line.startswith("{"))
+    )
+    assert payload["file"] == higher.name
+
+
 def test_evidence_reserve_rejects_fresh_but_expiring_evidence_without_extending_slo(
     tmp_path: Path,
 ) -> None: