diff --git a/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile-actions.sh b/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile-actions.sh
index 1da4d3db70..ab567ba65f 100644
--- a/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile-actions.sh
+++ b/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile-actions.sh
@@ -1155,6 +1155,26 @@ _action_reconcile_external_issue_gate() {
 	return 0
 }
 
+#######################################
+# Stage 0 routing predicate (GH#34281): after the external gate blocked an
+# issue, decide whether it may still enter stage 4 (parent reconcile) — never
+# stages 1-3. Only an unmutated parent-task whose approval verified STALE
+# qualifies; stage 4 re-reads live state per mutation and admits only the
+# terminal close (graph-backed) and its compensating reopen.
+# Without this route the stale-approved close basis is unreachable in the
+# single-pass loop because stage 0 consumes the issue first.
+# Args: $1=labels CSV (cached)
+# Returns: 0=route to stage 4, 1=stay blocked
+#######################################
+_pir_stale_approved_parent_may_reconcile() {
+	local labels_csv="$1"
+	#aidevops:trust-boundary -- STALE (signature valid) only; NO_APPROVAL/INVALID stay blocked.
+	[[ "${_PIR_EXTERNAL_GATE_MUTATED:-0}" -eq 0 ]] || return 1
+	[[ "${_PIR_EXTERNAL_GATE_VERIFICATION:-}" == "$_PIR_APPROVAL_STALE" ]] || return 1
+	_should_cpt "$labels_csv" || return 1
+	return 0
+}
+
 # Stage 1 predicate: issue has status:available (candidate for close-via-merged-PR).
 # Args: $1 = labels_csv (comma-separated label names from pre-fetched JSON)
 # Note: unquoted case patterns avoid adding to the string-literal ratchet count.
diff --git a/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile.sh b/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
index efe641e8e7..04cdcace1e 100644
--- a/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
+++ b/.agents/scripts/pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
@@ -1528,11 +1528,16 @@ _pir_reconcile_issue_stages() {
 
 	# Stage 0b: cached trust metadata heals missed creation-time NMR labels
 	# and blocks every later action for unapproved external issue input.
+	# GH#34281: a stale-approved parent tracker skips stages 1-3 but still
+	# reaches stage 4, whose live gate admits only the terminal close.
 	if _should_reconcile_external_issue_gate "$issue_author_association" \
 		"$issue_author_type" "$issue_author_is_bot"; then
 		if _action_reconcile_external_issue_gate "$slug" "$issue_num" "$labels_csv" \
 			"$issue_author_association" "$issue_author_login"; then
 			[[ "${_PIR_EXTERNAL_GATE_MUTATED:-0}" -eq 1 ]] && external_gated=$((external_gated + 1))
+			if _pir_stale_approved_parent_may_reconcile "$labels_csv"; then
+				_pir_reconcile_parent_stage "$slug" "$issue_num" "$issue_title" "$issue_body" "$labels_csv"
+			fi
 			return 0
 		fi
 	fi
diff --git a/.agents/scripts/tests/test-pulse-issue-reconcile.sh b/.agents/scripts/tests/test-pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
index 4892f29174..6e4656a1fc 100644
--- a/.agents/scripts/tests/test-pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
+++ b/.agents/scripts/tests/test-pulse-issue-reconcile.sh
@@ -495,6 +495,68 @@ STUB
 	return 0
 }
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# GH#34281 follow-up: the single-pass stage router must hand a stale-approved
+# external parent to stage 4 (never stages 1-3); the stage-0b block previously
+# consumed it first, so the stale-approved close basis was unreachable.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+test_stage0b_routes_stale_approved_parent_to_stage4() {
+	local actions_sh="${SCRIPT_DIR}/../pulse-issue-reconcile-actions.sh"
+	local stages_fn="" result=""
+	stages_fn=$(sed -n '/^_pir_reconcile_issue_stages()/,/^}/p' "$RECONCILE_SH")
+	result=$(ACTIONS_SH="$actions_sh" STAGES_FN="$stages_fn" bash -c '
+		_PIR_NMR_LABEL="needs-maintainer-review"
+		_PIR_PERSISTENT_LABEL="persistent"
+		_PIR_PT_LABEL="parent-task"
+		LOGFILE="/dev/null"
+		source "$ACTIONS_SH"
+		eval "$STAGES_FN"
+		_should_reconcile_persistent_issue() { return 1; }
+		_action_reconcile_external_issue_gate() {
+			_PIR_EXTERNAL_GATE_MUTATED="$GATE_MUTATED"
+			_PIR_EXTERNAL_GATE_VERIFICATION="$GATE_VERIFICATION"
+			return 0
+		}
+		_should_ciw() { printf "stage1-reached\n"; return 0; }
+		_action_ciw_single() { return 1; }
+		_should_rsd() { printf "stage2-reached\n"; return 1; }
+		_should_oimp() { printf "stage3-reached\n"; return 1; }
+		_pir_reconcile_parent_stage() { printf "stage4-reached\n"; return 0; }
+		slug=owner/repo issue_num=42 issue_title=T issue_body=B
+		issue_author_association=CONTRIBUTOR issue_author_type=User
+		issue_author_is_bot=false issue_author_login=outsider
+		_ciw_rsd_enabled=1 ciw_per_repo=0 ciw_max_repo=5 rsd_per_repo=0 rsd_max_repo=5
+		oimp_total_closed=0 oimp_max=5 external_gated=0 parent_task_nums=""
+		run_case() {
+			local name="$1" out=""
+			labels_csv="$2" GATE_VERIFICATION="$3" GATE_MUTATED="$4"
+			out=$(_pir_reconcile_issue_stages | tr "\n" " ")
+			printf "%s:[%s]\n" "$name" "${out% }"
+		}
+		run_case stale-parent "status:available,parent-task" STALE_APPROVAL 0
+		run_case stale-plain "status:available" STALE_APPROVAL 0
+		run_case stale-parent-nmr "parent-task,needs-maintainer-review" STALE_APPROVAL 0
+		run_case unapproved-parent "status:available,parent-task" NO_APPROVAL 1
+		run_case malformed-parent "status:available,parent-task" MALFORMED_APPROVAL 0
+	' 2>/dev/null)
+
+	local expected="" all_ok=1
+	for expected in \
+		'stale-parent:[stage4-reached]' \
+		'stale-plain:[]' \
+		'stale-parent-nmr:[]' \
+		'unapproved-parent:[]' \
+		'malformed-parent:[]'; do
+		printf '%s\n' "$result" | grep -qxF "$expected" || all_ok=0
+	done
+	if [[ "$all_ok" -eq 1 ]]; then
+		_pass "stage 0b routes only stale-approved parent trackers to stage 4"
+	else
+		_fail "stage 0b stale-parent routing mismatch: ${result}"
+	fi
+	return 0
+}
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Test 8b: mergedAt helper prefers gh_pr_view wrapper when available
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -1724,6 +1786,7 @@ test_body_in_prefetch_fetch
 test_should_predicates
 test_parent_live_hold_gate
 test_parent_stale_approval_terminal_close
+test_stage0b_routes_stale_approved_parent_to_stage4
 test_pr_merged_at_prefers_wrapper
 test_single_pass_wired_in_engine
 test_recent_parent_repair_reachable_from_single_pass