diff --git a/TODOS.md b/TODOS.md
index 02fc88565..52e806af3 100644
--- a/TODOS.md
+++ b/TODOS.md
@@ -2397,3 +2397,21 @@ building once users hit multi-diagram docs; wedge perf is fine without it.
 
 **Effort:** S (human ~1d, CC ~30min). **Depends on:** diagram engine wedge
 shipping (lib/diagram-render bundle versioning).
+
+### P3: Dedupe the make-pdf e2e gate-test harness
+
+**What:** Five e2e files (`combined-gate`, `emoji-gate`, `diagram-gate`,
+`landscape-gate`, `format-gate`) each hand-roll the same prerequisite probe
+(binary/browse/poppler checks with CI hard-fail vs local skip), mkdtemp/rm
+lifecycle, and child-timeout constants. Extract a shared
+`make-pdf/test/e2e/helpers.ts` (prerequisites(), withWorkDir(), runGenerate()).
+
+**Why:** Review-army maintainability finding on v1.58.0.0 — the boilerplate
+diverges a little more with each new gate (diagram-gate now captures stderr
+via Bun.spawnSync while the others use execFileSync), and a future fix to the
+CI-hard-fail contract has to land five times.
+
+**Context:** Deferred at ship time (D8.2) because it's test-only churn across
+five green files at the tail of a release. Zero user-facing value; pure DRY.
+
+**Effort:** S (human ~3h, CC ~20min). **Depends on:** None.
diff --git a/make-pdf/src/diagram-prepass.ts b/make-pdf/src/diagram-prepass.ts
index 361806799..8d6c6a48c 100644
--- a/make-pdf/src/diagram-prepass.ts
+++ b/make-pdf/src/diagram-prepass.ts
@@ -619,6 +619,16 @@ export function inlineLocalImages(html: string, opts: PrepassImageOptions): stri
     const cached = memo.get(filePath);
     if (cached !== undefined) return rewriteImgTag(tag, cached);
 
+    // Out-of-tree reads are legal (local CLI semantics — like pandoc) but
+    // never silent: an agent PDF-ing untrusted markdown should not quietly
+    // embed ~/.ssh/config into a shareable document. --strict makes it fatal.
+    const inputRoot = path.resolve(opts.inputDir) + path.sep;
+    if (!filePath.startsWith(inputRoot)) {
+      const msg = `image resolves OUTSIDE the input directory: ${src} → ${filePath}`;
+      if (opts.strict) throw new StrictModeError(msg + " — move it under the markdown's directory or drop --strict");
+      opts.warn(msg);
+    }
+
     if (!fs.existsSync(filePath)) {
       const msg = `image not found: ${src} (resolved to ${filePath})`;
       if (opts.strict) throw new StrictModeError(msg);
diff --git a/make-pdf/test/diagram-prepass.test.ts b/make-pdf/test/diagram-prepass.test.ts
index 4d49485cb..c589dbdf1 100644
--- a/make-pdf/test/diagram-prepass.test.ts
+++ b/make-pdf/test/diagram-prepass.test.ts
@@ -306,6 +306,35 @@ describe("inlineLocalImages", () => {
     expect(out).toContain('data-gstack-px-height="44"');
   });
 
+  test("out-of-tree image reads warn (never silent) and still inline", () => {
+    const outside = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "prepass-outside-"));
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(outside, "ext.png"), tinyPng(10, 10));
+    try {
+      const warnings: string[] = [];
+      const out = inlineLocalImages(`<img src="${path.join(outside, "ext.png")}">`, {
+        ...base, warn: (m) => warnings.push(m),
+      });
+      expect(out).toContain("data:image/png;base64,");
+      expect(warnings.some((w) => w.includes("OUTSIDE the input directory"))).toBe(true);
+    } finally {
+      fs.rmSync(outside, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
+  test("out-of-tree image + --strict → StrictModeError", () => {
+    const outside = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "prepass-outside-"));
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(outside, "ext.png"), tinyPng(10, 10));
+    try {
+      expect(() =>
+        inlineLocalImages(`<img src="${path.join(outside, "ext.png")}">`, {
+          ...base, strict: true, warn: () => {},
+        }),
+      ).toThrow(StrictModeError);
+    } finally {
+      fs.rmSync(outside, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
   test("Windows drive-letter src is treated as a local path, not a URL scheme", () => {
     // C:/x.png matches the single-letter-scheme regex — it must reach the
     // local-path branch (and the missing-file placeholder), never silently
@@ -313,7 +342,8 @@ describe("inlineLocalImages", () => {
     const warnings: string[] = [];
     const out = inlineLocalImages(`<img src="C:/missing/x.png">`, { ...base, warn: (m) => warnings.push(m) });
     expect(out).toContain("image-missing");
-    expect(warnings.length).toBe(1);
+    // Two warnings: it's out-of-tree (resolved outside inputDir) AND missing.
+    expect(warnings.some((w) => w.includes("image not found"))).toBe(true);
   });
 
   test("indented fences inside lists replay byte-for-byte (no list splitting)", () => {