diff --git a/apps/web/src/app/api/dataset/route.js b/apps/web/src/app/api/dataset/route.js
index 183de1c..8005ab6 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/app/api/dataset/route.js
+++ b/apps/web/src/app/api/dataset/route.js
@@ -51,7 +51,17 @@ export function GET() {
           'Each window is the half-open range [start, end) on the row timestamp named in `cutOn`. Windows are fixed against the Unix epoch, so a window is the same set of rows whoever asks and whenever they ask. Walk them in order to see every row exactly once.',
         latestClosedWindow: newest,
         latestWindowEnd: windowEnd(newest),
-        nextWindowOpensAt: windowEnd(newest),
+        // When the *next* slice becomes takeable, which is not when the next
+        // window opens — it is when that window closes.
+        //
+        // This field shipped as `nextWindowOpensAt` returning `windowEnd(newest)`,
+        // which is the same value as `latestWindowEnd` directly above it and is
+        // the wrong instant to hand a scheduler. The window starting at that
+        // moment is the one still filling, so a pipeline that woke then would
+        // re-pull the slice it already had and loop until the real boundary
+        // passed. One window further on is the first moment there is anything
+        // new to take.
+        nextWindowAvailableAt: windowEnd(windowEnd(newest)),
       },
 
       datasets: {
diff --git a/apps/web/test/dataset-window.test.js b/apps/web/test/dataset-window.test.js
index b4dd0c5..9025fb2 100644
--- a/apps/web/test/dataset-window.test.js
+++ b/apps/web/test/dataset-window.test.js
@@ -111,6 +111,30 @@ test('a window that is not a timestamp is refused', () => {
   assert.equal(got.error, 'bad-window');
 });
 
+test('the moment the next slice becomes takeable is always in the future', () => {
+  // The invariant the manifest got wrong on its first day. It advertised
+  // `windowEnd(latestClosedWindow())` as when to come back, and that instant has
+  // *already passed* — it is the boundary that closed the window being served.
+  // A scheduler obeying it would wake immediately, re-pull the slice it already
+  // had, and spin until the real boundary arrived.
+  //
+  // Asserting "strictly in the future" rather than a fixed string is the point:
+  // it fails for any now, and it is exactly the property a caller depends on.
+  for (const offsetMinutes of [1, 59, 60, 121, 239]) {
+    const now = Date.parse('2026-08-29T12:00:00.000Z') + offsetMinutes * 60_000;
+    const newest = latestClosedWindow(now);
+
+    assert.ok(
+      Date.parse(windowEnd(newest)) <= now,
+      'the served window has closed, so its own end is in the past',
+    );
+    assert.ok(
+      Date.parse(windowEnd(windowEnd(newest))) > now,
+      `next slice must be takeable in the future, at +${offsetMinutes}m`,
+    );
+  }
+});
+
 test('the UTC day starts at midnight UTC wherever the server thinks it is', () => {
   // The full-dump allowance is a per-UTC-day count, and a server in a westward
   // timezone using local midnight would hand out a second full dump hours early