diff --git a/crates/buzz-agent/src/llm.rs b/crates/buzz-agent/src/llm.rs
index a09179042..f1f1370db 100644
--- a/crates/buzz-agent/src/llm.rs
+++ b/crates/buzz-agent/src/llm.rs
@@ -2249,10 +2249,26 @@ fn openrouter_summary_body(
     user_prompt: &str,
     max_output_tokens: u32,
 ) -> Value {
+    // Reasoning models spend output tokens thinking before emitting any
+    // visible text, and that spend counts against `max_tokens`. Left
+    // unseparated, a model can burn the entire cap mid-reasoning and return an
+    // empty `content` — observed with deepseek-v4-flash, where 13 consecutive
+    // handoff attempts length-stopped inside the reasoning channel and every
+    // one degraded to lossy history truncation. Give reasoning its own
+    // equal-sized budget on top of the text budget so `max_output_tokens`
+    // remains what the caller means: visible summary text. `exclude` keeps the
+    // reasoning out of the response body; `summarize()` only reads `content`.
+    // Non-reasoning endpoints ignore the `reasoning` object (see
+    // `apply_openrouter_mutations` on why it is never paired with
+    // `provider.require_parameters`).
     json!({
         "model": effective_model,
         "stream": false,
-        "max_tokens": max_output_tokens,
+        "max_tokens": max_output_tokens.saturating_mul(2),
+        "reasoning": {
+            "max_tokens": max_output_tokens,
+            "exclude": true,
+        },
         "messages": [
             { "role": "system", "content": system_prompt },
             { "role": "user", "content": user_prompt },
@@ -6263,8 +6279,14 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(body.get("max_completion_tokens").is_none());
     }
 
+    /// The summary body reserves `max_output_tokens` for visible text by
+    /// granting reasoning a separate, equal budget on top and excluding it
+    /// from the response. Without the separation, a reasoning model can spend
+    /// the entire cap thinking and length-stop with empty `content`, which
+    /// `summarize()` reports as an empty summary and the handoff degrades to
+    /// lossy truncation.
     #[test]
-    fn openrouter_summary_carries_neither_reasoning_nor_provider() {
+    fn openrouter_summary_budgets_reasoning_separately_and_carries_no_provider() {
         let body = openrouter_summary_body(
             "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7",
             "summarize",
@@ -6274,15 +6296,26 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(body["model"], "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7");
         assert_eq!(body["messages"][0]["role"], "system");
         assert_eq!(body["messages"][1]["content"], "text to summarize");
-        assert_eq!(body["max_tokens"], 1024);
+        assert_eq!(
+            body["max_tokens"], 2048,
+            "total cap must cover the text budget plus the reasoning budget"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            body["reasoning"]["max_tokens"], 1024,
+            "reasoning gets its own budget so it cannot starve the summary text"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            body["reasoning"]["exclude"], true,
+            "reasoning must not be included in the response; summarize() reads only content"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            body["reasoning"].get("effort").is_none(),
+            "budget-based cap only; effort stays unset for the summary call"
+        );
         assert!(
             body.get("max_completion_tokens").is_none(),
             "summary body must use OpenRouter's token-limit spelling"
         );
-        assert!(
-            body.get("reasoning").is_none(),
-            "summary body must not carry reasoning"
-        );
         assert!(
             body.get("provider").is_none(),
             "summary body must not carry provider"