diff --git a/docs/testing.md b/docs/testing.md
index 8fc433de5a..3db5623b3e 100644
--- a/docs/testing.md
+++ b/docs/testing.md
@@ -469,7 +469,9 @@ provider evidence.
 Each Vitest project uses up to two workers, bounded by available host parallelism.
 Default-group projects can run together. Only `process-boundary` runs in the
 later sequence group and serializes its files because process-tree observations
-share host sampling resources. Acceptance and process-global files retain isolated
+share host sampling resources. Tests that launch the real process harness belong
+in `tests/boundary/process/`, including CLI command and environment tests.
+Acceptance and process-global files retain isolated
 forks but are not serialized; isolation does not imply serial scheduling. CI uses
 the same per-project worker bound.
 The pure domain/contracts and recording-port service projects share one worker
diff --git a/src/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts b/tests/boundary/process/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts
similarity index 78%
rename from src/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts
rename to tests/boundary/process/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts
index 6ad3008605..5404b34227 100644
--- a/src/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts
+++ b/tests/boundary/process/cliEnvironmentSeam.test.ts
@@ -4,11 +4,14 @@ import { join } from "node:path";
 
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 
-import { captureProcessScenarioFile } from "./application/process/ProcessCli.js";
-import { runCapabilityStatus } from "./composition/directAnalysis.js";
-import { probeProcessCaptureCapability } from "./process/capture/ProcessHarness.js";
-import { parseEvidence } from "./domain/evidence.js";
-import { parseProcessCapture } from "./domain/process/processCapture.js";
+import {
+  captureProcessScenarioFile,
+  isProcessCliFailure,
+} from "../../../src/application/process/ProcessCli.js";
+import { runCapabilityStatus } from "../../../src/composition/directAnalysis.js";
+import { probeProcessCaptureCapability } from "../../../src/process/capture/ProcessHarness.js";
+import { parseEvidence } from "../../../src/domain/evidence.js";
+import { parseProcessCapture } from "../../../src/domain/process/processCapture.js";
 
 describe("the CLI takes its environment as an input", () => {
   it("resolves from injected PATH and inherits injected env with scenario overrides", async ({
@@ -48,6 +51,10 @@ describe("the CLI takes its environment as an input", () => {
         REA_CAPTURE_INJECTED_MARKER: "injected-value",
         REA_CAPTURE_SCENARIO_OVERRIDE: "host-value",
       });
+      if (isProcessCliFailure(result))
+        throw new Error(
+          `Process capture returned an error: ${JSON.stringify(result)}`,
+        );
       const evidence = parseEvidence(result);
       const capture = parseProcessCapture(evidence.normalized_result);
       expect(capture.frames.map(({ data }) => data).join("")).toContain(
diff --git a/tests/boundary/cli/processCli.test.ts b/tests/boundary/process/processCli.test.ts
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/boundary/cli/processCli.test.ts
rename to tests/boundary/process/processCli.test.ts