diff --git a/scripts/resolve-verification-path.sh b/scripts/resolve-verification-path.sh
index 2855dc2a..36a84246 100755
--- a/scripts/resolve-verification-path.sh
+++ b/scripts/resolve-verification-path.sh
@@ -81,6 +81,38 @@ phase_level_path() {
     fi
   fi
 
+  # Per-plan single-plan-phase fallback (issue #653): when no phase-level, plain,
+  # or wave-level artifact exists on disk but the writer produced exactly one
+  # per-plan {NN}-{MM}-VERIFICATION.md (the single-plan-phase case), adopt it so
+  # the QA gate does not see the phase as unverified and force a spurious re-run.
+  # Only a single match is adopted — multiple per-plan files are ambiguous and
+  # fall through to the canonical phase-level name (the integration artifact).
+  if [ -n "$phase_prefix" ]; then
+    # Match per-plan names with a >=2-digit, all-numeric MM component to mirror
+    # the writer's `printf %02d` plan numbering (resolve-artifact-path.sh): so
+    # 3-digit plan numbers (100+) are matched, but non-canonical names such as
+    # `{NN}-01a-VERIFICATION.md` or `{NN}-01-extra-VERIFICATION.md` are not.
+    # A nullglob array gives an exact entry count with no `ls` parsing and no
+    # newline-in-filename ambiguity; the glob's `*` is greedy, so a strict regex
+    # re-filter rejects its over-matches before the single-match decision.
+    local -a plan_files=() _plan_matches=()
+    local _nullglob_restore _pf _pf_base
+    _nullglob_restore=$(shopt -p nullglob 2>/dev/null || true)
+    shopt -s nullglob
+    _plan_matches=( "$PHASE_DIR/${phase_prefix}-"[0-9][0-9]*"-VERIFICATION.md" )
+    eval "$_nullglob_restore" 2>/dev/null || true
+    for _pf in "${_plan_matches[@]}"; do
+      _pf_base=$(basename "$_pf")
+      if [[ "$_pf_base" =~ ^${phase_prefix}-[0-9][0-9]+-VERIFICATION\.md$ ]]; then
+        plan_files+=("$_pf")
+      fi
+    done
+    if [ "${#plan_files[@]}" -eq 1 ]; then
+      printf '%s\n' "${plan_files[0]}"
+      return 0
+    fi
+  fi
+
   if [ -n "$canonical_name" ]; then
     echo "$PHASE_DIR/$canonical_name"
     return 0
diff --git a/tests/qa-result-gate.bats b/tests/qa-result-gate.bats
index 240addda..8f8df79b 100644
--- a/tests/qa-result-gate.bats
+++ b/tests/qa-result-gate.bats
@@ -997,6 +997,33 @@ VERIF
   [[ "$output" == *"qa_gate_writer=write-verification.sh"* ]]
 }
 
+@test "single-plan phase with only a per-plan {NN}-{MM}-VERIFICATION.md → PROCEED_TO_UAT (issue #653)" {
+  # Regression: a passing single-plan phase whose verification artifact was
+  # written with the per-plan name must not be read as missing and forced to
+  # re-run. Before the fix the gate auto-resolved the (absent) phase-level
+  # 01-VERIFICATION.md and reported qa_gate_writer=missing → QA_RERUN_REQUIRED.
+  : > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-PLAN.md"
+  {
+    echo "---"
+    echo "phase: 01"
+    echo "result: PASS"
+    echo "passed: 33"
+    echo "failed: 0"
+    echo "total: 33"
+    echo "plans_verified: [01-01]"
+    echo "writer: write-verification.sh"
+    echo "---"
+  } > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md"
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPT" "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"qa_gate_routing=PROCEED_TO_UAT"* ]]
+  # Confirm the per-plan artifact was actually read (not a missing-file false pass)
+  [[ "$output" == *"qa_gate_writer=write-verification.sh"* ]]
+  [[ "$output" == *"qa_gate_result=PASS"* ]]
+}
+
 @test "brownfield fallback to plain VERIFICATION.md" {
   # Create a phase dir WITHOUT numbered prefix
   BROWNFIELD_DIR="$TEST_DIR/legacy-phase"
diff --git a/tests/resolve-verification-path.bats b/tests/resolve-verification-path.bats
index 02959676..4923e0ae 100644
--- a/tests/resolve-verification-path.bats
+++ b/tests/resolve-verification-path.bats
@@ -307,4 +307,124 @@ EOF
 
   [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
   [ -z "$output" ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+# Issue #653: single-plan phase where the writer produced a per-plan
+# {NN}-{MM}-VERIFICATION.md must resolve to that artifact, not a synthetic
+# phase-level name the gate would read as missing.
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase adopts the sole per-plan verification (issue #653 single-plan phase)" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+plans_verified: [01-01]
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}
+
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase does NOT adopt per-plan files when more than one exists (ambiguous -> phase-level)" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-02-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}
+
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase prefers an on-disk phase-level artifact over a per-plan one" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: FAIL
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}
+
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase prefers wave files over a per-plan one" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION-wave1.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: FAIL
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION-wave1.md" ]
+}
+
+# Regression guard: a numbered phase with NO verification artifact of any kind
+# must fall through the per-plan block and return the synthetic phase-level
+# name (the pre-existing behavior the #653 block must not disturb).
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase returns the synthetic phase-level name when no artifact exists" {
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}
+
+# Issue #653 (round 1 hardening): the writer's `printf %02d` plan numbering
+# yields 3-digit names for the 100th+ plan, so the per-plan fallback must adopt
+# a sole {NN}-{MMM}-VERIFICATION.md, not just 2-digit MM.
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase adopts a sole 3-digit per-plan verification (100+ plan numbers)" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-100-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+plans_verified: [01-100]
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-100-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}
+
+# Issue #653 (QA round 2): the per-plan glob is greedy; a strict regex re-filter
+# must reject non-canonical names whose MM segment is not purely numeric (e.g. a
+# trailing letter or an extra `-segment-`), so they are NOT mistaken for the sole
+# per-plan artifact. Such names fall through to the canonical phase-level name.
+@test "resolve-verification-path phase does NOT adopt a non-canonical per-plan name (over-match guard)" {
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01a-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+  cat > "$PHASE_DIR/01-01-extra-VERIFICATION.md" <<'EOF'
+---
+result: PASS
+---
+EOF
+
+  run bash "$SCRIPTS_DIR/resolve-verification-path.sh" phase "$PHASE_DIR"
+
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [ "$output" = "$PHASE_DIR/01-VERIFICATION.md" ]
+}