diff --git a/docs/TEMPLATE-MATURITY.md b/docs/TEMPLATE-MATURITY.md
index 9b2c6bb..51d1323 100644
--- a/docs/TEMPLATE-MATURITY.md
+++ b/docs/TEMPLATE-MATURITY.md
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ holding (it was 55 of 85 dangling once).
 | `rust_sdlc` | planner coder tester reviewer committer | coding_readwrite | 19 | **yes** — harness default |
 | `topic_research` | lead_researcher evidence_checker report_writer | research_web_readonly | 4 | **yes** — measured |
 | `continuous_research` | paper_reader signal_ranker script_writer | research_readonly | 11 | **yes** — live runs |
-| `backend` | api_designer db_engineer coder tester committer | coding_readwrite | 20 | no |
+| `backend` | api_designer db_engineer coder tester committer | coding_readwrite | 20 | **yes** — first run 2026-09-22 |
 | `frontend` | designer coder tester committer | coding_readwrite | 12 | no |
 | `mobile` | designer coder tester committer | coding_readwrite | 11 | no |
 | `gpu` | arch_analyst kernel_author bench_engineer coder committer | coding_readwrite | 13 | no |
@@ -67,7 +67,15 @@ holding (it was 55 of 85 dangling once).
 | `insight_research` | implementation_tracker novelty_hunter publication_drafter | research_readonly | 8 | no |
 | `continuous_improvement` | brain_inspector improvement_proposer improvement_evaluator | research_readonly | 7 | no |
 
-**Three of twelve are evidenced.** The other nine are well-formed scaffolding:
+**Four of twelve are evidenced.** `backend` was exercised on 2026-09-22,
+the first time anything had been staffed from it: all five roles
+provisioned with real agents (api_designer, db_engineer, coder, tester,
+committer), and the mission delivered cursor pagination — `Paged<T>`,
+`paginate<T: Clone>`, module declared, `cargo test` 3 passed — judged
+**met on the first pass**, 2 files pushed. It also gave the task-permission
+shadow its first confirmed `Edit` call.
+
+**Three of the remaining eight are still unevidenced.** The other nine are well-formed scaffolding:
 roles, prompts, brain seeds and resolving skills, and no run behind any of
 them. They will probably work — they are structurally identical to the three
 that do — but "probably" is the word, and this codebase has a name for the gap