diff --git a/scrum b/scrum
index 6d14983..328fdb6 100755
--- a/scrum
+++ b/scrum
@@ -87,18 +87,32 @@ export LH_GATEWAY="${LH_GATEWAY:-http://127.0.0.1:4110}"
 # works correctly (lands in golangLAKEHOUSE root, where reports/ lives).
 SCRUM_DIR=$(dirname "$SCRUM_REVIEW")
 SCRUM_REPO=$(dirname "$SCRUM_DIR")
-( cd "$SCRUM_REPO" && bash "$SCRUM_REVIEW" "$DIFF_FILE" "$LABEL" ) || {
-  echo "[scrum] reviewers failed — bailing"
-  rm -f "$DIFF_FILE"
-  exit 1
-}
+# Run the underlying review. We treat ANY tally-file produced as a usable
+# result, even if scrum_review.sh exits non-zero on its own aggregation
+# step (its tally-counting can mis-fire while the verdicts themselves are
+# fine — the per-reviewer markdown files are what matter).
+( cd "$SCRUM_REPO" && bash "$SCRUM_REVIEW" "$DIFF_FILE" "$LABEL" ) || true
 
-# Locate the tally file the review just wrote
 TALLY="$SCRUM_REPO/reports/scrum/_evidence/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)/verdicts/${LABEL}_tally.md"
 if [ ! -f "$TALLY" ]; then
-  echo "[scrum] no tally found at $TALLY (review may have failed silently)"
-  rm -f "$DIFF_FILE"
-  exit 1
+  # Build a minimal tally from the per-reviewer files if scrum_review.sh
+  # didn't produce one. Lets findings still flow to the KB.
+  VERDICTS_DIR="$SCRUM_REPO/reports/scrum/_evidence/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)/verdicts"
+  if ls "$VERDICTS_DIR/${LABEL}_"*.md >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    {
+      echo "# Convergence tally — $LABEL (auto-rebuilt by ./scrum wrapper)"
+      echo
+      echo "scrum_review.sh did not emit a tally; per-reviewer verdicts:"
+      echo
+      for f in "$VERDICTS_DIR/${LABEL}_"*.md; do
+        echo "- $(basename "$f")"
+      done
+    } > "$TALLY"
+  else
+    echo "[scrum] no per-reviewer verdicts produced — bailing"
+    rm -f "$DIFF_FILE"
+    exit 1
+  fi
 fi
 
 # Push to KB — one JSONL row per scrum run, queryable via DuckDB or jq
@@ -121,7 +135,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 tally = Path("$TALLY").read_text()
 row = {
   "schema": "scrum_finding.v1",
-  "ts": datetime.datetime.utcnow().isoformat() + "Z",
+  "ts": datetime.datetime.now(datetime.UTC).isoformat().replace("+00:00", "Z"),
   "label": "$LABEL",
   "diff_mode": "$DIFF_MODE",
   "diff_bytes": $DIFF_SIZE,