diff --git a/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/PoisonRecordTest.java b/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/PoisonRecordTest.java
index fb3bf0e..bbf7825 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/PoisonRecordTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/PoisonRecordTest.java
@@ -53,4 +53,37 @@ void rejectsADeadLetterThatIsNotASingleJsonObject() {
             assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> PoisonRecord.build(new byte[] {'{', '}'}, bad), String.valueOf(bad));
         }
     }
+
+    @Test
+    void acceptsEveryStrictJsonShapeTheScannerKnows() {
+        String[] valid = {
+            "  {\t\"a\" :\r\n 1 }  ",
+            "{\"a\":\"\\\"\\\\\\/\\b\\f\\n\\r\\t\\u0041\\u00E9\\ud83d\\ude00 plain\"}",
+            "{\"a\":[true,false,null,-0,0,0.5,1E+2,-12.5e-3,2e5,[],{},\"\"]}",
+            "{\"a\":{\"b\":{\"c\":[1,[2,[3]]]}},\"d\":[{\"e\":1},{\"f\":[]}]}",
+            "{\"a\":{\"dead_letter\":1},\"b\":[{\"dead_letter\":2}]}",
+            "{\"a\":" + "[".repeat(100) + "]".repeat(100) + "}",
+        };
+        for (String body : valid) {
+            assertTrue(PoisonRecord.isSpliceableObject(body), body);
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void rejectsEveryNonStrictOrUnspliceableObject() {
+        String[] invalid = {
+            "", "   ", "{", "{\"a\"", "{\"a\":", "{\"a\":1", "{\"a\":1,", "{\"a\":1,}", "{a:1}", "{\"a\" 1}",
+            "{\"a\":1 \"b\":2}", "{\"a\":[1,]}", "{\"a\":[1}", "{\"a\":{\"b\":1]}", "{\"a\":[1,2}",
+            "{\"a\":tru}", "{\"a\":nul}", "{\"a\":fals}", "{\"a\":NaN}", "{\"a\":Infinity}",
+            "{\"a\":-}", "{\"a\":-", "{\"a\":01}", "{\"a\":1.}", "{\"a\":1e}", "{\"a\":1e+}", "{\"a\":+1}", "{\"a\":.5}",
+            "{\"a\":\"x}", "{\"a\":\"\\x\"}", "{\"a\":\"\\", "{\"a\":\"\\u12\"}", "{\"a\":\"\\u12G4\"}",
+            "{\"a\":\"\\u\uff10\uff10\uff14\uff11\"}",
+            "{\"a\":\"\\ud800\"}", "{\"a\":\"\\ud800x\"}", "{\"a\":\"\\ud800\\u0041\"}", "{\"a\":\"\\udc00\"}",
+            "{\"a\":\"line\nbreak\"}", "{\"a\":1}x", "{\"a\":1}{}", "[]", "1",
+            "{\"dead_letter\":1}", "{\"x\":1,\"dead_letter\":{}}", "{\"dead\\u005fletter\":1}",
+        };
+        for (String body : invalid) {
+            assertFalse(PoisonRecord.isSpliceableObject(body), body);
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/RedisLayoutConformanceTest.java b/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/RedisLayoutConformanceTest.java
index 5de5b98..524bc92 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/RedisLayoutConformanceTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/babelqueue/redis/RedisLayoutConformanceTest.java
@@ -431,7 +431,11 @@ void legacyAbandonedReservationIsRecoveredByteForByte() throws Exception {
         RedisQueueOps dying = new RedisQueueOps(redis, queue, RedisLayout.LEGACY, null, 1L, -1, RedisQueueOpsClock.WALL);
         RedisQueueOps noDeadline = new RedisQueueOps(redis, stuck, RedisLayout.LEGACY, null, null, -1, RedisQueueOpsClock.WALL);
         try {
-            String raw = "{\"job\": \"" + URN + "\",  \"attempts\": 2, \"data\": {\"id\": 1}}";
+            // A conformant envelope (the consumer rejects one without trace_id / meta as poison) with
+            // deliberately non-canonical spacing, so a re-encode would be caught by the byte comparison.
+            String raw = "{\"job\": \"" + URN + "\",  \"trace_id\": \"t-1\", \"attempts\": 2, \"data\": {\"id\": 1},"
+                + " \"meta\": {\"id\": \"f1e2d3c4-b5a6-4789-90ab-cdef01234567\", \"queue\": \"orders\","
+                + " \"lang\": \"php\", \"schema_version\": 1, \"created_at\": 1749132727000}}";
             redis.rpush(queue, raw);
             redis.rpush(stuck, raw);
             assertEquals(raw, dying.reserve().body());