diff --git a/src/api/config.js b/src/api/config.js
index e075119..a4daff7 100644
--- a/src/api/config.js
+++ b/src/api/config.js
@@ -263,6 +263,25 @@ export const LINE_FIELDS = {
   // leads carry one too — a company-owned vehicle has an owner with a name.
 }
 
+/**
+ * Fields the workflow computes for itself, which a form must therefore not ask
+ * for. Matched on the base id, so every per-activity suffix is covered.
+ *
+ * `documents_status` is the one that matters. It gates the AND-join that wakes
+ * Engage after an upload (55), and it was rendered as a dropdown — asking the
+ * person who had just attached three files to tell the system what it could
+ * see. Left unset, the lead sits in Document Pending with everything attached
+ * and nothing happening, and it reads as the AI having stalled. It is derived
+ * in the trigger now (75), from the files themselves.
+ *
+ * `documents_notes` goes with it: the same script writes what is still missing,
+ * and a person overwriting that would be arguing with the file list.
+ */
+export const DERIVED_FIELDS = new Set([
+  'documents_status',
+  'documents_notes',
+])
+
 /**
  * Form field ids carry a per-form suffix — `doc_rc` arrives as `doc_rc_2`, `pan`
  * as `pan_3` — so a field is matched on the id with that suffix removed. No
@@ -305,6 +324,9 @@ export function leadLine(lead) {
  * line to filter on.
  */
 export function fieldApplies(fieldId, lead) {
+  // Computed by the workflow — never asked for, on any form, whether or not
+  // there is a lead behind it.
+  if (DERIVED_FIELDS.has(baseFieldId(fieldId))) return false
   if (!lead) return true
   const on = leadLine(lead)
   if (!on) return true