diff --git a/CONTEXT.md b/CONTEXT.md
index 7ed8b0df91..6956b48169 100644
--- a/CONTEXT.md
+++ b/CONTEXT.md
@@ -28,6 +28,13 @@
 - Target: selected automation destination, such as mobile, tv, or desktop.
 - Modality: broad supported device family, such as mobile, tv, or desktop.
 - Session: daemon-owned state for a selected target and opened app or surface.
+- Script recording: opt-in session mode armed before actions so a persisted `.ad` can carry portable
+  action inputs and recording-time target identity evidence. It is distinct from screen/video recording.
+- Open-to-destination script: self-contained `.ad` script with exactly one initial `open`, a destination
+  guard after its last app-state mutation, no `close`, and an app session left active for subsequent work.
+  Avoid: replay (artifact noun), fragment (reserved for lifecycle-free composition), partial script.
+- Destination guard: portable selector-targeted `wait` near the end of an open-to-destination script that
+  confirms a landmark on the ready destination screen before replay hands the live session to its caller.
 - Recording backend: daemon-internal module interface selected per recording target that owns platform recording validation, output path policy, start/stop execution, and record-only cleanup below the daemon recording lifecycle.
 - Device lease: logical remote ownership of one selected device for a
   tenant/run/client and lease provider, separate from platform helper process
diff --git a/docs/adr/0016-active-session-script-publication.md b/docs/adr/0016-active-session-script-publication.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..db7160a28d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/adr/0016-active-session-script-publication.md
@@ -0,0 +1,221 @@
+# ADR 0016: Active-Session Script Publication
+
+## Status
+
+Proposed
+
+## Context
+
+The replay repair study found re-recording a drifted journey cheaper than repairing it in two of the
+three measured drift classes. The immediate reusable unit is an **open-to-destination script**: a
+self-contained `.ad` script that opens the app, performs the complete journey to screen X, verifies a
+destination landmark, and leaves the app session active there so an agent can continue with new work.
+
+Ordinary script recording currently combines two concerns. `open --save-script[=<path>]` arms
+recording before the first interaction so selector chains and ADR 0012 `target-v1` identity evidence
+are captured at action time. `close` publishes the accumulated script, records a terminal `close`, and
+tears down the session. That artifact is suitable as a closed test flow, but not as a live starting
+state.
+
+Publishing only at the end of an ordinary unarmed session is insufficient. Session history retains the
+commands, but the resolved target tree needed for `target-v1` evidence is deliberately discarded after
+each action. Late publication can serialize selector text; it cannot reconstruct which element was
+actually acted on. Making identity capture unconditional for every session would change normal
+interaction execution: recording disables direct selector fast paths when a capture-backed route is
+required for evidence. That performance and data-retention change has not been measured.
+
+Issue [#1346](https://github.com/callstack/agent-device/issues/1346) and the throwaway
+[`session-save-script` prototype](https://github.com/callstack/agent-device/tree/agent/prototype-session-save-replay/scripts/prototypes/session-save-script)
+record the motivating workflow and API trial. Composable lifecycle-free fragments remain a separate
+decision in [#1336](https://github.com/callstack/agent-device/issues/1336).
+
+## Decision
+
+Add an explicit publication action for an already-armed ordinary script recording:
+
+```sh
+agent-device open com.example.app --relaunch --save-script=screen-x.ad
+# perform the complete journey to screen X
+agent-device wait 'role="heading" label="Screen X"'
+agent-device session save-script
+```
+
+`session save-script [path] [--force]` publishes the current ordinary script recording without
+closing the app or deleting the session. An explicit `path` retargets the recording using the existing
+target/force authorization rules. Without it, publication uses the path armed by `open --save-script`
+or the existing generated default.
+
+### Recording lifecycle
+
+An ordinary recording eligible for active-session publication has three states:
+
+- **ARMED**: established only when a new session's initial successful
+  `open --save-script[=<path>]` is recorded as action zero. The session records portable action inputs
+  and fresh target identity evidence.
+- **ABORTED**: reached when another plain `open` succeeds while ARMED. The app operation may continue,
+  but the recording is no longer a single-open bootstrap and close-time publication is disarmed. The
+  successful `open` response warns that a fresh session is required to author another script.
+- **PUBLISHED**: reached only after `session save-script` atomically commits the complete history from
+  the sole recorded `open` through the current action. The session remains active at the destination,
+  but close-time script publication is disarmed.
+
+A filesystem or target-collision failure leaves the recording ARMED, including its path and same-target
+`--force` authorization, so the caller can correct the target or permissions and retry. ABORTED and
+PUBLISHED are terminal until the session is destroyed. `session save-script` in either state fails
+loudly and never writes.
+
+Every existing arming entry point respects terminality. `open --save-script` on any existing session —
+unarmed, ARMED, ABORTED, or PUBLISHED — is rejected before app dispatch; a plain later `open` is allowed,
+causing ARMED to become ABORTED while leaving ABORTED/PUBLISHED unchanged.
+`close --save-script[=<path>]` in ABORTED or PUBLISHED is rejected before platform close or filesystem
+work, so the caller can retry with plain `close`. Plain `close` tears down ABORTED/PUBLISHED without
+writing; closing an unpublished ARMED recording retains the existing close-time publication behavior. A
+fresh session is the only re-arming boundary.
+
+This lifecycle is distinct from ADR 0012's repair transaction. `session save-script` rejects a session
+with `saveScriptBoundary` set and directs the caller to finish or abort the repair through its existing
+`replay --from` and teardown commit protocol. Active-session publication never marks a repair COMPLETE,
+commits a healed slice, writes `# agent-device:heal-complete`, or changes repair tombstone semantics.
+
+### Destination readiness and replay handoff
+
+The destination is an authored postcondition, not the last navigation action. Before publication, the
+recorded suffix after the last mutating action must contain a `wait` whose target is a portable selector
+or selector chain identifying a landmark on the ready destination screen. A duration wait, `wait stable`,
+or `wait @ref` does not qualify, though `wait stable` may follow the landmark wait. The publisher validates
+the serialized guard before filesystem work and never relies on repair-only bare-ref rejection.
+`session save-script` refuses publication without this **destination guard** and tells the author to
+record one. V1 does not infer a screen identity from a snapshot or synthesize an implicit guard.
+
+The initial guard is selector-level. `wait` does not yet carry recorded-landmark identity through its
+polling resolution, so the guard proves that an element matching its selector exists, not that it is the
+same landmark element observed while authoring. Authors must choose a selective destination-specific
+landmark; a reshuffled screen containing the same weak label elsewhere can false-pass.
+[#1349](https://github.com/callstack/agent-device/issues/1349) owns the identity design for waits and
+remaining read-only steps. It must preserve polling: ADR 0012's current pre-action `target-v1`
+verification cannot be attached to a wait unchanged because a not-yet-present landmark is the expected
+starting condition. Any identity check for a wait happens after its selector resolves, before the wait
+reports success, or uses a distinct guard-specific mechanism.
+
+The phrase "last mutating action" is derived from a request-sensitive recording-effect trait on the
+central `CommandDescriptor`, required for every command that records session actions and guarded by a
+completeness test. It is not a publisher-local command-name set. The trait distinguishes app-state
+mutation from observation for subcommands such as read-only versus mutating `find`, `keyboard`, and
+`alert` actions; the existing conservative `refFrameEffect: may-invalidate` classification is not precise
+enough for this boundary.
+
+On consumption, a script without `close` preserves the existing replay behavior: the named session stays
+active and the successful `ReplayCommandResult` returns its `session` id. The caller binds subsequent
+commands to that returned id. Replay reports success only after the destination guard completes; the
+absence of `close` changes neither action dispatch nor the success response shape.
+
+### Sensitive inputs
+
+Executable `.ad` artifacts serialize action inputs literally. A recorded `fill` therefore writes its
+text to the published file; diagnostic and event-log redaction cannot protect an input that the replay
+engine must later execute. V1 does not claim secret-bearing login flows are safe to publish.
+
+Native `.ad` replay already supports late-bound `${VAR}` values, but ordinary recording cannot yet
+execute with a real value while publishing only its placeholder. That safe-authoring capability is
+tracked in [#1348](https://github.com/callstack/agent-device/issues/1348). Until it ships, authors must not
+record a journey that enters a secret: use pre-authenticated test state or deliberately non-secret fixture
+credentials that are safe to persist. CLI help must state this warning next to the authoring workflow.
+
+### Artifact contract
+
+The published `.ad`:
+
+- contains exactly one recorded `open` as its first action and every recordable action through the
+  publication request;
+- contains a portable selector/selector-chain destination guard after its last descriptor-classified
+  mutating action;
+- does not append or serialize `session save-script` or `close`;
+- uses the ordinary session context header, selector-chain optimization, and canonical `target-v1`
+  annotations captured while ARMED;
+- fails loudly rather than emitting an unresolved session-local `@ref` or dropping target evidence that
+  ADR 0012 requires for an element-targeting recorded action; and
+- uses the existing same-directory atomic publication primitive, refusing every existing target unless
+  `--force` authorizes atomic replacement.
+
+The success response identifies the final path and session and reports the number of serialized actions.
+The command must fail before writing when there is no active session, recording was not armed, the
+recording is ABORTED or PUBLISHED, the history does not contain exactly one initial `open`, no portable
+destination guard exists, or a repair transaction owns the session. Every failure explains the recovery
+action; none degrades to `{ written: false }` success.
+
+### Surface and naming
+
+V1 extends the existing `session` command and typed session client surface. It does not introduce
+`script start/stop`, marks, or a second replay engine. CLI help makes the two phases explicit: the
+existing `--save-script` flag arms evidence capture, while `session save-script` publishes without
+teardown.
+
+This ADR does not rename or deprecate `--save-script`. The flag and session action name the same persisted
+artifact: `open --save-script` configures the armed recording's eventual target, while
+`session save-script` requests publication now. `save-replay` is rejected because replay is the act of
+executing that script, not the artifact being saved.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Agents can record onboarding or deep navigation as one self-contained starting state, replay it from
+  scratch, and continue from the resulting live session.
+- The workflow has two explicit moments because evidence must be armed before the first target action and
+  the destination is known only when the caller publishes.
+- Normal unarmed interactions keep their current fast paths and retention behavior.
+- A successful active-session publication cannot collide with a later close-time auto-save.
+- A second successful open abandons the in-flight artifact instead of silently publishing a multi-open
+  bootstrap; authoring resumes only in a fresh session.
+- Intermediate lifecycle-free fragments, entry guards, include semantics, composed digests, and shared
+  fragment pinning remain entirely under #1336.
+- Secret-bearing authoring remains unsafe until #1348; the initial workflow is limited to journeys that
+  do not enter secrets. Arbitrary history ranges remain out of scope.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+
+- **Save any session history at the end:** rejected because target identity evidence cannot be
+  reconstructed after the interaction and the resulting artifact would undercut ADR 0012's provenance
+  model.
+- **Capture full target evidence in every session:** rejected until its direct-path latency, capture
+  count, memory, and event-log costs are measured. It would alter ordinary interaction behavior to make
+  one authoring command shorter.
+- **`close --no-close` or `--save-script --no-close`:** rejected because a command named for teardown
+  would conditionally preserve the session and because it would not solve late arming.
+- **General `script start/stop` or history marks:** rejected because the accepted v1 boundary is exactly
+  one recorded `open` through one destination. Arbitrary slices require entry-state semantics and belong
+  with fragment design.
+- **`replay save`:** rejected because `replay <path>` consumes an artifact while publication consumes a
+  live session; the session owns the source data and lifecycle.
+- **Infer a destination fingerprint at publication:** rejected for v1 because screen identity and
+  readiness are app semantics. A caller-authored target wait is explicit, already recordable, and fails
+  at the correct point during cold replay.
+
+## Validation Required for Implementation
+
+- An unarmed session refuses publication before filesystem work and names `open --save-script` as the
+  recovery.
+- An armed session without a destination guard refuses publication before filesystem work and names a
+  selector-targeted `wait` as the recovery; `wait @ref`, duration waits, and `wait stable` are covered
+  refusal cases.
+- A second successful plain `open` transitions ARMED to ABORTED and disables all publication, while
+  `open --save-script` on an existing session is rejected before app dispatch.
+- An armed session publishes `open` plus target-annotated actions without `close`, returns the final path,
+  remains active, and can continue accepting commands.
+- The artifact replays from a cold start, completes its destination guard, returns the live session id,
+  and accepts a subsequent command on that session.
+- Every action in ADR 0012's existing target-binding command set has canonical identity evidence and no
+  unresolved `@ref` reaches disk; the destination guard remains selector-level until #1349 lands.
+- Existing-target refusal preserves the original bytes; `--force` replaces atomically; a failed publish
+  remains retryable.
+- After PUBLISHED, later ordinary actions remain usable, repeated `session save-script` fails, plain
+  `open --relaunch` cannot re-arm, and `open --save-script` is rejected before app dispatch.
+- In ABORTED/PUBLISHED, `close --save-script[=<other>]` is rejected before platform close and plain
+  `close` tears down without writing; closing an unpublished ARMED recording preserves current
+  close-time publication behavior.
+- Descriptor completeness tests classify every recordable request's mutation effect, including
+  request-sensitive read-only/mutating subcommands, and destination-guard ordering consumes only that
+  trait.
+- Repair-armed sessions refuse this action without changing repair state.
+- CLI help warns that literal `fill` inputs are persisted and tells authors not to record secret-bearing
+  journeys until #1348's parameterized-input mechanism is available.
+- Provider-backed integration scenarios cover the public daemon route, and live iOS and Android runs
+  prove the saved artifact and post-save session behavior on real backends.
diff --git a/docs/adr/README.md b/docs/adr/README.md
index 1caeab1dcc..b956a8f957 100644
--- a/docs/adr/README.md
+++ b/docs/adr/README.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 | [0013 Unified Gesture Plans](0013-unified-gesture-plans.md) | gesture API/routing, contact topology, multi-touch geometry, native pointer injection, two-finger pan |
 | [0014 Session Ref-Frame Lifetime](0014-session-ref-frame-lifetime.md) | ref authorization epochs, complete/partial issuance, pre-side-effect expiration, replay/batch compatibility, and cross-platform stale-mutation policy |
 | [0015 Direct Maestro Compatibility Engine](0015-direct-maestro-engine.md) | Maestro YAML parsing/execution, compatibility observation policy, conformance, performance gates, gesture integration |
+| [0016 Active-Session Script Publication](0016-active-session-script-publication.md) | publishing an armed open-to-destination `.ad` script without closing its live session |
 
 ADRs record *why*; the registries and gates they describe are the living source of truth — when
 prose and a registry disagree, the registry wins and the ADR needs a follow-up.