diff --git a/core/journal/src/main/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionRecord.kt b/core/journal/src/main/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionRecord.kt
index 4be96a04..231d5332 100644
--- a/core/journal/src/main/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionRecord.kt
+++ b/core/journal/src/main/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionRecord.kt
@@ -2,7 +2,16 @@ package com.correx.core.journal.model
 
 import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
 
-enum class DecisionKind { INTENT, STEERING, PREEMPT, APPROVAL, TRANSITION, RETRY, FAILURE, ARTIFACT }
+enum class Salience { HIGH, LOW }
+
+enum class DecisionKind {
+    INTENT, STEERING, PREEMPT, APPROVAL, TRANSITION, RETRY, FAILURE, ARTIFACT;
+
+    fun salience(): Salience = when (this) {
+        INTENT, STEERING, PREEMPT, APPROVAL, FAILURE -> Salience.HIGH
+        TRANSITION, RETRY, ARTIFACT -> Salience.LOW
+    }
+}
 
 /**
  * One distilled decision. [sequence] is the source event's sessionSequence, used for
diff --git a/core/journal/src/test/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionKindSalienceTest.kt b/core/journal/src/test/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionKindSalienceTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..52ebceef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/journal/src/test/kotlin/com/correx/core/journal/model/DecisionKindSalienceTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+package com.correx.core.journal.model
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
+
+class DecisionKindSalienceTest {
+    @Test
+    fun `HIGH kinds cover intent steering preempt approval failure`() {
+        listOf(DecisionKind.INTENT, DecisionKind.STEERING, DecisionKind.PREEMPT,
+            DecisionKind.APPROVAL, DecisionKind.FAILURE)
+            .forEach { assertEquals(Salience.HIGH, it.salience(), "$it should be HIGH") }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `LOW kinds cover transition retry artifact`() {
+        listOf(DecisionKind.TRANSITION, DecisionKind.RETRY, DecisionKind.ARTIFACT)
+            .forEach { assertEquals(Salience.LOW, it.salience(), "$it should be LOW") }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `salience is exhaustive over all DecisionKind entries`() {
+        DecisionKind.entries.forEach { it.salience() }
+    }
+}