diff --git a/frontend/src/app/api/consult/route.ts b/frontend/src/app/api/consult/route.ts
index b5c1519c..d39fa8b0 100644
--- a/frontend/src/app/api/consult/route.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/app/api/consult/route.ts
@@ -135,9 +135,10 @@ function mergeUsage(usages: Promise<Usage>[]): Promise<Usage> {
 }
 
 function shouldUseAgenticRuntime(user: { id: string; app_metadata?: Record<string, unknown> }) {
-  const mode = process.env.CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_RUNTIME?.trim().toLowerCase() ?? "legacy";
+  const mode = process.env.CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_RUNTIME?.trim().toLowerCase() ?? "enabled";
+  if (mode === "legacy") return false;
   if (mode === "enabled") return true;
-  if (mode !== "canary") return false;
+  if (mode !== "canary") return true;
   const ids = new Set((process.env.CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_CANARY_USER_IDS ?? "")
     .split(",").map((value) => value.trim()).filter(Boolean));
   const roles = Array.isArray(user.app_metadata?.roles) ? user.app_metadata.roles : [];
diff --git a/frontend/tests/consultation-workflow-contract.test.ts b/frontend/tests/consultation-workflow-contract.test.ts
index bafa6f90..f97b3267 100644
--- a/frontend/tests/consultation-workflow-contract.test.ts
+++ b/frontend/tests/consultation-workflow-contract.test.ts
@@ -65,9 +65,9 @@ test("projects consultation themes through explicit strict workflow taxonomy", (
 });
 
 
-test("staging enables the agentic consultation runtime without changing production compose", () => {
+test("agentic consultation is the safe default and legacy is explicit rollback", () => {
   assert.match(stagingCompose, /CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_RUNTIME: enabled/);
-  assert.match(route, /CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_RUNTIME/);
-  assert.match(route, /legacy/);
-  assert.match(route, /canary/);
+  assert.match(route, /CONSULTATION_AGENTIC_RUNTIME\?\.trim\(\)\.toLowerCase\(\) \?\? "enabled"/);
+  assert.match(route, /mode === "legacy"/);
+  assert.match(route, /mode !== "canary"/);
 });