diff --git a/src/components/playground/AutopsyPanel.tsx b/src/components/playground/AutopsyPanel.tsx
index 919d8cb..3d526f2 100644
--- a/src/components/playground/AutopsyPanel.tsx
+++ b/src/components/playground/AutopsyPanel.tsx
@@ -119,6 +119,19 @@ export default function AutopsyPanel({
             </button>
           </div>
         </div>
+      ) : session.metrics.length === 0 ? (
+        <div className="pg-verdict">
+          <div className="pg-verdict__main">
+            <strong>—</strong>
+            <div>
+              <span className="pg-verdict__file">runtime monitor waiting</span>
+              <span className="pg-verdict__kind">
+                0 samples yet — the engine cannot judge curves it has not seen.
+                Point the recorder at your app (--app-url) so health samples arrive.
+              </span>
+            </div>
+          </div>
+        </div>
       ) : (
         <div className="pg-verdict">
           <div className="pg-verdict__main">
diff --git a/src/components/playground/city.ts b/src/components/playground/city.ts
index 696b249..f48e112 100644
--- a/src/components/playground/city.ts
+++ b/src/components/playground/city.ts
@@ -243,7 +243,10 @@ export function buildPlaygroundCity(
     );
   });
 
-  // Ambient district blocks keep the city legible without inventing file facts.
+  // Ambient district blocks keep the demo city legible without inventing file
+  // facts. Live recordings never get filler: their skyline is exactly the set
+  // of files the session actually touched — zero files = an honest empty city.
+  if (!isLive) {
   const ambientCount = 44;
   for (let i = 0; i < ambientCount; i += 1) {
     let guard = 0;
@@ -273,6 +276,7 @@ export function buildPlaygroundCity(
       z,
     );
   }
+  }
 
   return towers;
 }