diff --git a/aimdb-sync/CHANGELOG.md b/aimdb-sync/CHANGELOG.md
index c35eebd7..d3b285ae 100644
--- a/aimdb-sync/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/aimdb-sync/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -86,10 +86,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   publish path is one relaxed atomic load, and a program that never attaches
   never installs a handler. A database the child attaches *itself* after
   forking is unaffected — the guard is a generation counter, not a poison flag.
-  The detection is entirely internal: a facade built on this crate will have the
-  same problem for the same reason, but none exists yet, so exposing the
-  stamp-and-compare pair would commit the crate in semver to a model chosen
-  against no real caller.
+  The detection itself stays internal: a facade asks `SyncProducer::check()`
+  rather than the generation counter, so the semver commitment is to the
+  question and not to the mechanism.
 - **A panic-freedom contract on the blocking surface.** The crate is compiled
   under `deny(clippy::unwrap_used, clippy::expect_used, clippy::panic)` outside
   its own tests, so "a panic here is a bug, not an error channel" is checked
@@ -100,6 +99,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   process dying. Documented with its two limits: `block_on` still panics if
   called from inside a Tokio runtime, and the guarantee stops at this crate's
   edge.
+- **`SyncProducer::check()`.** Answers "can a publish through this producer
+  still reach the database?" without publishing — `Ok(())`, or
+  `RuntimeShutdown` / `ForkedChild`. It is the check `set()` already performs,
+  exposed rather than duplicated, so the answer cannot drift from what a publish
+  would find. It takes no lock, which is what makes it usable from a facade
+  whose own teardown holds the lock its `AimDbHandle` sits behind.
 - **`SyncError::kind()`.** Returns `aimdb_core::DbErrorKind` rather than a kind
   of its own, so a caller — an FFI layer above all — has one set of actions for
   the whole stack instead of one per crate. The `Db` arm delegates, so a buffer
diff --git a/aimdb-sync/src/fork.rs b/aimdb-sync/src/fork.rs
index 47381f2a..552feced 100644
--- a/aimdb-sync/src/fork.rs
+++ b/aimdb-sync/src/fork.rs
@@ -76,11 +76,11 @@ fn load() -> Generation {
 
 /// The generation to stamp on something being created now.
 ///
-/// Crate-private for now. A layer built *on* this crate has the same problem —
-/// an FFI door holds state of its own that a `fork` invalidates — but no such
-/// layer exists yet, and exposing this would commit us in semver to the
-/// stamp-and-compare model. Widen it when something real needs it, so the
-/// shape can be chosen against that caller rather than guessed at.
+/// Crate-private, and staying that way. A layer built *on* this crate has the
+/// same problem, and is served by
+/// [`SyncProducer::check`](crate::SyncProducer::check) — the question it
+/// actually has ("can I still publish?"), rather than the stamp-and-compare
+/// mechanism, which publishing this pair would pin us to in semver.
 ///
 /// **Arms the handler**, because otherwise it hands out a number that cannot
 /// change. A caller above this crate stamps its own state before any database
diff --git a/aimdb-sync/src/producer.rs b/aimdb-sync/src/producer.rs
index db96d928..41983f1f 100644
--- a/aimdb-sync/src/producer.rs
+++ b/aimdb-sync/src/producer.rs
@@ -94,6 +94,21 @@ where
         self.rt.upgrade().ok_or(SyncError::RuntimeShutdown)
     }
 
+    /// Whether a publish through this producer can still reach the database.
+    ///
+    /// `Ok(())` means [`set`](Self::set) reaches the record graph — not that it
+    /// succeeds; an unregistered key still fails there. Otherwise
+    /// [`SyncError::RuntimeShutdown`] or [`SyncError::ForkedChild`].
+    ///
+    /// This is the check [`set`](Self::set) performs, not a second one beside
+    /// it, so the answer cannot drift from what a publish would find. It takes
+    /// no lock — a [`Weak`] upgrade and one relaxed atomic load — so a facade
+    /// can ask it while its own teardown holds the handle's lock.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn check(&self) -> SyncResult<()> {
+        self.runtime()?.check()
+    }
+
     /// Set the value, blocking until it can be sent.
     ///
     /// This call will block the current thread until the value can be sent to the runtime thread.
diff --git a/aimdb-sync/tests/fork_safety_test.rs b/aimdb-sync/tests/fork_safety_test.rs
index 7c4c0e68..80910480 100644
--- a/aimdb-sync/tests/fork_safety_test.rs
+++ b/aimdb-sync/tests/fork_safety_test.rs
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ fn a_forked_child_is_refused_rather_than_silently_dropped() {
             inherited.try_set(Reading { value: 2 }),
             Err(SyncError::ForkedChild)
         );
+        // The same refusal, asked rather than provoked: `check()` has to agree
+        // with the two publishes above.
+        let check_agrees = matches!(inherited.check(), Err(SyncError::ForkedChild));
         // Leak rather than free. The child is about to `_exit`, which reclaims
         // everything anyway, and `free` is the unsafe act here: it takes the
         // allocator lock, which a thread that did not survive the fork may have
@@ -64,7 +67,7 @@ fn a_forked_child_is_refused_rather_than_silently_dropped() {
         // the destructor, so there is nothing to lose by not running it.
         std::mem::forget(inherited);
 
-        refused && refused_try
+        refused && refused_try && check_agrees
     });
     assert_eq!(code, 0, "the child's publishes should have been refused");
 
diff --git a/aimdb-sync/tests/integration_test.rs b/aimdb-sync/tests/integration_test.rs
index 67ae3b23..c960e8e2 100644
--- a/aimdb-sync/tests/integration_test.rs
+++ b/aimdb-sync/tests/integration_test.rs
@@ -246,6 +246,23 @@ fn test_runtime_shutdown_error() {
     assert!(matches!(result, Err(SyncError::RuntimeShutdown)));
 }
 
+/// `check()` answers the same question `set()` does, without publishing.
+#[test]
+fn check_reports_what_a_publish_would_find() {
+    let (handle, producer, _consumer) = setup(BufferCfg::SpmcRing { capacity: 10 });
+
+    producer.check().expect("usable while attached");
+
+    handle.detach().expect("Failed to detach");
+
+    // The same verdict `set()` reaches, arrived at without sending anything.
+    assert!(matches!(producer.check(), Err(SyncError::RuntimeShutdown)));
+    assert!(matches!(
+        producer.set(test_value()),
+        Err(SyncError::RuntimeShutdown)
+    ));
+}
+
 /// Test error handling - runtime shutdown, non-blocking operations
 #[test]
 fn test_runtime_shutdown_error_non_blocking() {