diff --git a/docs/integrations/pkg-promptkit.md b/docs/integrations/pkg-promptkit.md
index ff34e8a..23647d0 100644
--- a/docs/integrations/pkg-promptkit.md
+++ b/docs/integrations/pkg-promptkit.md
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ Notarius relies on the root `promptkit` package to:
 - return rendered debug material, validated structured output, selected
   profile, backend, effective model metadata, and token usage;
 - distinguish structured-output validation failure from execution failure; and
-- identify a missing explicit profile through `ErrProfileNotFound`.
+- identify a missing explicit profile through `ErrProfileNotFound` and backend
+  admission exhaustion through `ErrCapacityExceeded`.
 
 Notarius does not use PromptKit's optional `ArtifactReader`. It materializes
 source and reference content itself and supplies owned inline artifacts at the
@@ -40,6 +41,13 @@ PromptKit's stable lower-case `effective_model_params` JSON, which may include
 `backend_id`. Notarius production configuration does not expose user-defined
 PromptKit backend registration.
 
+Notarius retains its application-wide scheduled client around the PromptKit
+adapter. PromptKit may apply a narrower limit for the selected backend;
+endpoint-only profiles have no such backend limit. The adapter translates
+PromptKit capacity rejection into the provider-neutral Notarius
+`ErrLLMCapacityExceeded` contract and leaves retries to the calling pipeline
+stage.
+
 ## Notarius Ownership
 
 [LLM Runtime Internals](../internal/llm.md) describes how Notarius mounts
diff --git a/docs/internal/llm.md b/docs/internal/llm.md
index d181c14..72c7dde 100644
--- a/docs/internal/llm.md
+++ b/docs/internal/llm.md
@@ -81,6 +81,13 @@ worker counts cannot exceed the configured LLM limit. The configuration field
 and its effective default are owned by
 [Configuration](../config.md#concurrency-output-cache-and-debug).
 
+PromptKit applies a second, independent admission limit when the selected
+profile names a limited backend. It sits beneath the Notarius scheduled client,
+so it may narrow but cannot expand the application-wide limit. Built-in
+OpenRouter profiles select PromptKit's reserved backend and its upstream
+capacity policy. Endpoint-only profiles do not select a PromptKit backend and
+remain limited only by the Notarius scheduler.
+
 ## Prompt And Schema Assets
 
 An `AssetRegistry` collects prompt and schema filesystems from production module
@@ -132,6 +139,14 @@ failure, empty structured body, or decode failure as
 material when they exist. Provider failures remain operational errors rather
 than output-validation failures.
 
+When PromptKit rejects backend admission before generation, the adapter maps
+`promptkit.ErrCapacityExceeded` to
+`contracts.ErrLLMCapacityExceeded`, retaining prompt context and a redacted
+upstream diagnostic without exposing the PromptKit sentinel as a framework
+contract. A canceled caller context takes precedence. The adapter does not
+retry capacity failures; the pipeline's existing binding attempt policy sees
+the operational error and decides whether to rerun the complete operation.
+
 Prompt-declared repair is executed within PromptKit’s structured-output flow.
 The current production D&D prompt manifests set repair attempts to zero. That
 setting does not replace pipeline retry behavior: a binding’s configured retry
@@ -184,6 +199,8 @@ contents safe for general logging.
   sources, invalid asset registration, or a non-positive scheduler limit.
 - Preparation failures, unavailable explicit profiles, provider failures, and
   context cancellation propagate to the calling stage with context.
+- Backend admission exhaustion is a provider-neutral operational error and is
+  not classified as invalid structured output or validator rejection.
 - Malformed or schema-invalid provider output is classified separately as
   invalid structured output so the module or pipeline can apply its own retry
   and rejection policy.
diff --git a/docs/operations.md b/docs/operations.md
index 077b62a..4709378 100644
--- a/docs/operations.md
+++ b/docs/operations.md
@@ -217,9 +217,9 @@ Provider execution settings and the generation timeout come from the selected
 PromptKit profile. The invocation-only **--reasoning-effort** and
 **--clear-reasoning-effort** controls may replace or clear that profile setting
 for all LLM-backed calls in one run without changing the profile. PromptKit
-v0.2.0 does not add a provider retry loop;
-Notarius binding retries rerun the complete module operation and validation
-chain as defined by [module bindings](config.md#module-bindings-and-validators).
+v0.2.0 does not add a provider retry loop. Notarius binding retries rerun the
+complete module operation and validation chain as defined by
+[module bindings](config.md#module-bindings-and-validators).
 
 Timeouts are layered. Caller cancellation is the outer authority. A positive
 effective generation timeout adds an inner request deadline, while zero
@@ -228,7 +228,19 @@ transport-wide cap. Notarius does not add another timeout around PromptKit.
 The pinned upstream boundary and profile-format links are in
 [PromptKit Integration](integrations/pkg-promptkit.md).
 
-Concurrency limits are configuration contracts; see
+Concurrency has two independent layers. Notarius **total_llm** is the
+application-wide provider-call limit shared by all backends, modules, retries,
+and validators. PromptKit may impose a narrower admission limit for the
+selected backend. The effective active-generation bound is the intersection of
+both limits and can therefore be lower than **total_llm**. Built-in OpenRouter
+profiles use PromptKit's upstream backend limit; endpoint-only profiles have no
+PromptKit backend limit and remain bounded by Notarius.
+
+When a PromptKit backend has admitted all active and queued work, a new call
+fails as capacity exhaustion before generation. The adapter does not retry it.
+The calling stage's configured retry policy applies normally, and the run fails
+if those attempts are exhausted. Caller cancellation remains authoritative.
+Configuration contracts are documented under
 [concurrency](config.md#concurrency-output-cache-and-debug). Extract-worker
 limits and actual provider-call limits are independent. Notarius writes local
 filesystem state only; remote storage, archival, and retention automation are
diff --git a/docs/policy/architecture.md b/docs/policy/architecture.md
index d7f177d..22b8ae2 100644
--- a/docs/policy/architecture.md
+++ b/docs/policy/architecture.md
@@ -177,7 +177,8 @@ individual modules.
 The application-wide LLM scheduler bounds actual provider calls independently
 of framework worker limits. Every LLM-backed module, retry, and validator uses
 the single injected scheduled client, including work performed by overlapping
-lanes.
+lanes. Provider runtime adapters may enforce a narrower backend-specific limit
+beneath this mandatory application-wide scheduler.
 
 ## Configuration And Provenance
 
diff --git a/internal/framework/contracts/errors.go b/internal/framework/contracts/errors.go
index 218641a..a2bc276 100644
--- a/internal/framework/contracts/errors.go
+++ b/internal/framework/contracts/errors.go
@@ -5,3 +5,7 @@ import "errors"
 // ErrInvalidStructuredOutput identifies a provider response that cannot satisfy
 // the caller's declared structured-output contract.
 var ErrInvalidStructuredOutput = errors.New("invalid structured output")
+
+// ErrLLMCapacityExceeded identifies backend admission exhaustion before model
+// generation begins.
+var ErrLLMCapacityExceeded = errors.New("LLM capacity exceeded")
diff --git a/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client.go b/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client.go
index c712ee9..33c935f 100644
--- a/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client.go
+++ b/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package llm
 import (
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"regexp"
@@ -131,6 +132,14 @@ func (c *PromptKitClient) CompleteStructured(ctx context.Context, req contracts.
 		if ctxErr := ctx.Err(); ctxErr != nil {
 			return contracts.StructuredCompletionResponse{}, ctxErr
 		}
+		if errors.Is(err, promptkit.ErrCapacityExceeded) {
+			return contracts.StructuredCompletionResponse{}, fmt.Errorf(
+				"run PromptKit prompt %q: %w: %v",
+				promptID,
+				contracts.ErrLLMCapacityExceeded,
+				redactPromptKitError(err),
+			)
+		}
 		return contracts.StructuredCompletionResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("run PromptKit prompt %q: %w", promptID, redactPromptKitError(err))
 	}
 	if result == nil {
diff --git a/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client_test.go b/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client_test.go
index f2dc017..d388409 100644
--- a/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client_test.go
+++ b/internal/framework/llm/promptkit_client_test.go
@@ -429,6 +429,89 @@ func TestPromptKitClientProviderFailureIncludesContextAndRedactsBearerToken(t *t
 	}
 }
 
+func TestPromptKitClientTranslatesBackendCapacityExhaustion(t *testing.T) {
+	queueCapacity := 0
+	fake := &fakePromptKitLLM{
+		err:   errors.New("provider failed with Bearer secret-token"),
+		block: make(chan struct{}),
+	}
+	client, err := NewPromptKitClient(PromptKitClientConfig{
+		Assets: newTestPromptKitAssets(t),
+		EngineOptions: []promptkit.Option{
+			promptkit.WithBackend(promptkit.Backend{
+				ID:               "limited-backend",
+				Endpoint:         "http://127.0.0.1:1/v1",
+				ConcurrencyLimit: 1,
+				QueueCapacity:    &queueCapacity,
+			}),
+			promptkit.WithProfiles(promptkit.OpenAICompatibleProfile(promptkit.OpenAICompatibleProfileConfig{
+				ID:        "limited-profile",
+				BackendID: "limited-backend",
+				Model:     "limited-model",
+			})),
+			promptkit.WithLLMClient(fake),
+		},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewPromptKitClient() error = %v, want nil", err)
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		select {
+		case <-fake.block:
+		default:
+			close(fake.block)
+		}
+	}()
+
+	request := contracts.StructuredCompletionRequest{
+		PromptID:  "adapter.direct-session",
+		ProfileID: "limited-profile",
+		Inputs: contracts.LLMInputSet{
+			"transcript": contracts.NewLLMInputMaterial("transcript", "application/json", []byte(`{"source":true}`), "", ""),
+		},
+		Vars: map[string]any{"custom": "value"},
+	}
+	firstResult := make(chan error, 1)
+	go func() {
+		var out map[string]any
+		_, callErr := client.CompleteStructured(context.Background(), request, &out)
+		firstResult <- callErr
+	}()
+	waitForAtomicAtLeast(t, &fake.calls, 1)
+
+	var out map[string]any
+	response, capacityErr := client.CompleteStructured(context.Background(), request, &out)
+	if len(response.Content) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("capacity response = %#v, want empty", response)
+	}
+	if !errors.Is(capacityErr, contracts.ErrLLMCapacityExceeded) {
+		t.Fatalf("capacity error = %v, want ErrLLMCapacityExceeded", capacityErr)
+	}
+	if errors.Is(capacityErr, contracts.ErrInvalidStructuredOutput) {
+		t.Fatalf("capacity error = %v, must not be invalid structured output", capacityErr)
+	}
+	if errors.Is(capacityErr, promptkit.ErrCapacityExceeded) {
+		t.Fatalf("capacity error exposes PromptKit sentinel: %v", capacityErr)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(capacityErr.Error(), `run PromptKit prompt "adapter.direct-session"`) ||
+		!strings.Contains(capacityErr.Error(), "backend capacity exceeded") {
+		t.Fatalf("capacity error = %q, want prompt context and upstream diagnostic", capacityErr)
+	}
+	if calls := atomic.LoadInt32(&fake.calls); calls != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("provider calls after capacity rejection = %d, want 1", calls)
+	}
+
+	close(fake.block)
+	firstErr := <-firstResult
+	if firstErr == nil || strings.Contains(firstErr.Error(), "secret-token") ||
+		!strings.Contains(firstErr.Error(), "Bearer [REDACTED]") {
+		t.Fatalf("admitted provider error = %v, want redacted diagnostic", firstErr)
+	}
+	if calls := atomic.LoadInt32(&fake.calls); calls != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("provider calls after release = %d, want no adapter retry", calls)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestPromptKitClientContextCancellationIsRespected(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
 	cancel()