diff --git a/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.test.ts b/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.test.ts
index 51041fd40b..bdac324b4f 100644
--- a/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.test.ts
+++ b/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.test.ts
@@ -1077,6 +1077,61 @@ describe("browser scenario comparison validation", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  const duplicateLastStepCapture = () => {
+    const base = scenarioCapture({});
+    return {
+      ...base,
+      scenario: { ...base.scenario, action_count: 2 },
+      steps: [...base.steps, { ...base.steps[1]!, step_index: 2 }],
+    };
+  };
+
+  it("keeps a duplicated step id unaligned without classifying it as absent", () => {
+    const compared = compareBrowserScenarios(
+      compareBrowserScenariosInputSchema.parse({
+        before_scenario: duplicateLastStepCapture(),
+        after_scenario: scenarioCapture({}),
+      }),
+    );
+
+    expect(compared.overall_status).toBe("unknown");
+    expect(compared.alignment).toMatchObject({
+      status: "partial",
+      aligned_steps: 1,
+      before_only: [],
+      after_only: [],
+      failures: [
+        expect.objectContaining({
+          code: "duplicate_before_step_id",
+          step_id: "open-settings",
+        }),
+      ],
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("mirrors the duplicate classification when the later capture repeats the id", () => {
+    const compared = compareBrowserScenarios(
+      compareBrowserScenariosInputSchema.parse({
+        before_scenario: scenarioCapture({}),
+        after_scenario: duplicateLastStepCapture(),
+      }),
+    );
+
+    expect(compared.overall_status).toBe("unknown");
+    expect(compared.alignment).toMatchObject({
+      status: "partial",
+      aligned_steps: 1,
+      before_only: [],
+      after_only: [],
+      failures: [
+        expect.objectContaining({
+          code: "duplicate_after_step_id",
+          step_id: "open-settings",
+        }),
+      ],
+    });
+  });
+
   it("rejects duplicate normalization rule IDs", () => {
     const capture = scenarioCapture({});
     expect(
diff --git a/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.ts b/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.ts
index e74255567f..c53184c150 100644
--- a/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.ts
+++ b/src/domain/browserScenarioDiff.ts
@@ -151,11 +151,14 @@ const alignScenarioSteps = (
   const afterDuplicates = duplicateStepIds(afterCapture.steps);
   const before = uniqueSteps(beforeCapture.steps, beforeDuplicates);
   const after = uniqueSteps(afterCapture.steps, afterDuplicates);
+  // A duplicated step_id keeps its ambiguous presence on that side: it stays
+  // ineligible for alignment, but its counterpart capture must not classify
+  // the id as absent when the duplicate side still retains it.
   const beforeOnly = [...before.keys()]
-    .filter((stepId) => !after.has(stepId))
+    .filter((stepId) => !after.has(stepId) && !afterDuplicates.has(stepId))
     .sort();
   const afterOnly = [...after.keys()]
-    .filter((stepId) => !before.has(stepId))
+    .filter((stepId) => !before.has(stepId) && !beforeDuplicates.has(stepId))
     .sort();
   const failures: BrowserScenarioAlignmentFailure[] = [
     ...duplicateFailures("before", beforeDuplicates),