diff --git a/compiler/bnode.nim b/compiler/bnode.nim
index f8884d51cc..613ac1e8d0 100644
--- a/compiler/bnode.nim
+++ b/compiler/bnode.nim
@@ -147,8 +147,37 @@
 ##   the whole Atlas build 22.19s -> 20.47s. Doing it CORRECTLY means populating
 ##   the table lazily on first `interfSelect(true)` rather than deciding
 ##   up front — a macro-generated `{.all.}` import cannot be seen syntactically,
-##   and guessing wrong loses symbols silently. `loaderCtx` is the hook: the
-##   module index is still in the DecodeContext after loading.
+##   and guessing wrong loses symbols silently.
+##
+##   That lazy conversion has been ATTEMPTED and does not work as a
+##   substitution. The shape is easy: `modulegraphs` already imports `ast2nif`
+##   (the dependency runs that way, so no callback hook is needed), every read of
+##   `interfHidden` goes through `interfSelect`, and its 4 call sites all have
+##   the graph and the module to hand. It builds and it keeps privacy — a plain
+##   `import` still rejects a private symbol under both `--ic:on` and
+##   `--ic:off` — but `import x {.all.}` then fails under `--ic:on` with
+##   "undeclared identifier", where it works today and works under `--ic:off`.
+##   The failure is silent and it is entangled with the driver's discovery loop:
+##   the module is not in `DecodeContext.mods` at the point the lookup asks, on
+##   a COLD cache and on a warm one.
+##
+##   Three fixes were tried and none of them is it, recorded so nobody
+##   re-guesses them:
+##     * clearing `hiddenPending` only when the build SUCCEEDS, so an import
+##       whose `.s.bif` does not exist yet is retried rather than written off.
+##       Necessary — one early miss otherwise costs the module its hidden
+##       symbols for the whole process — but not sufficient.
+##     * loading the module inside the lazy builder (`moduleId` is idempotent)
+##       instead of assuming the caller already did.
+##     * building into a LOCAL `TStrTable` and assigning it back, in case the
+##       `var` alias into `g.ifaces` was being invalidated by the seq growing
+##       during the load.
+##   After all three, `ensureHiddenIface` still reports the module missing from
+##   `DecodeContext.mods` on every one of its 19 calls. Whatever populates
+##   `hiddenPending` and whatever populates `c.mods` are not agreeing about
+##   which module they mean, and that is where the next attempt should start —
+##   with `moduleId`'s FileIndex against `moduleFromNifFile`'s, instrumented at
+##   both ends, before any more of the mechanism is written.
 ## * `-d:icBridgeOnly` builds the buffer but generates off the tree, which
 ##   separates the ENCODER's cost from the READER's. Encoding is free — it does
 ##   not show in wall time at all.