diff --git a/skills/exe-reverse/references/iat-virtualization-and-call-site-rewriting.md b/skills/exe-reverse/references/iat-virtualization-and-call-site-rewriting.md
index 0e53415..36f7e91 100644
--- a/skills/exe-reverse/references/iat-virtualization-and-call-site-rewriting.md
+++ b/skills/exe-reverse/references/iat-virtualization-and-call-site-rewriting.md
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@ were counted over.
    — and record which one you used.
 2. **Inventory the slots.** Three sources, in descending order of trust: the import descriptors if
    they survived, the import address table directory's range if it did, and the addresses that a
-   write watch reported. Say which source the inventory came from; they do not always agree.
+   write watch reported. Say which source the inventory came from; they do not always agree. An
+   inventory that came back empty is a finding about this run, not a table that holds no addresses:
+   it means the range has to be supplied or rebuilt before any pairing is possible.
 3. **Pair a site to a slot by value.** The site's target address equals the slot's value. This is
    the whole pairing rule, and it is also the mechanism an open-source unpacker's fixup routine
    implements (`observed` in that source: it reads the target from the relative call, looks it up in
diff --git a/skills/exe-reverse/scripts/iat_callsite_restore.py b/skills/exe-reverse/scripts/iat_callsite_restore.py
index b500355..5773258 100644
--- a/skills/exe-reverse/scripts/iat_callsite_restore.py
+++ b/skills/exe-reverse/scripts/iat_callsite_restore.py
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ Usage:
     python iat_callsite_restore.py dumped.exe --base 0x2B0000 --iat 0x48D000,0x1000
     python iat_callsite_restore.py dumped.exe --json --full-out report.json
 
-Exit codes: 0 = the analysis completed and no site was refused (result clean, needs-trace,
-report-only or repaired), 1 = at least one site was refused or a rewrite failed verification,
-2 = usage error, 3 = the input is not a parseable PE.
+Exit codes: 0 = the analysis completed and no site was refused (result no-pairs, needs-trace,
+report-only or repaired), 1 = at least one site was refused, a rewrite failed verification, or the
+run had no slot values to pair against, 2 = usage error, 3 = the input is not a parseable PE.
 """
 import argparse
 import hashlib
@@ -367,6 +367,11 @@ def decide_result(report, wrote):
         return 'incomplete'
     if report['pairs']:
         return 'repaired' if wrote else 'report-only'
+    if not report['iat']['slots']:
+        # No slot values at all is not evidence that the table is untouched: it is evidence that
+        # this run has nothing to pair against. Reporting that as needs-trace sends the reader to
+        # write a trace they do not need, which is the same misdiagnosis in a different direction.
+        return 'no-slots'
     if report['unpaired']:
         return 'needs-trace'
     return 'no-pairs'
@@ -420,6 +425,10 @@ def print_report(report, max_sites):
         out.write('next     each refusal is a decision for a person: a site with no filler byte is a '
                   'structural edit, and an ambiguous slot needs the trace that says which slot the '
                   'call actually used\n')
+    elif report['result'] == 'no-slots':
+        out.write('next     this run has no slot values to pair against: pass --iat RVA,SIZE with '
+                  'the table range, or reconstruct the table first. Without it the sites below are '
+                  'calls whose target nothing in this image holds\n')
     elif report['result'] == 'needs-trace':
         out.write('next     either the table does not hold these targets, or the base is not the '
                   'one the image ran at -- check --base first, because a wrong base produces the '
@@ -518,7 +527,7 @@ def main():
         if args.full_out:
             sys.stdout.write('full record %s\n' % args.full_out)
 
-    return 1 if report['result'] == 'incomplete' else 0
+    return 1 if report['result'] in ('incomplete', 'no-slots') else 0
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_iat_callsite_restore.py b/tests/unit/test_iat_callsite_restore.py
index 74e27d8..b38ae3e 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_iat_callsite_restore.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_iat_callsite_restore.py
@@ -155,9 +155,24 @@ def test_a_clean_image_reports_no_pairs(load_script, fixtures):
     assert mod.decide_result(report, wrote=False) == "no-pairs"
 
 
+def test_no_slot_values_is_its_own_verdict(load_script):
+    """A run with nothing to pair against must not send the reader to write a trace.
+
+    Both causes -- a table that holds handles, and a table this run never found -- produce the same
+    empty pair list. The first needs a trace; the second needs --iat. Collapsing them into one token
+    was the first version of this rule.
+    """
+    mod = load_script("iat_callsite_restore.py")
+    with_no_slots = {"pairs": [], "refused": [], "unpaired": [1], "iat": {"slots": 0, "classes": {}}}
+    assert mod.decide_result(with_no_slots, wrote=False) == "no-slots"
+    with_slots = {"pairs": [], "refused": [], "unpaired": [1],
+                  "iat": {"slots": 4, "classes": {}}}
+    assert mod.decide_result(with_slots, wrote=False) == "needs-trace"
+
+
 def test_result_tokens_follow_the_evidence(load_script):
     mod = load_script("iat_callsite_restore.py")
-    base = {"pairs": [], "refused": [], "unpaired": [], "iat": {"classes": {}}}
+    base = {"pairs": [], "refused": [], "unpaired": [], "iat": {"slots": 4, "classes": {}}}
     assert mod.decide_result(dict(base), wrote=False) == "no-pairs"
     assert mod.decide_result(dict(base, pairs=[1]), wrote=False) == "report-only"
     assert mod.decide_result(dict(base, pairs=[1]), wrote=True) == "repaired"