diff --git a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/SKILL.md b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/SKILL.md
index c157a8dcb..9875bbb16 100644
--- a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/SKILL.md
+++ b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/SKILL.md
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ Skip when:
 |-----------|----------|
 | **Scope** | Inferred — current branch's spec, the umbrella the user named, or the open issues just surveyed. |
 | **Granularity** | Spec-level; drop to sub-issue / PR level for an umbrella that has fanned out. |
-| **Output** | High-DPI PNG (only target). `--out <path>` is required; emoji status indicators are on by default and can be turned off with `--emoji=off` if the rendering system lacks a color emoji font. |
+| **Output** | High-DPI PNG (only target). `--out <path>` is required; emoji status indicators are on by default and can be turned off with `--emoji=off` if the rendering system lacks a color emoji font. Wide ranks (many siblings sharing a successor) are staggered across multiple chains by default via graphviz `unflatten`; tune with `--stagger N` (default 5; 0 disables). |
 
 ## Workflow
 
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ SCRIPT=.claude/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.py   # project install
 
 # emoji off — falls back to ✓ / … text markers in node labels
 "$SCRIPT" /tmp/plan.json --out /tmp/plan-dag.png --emoji=off
+
+# stagger off — accept the raw `dot` layout (one rank can be 10+ nodes wide)
+"$SCRIPT" /tmp/plan.json --out /tmp/plan-dag.png --stagger=0
 ```
 
 The renderer needs `dot` (graphviz; `apt install graphviz` / `brew install graphviz`) on PATH for the SVG layout step, and `node` (≥18) + Playwright Chromium (`npm i -g playwright && npx playwright install chromium`) for the rasterisation step. Both checks run upfront and fail loudly with install guidance — there is no silent fallback to text or ASCII, by design (the formats removed had limitations the PNG output exists to avoid).
@@ -147,7 +150,7 @@ If the renderer aborts with `IR validation failed`, fix the IR — do not work a
 - Send the PNG via `SendUserFile` so it renders inline as part of the assistant message.
 - Add prose commentary below the file — critical path, next pickable node, sequencing rationale. The PNG carries the topology; the prose carries the recommendation.
 - Do **not** re-render the same plan in another format and attach both — one DAG per response.
-- For very wide graphs (>10 nodes with cross-edges) where the single PNG becomes unwieldy, split the plan into per-track DAGs (one renderer call per track) and render the cross-edges as a final short prose list, per the existing "Cross-edges" convention in §3.
+- The renderer already shrinks wide layouts (siblings that all flow into CLOSE, or fan-out from a hub) by piping DOT through `unflatten -f -l 5`, trading height for width. For *truly* wide graphs (>10 nodes with many cross-edges) where even the staggered PNG is still unwieldy, split the plan into per-track DAGs (one renderer call per track) and render the cross-edges as a final short prose list, per the existing "Cross-edges" convention in §3.
 
 ## Conventions
 
diff --git a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.py b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.py
index 8f978710c..2b6fab16b 100755
--- a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.py
+++ b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.py
@@ -264,14 +264,42 @@ def render_dot(ir, emoji=True):
     return "\n".join(lines)
 
 
-def _dot_to_svg(ir, emoji=True):
+def _unflatten_dot(dot_src, stagger):
+    """Stagger wide ranks across multiple levels via graphviz `unflatten`.
+
+    `unflatten -f -l N` adds invisible edges so siblings that share a
+    successor (typical for many specs all flowing into CLOSE) get pushed
+    onto chains up to N deep, trading height for width. Without it, a plan
+    with N parallel sub-issues renders as one rank N nodes wide — readable
+    at N=3 but a horizontal scroll bar by N=8.
+
+    `stagger=0` disables. If `unflatten` is missing from PATH (older or
+    stripped graphviz), fall through to the original DOT — the diagram
+    still renders, just wider.
+    """
+    if stagger <= 0 or shutil.which("unflatten") is None:
+        return dot_src
+    try:
+        res = subprocess.run(
+            ["unflatten", "-f", "-l", str(stagger)],
+            input=dot_src, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=5,
+            encoding="utf-8",
+        )
+    except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
+        return dot_src
+    if res.returncode != 0 or not res.stdout.strip():
+        return dot_src
+    return res.stdout
+
+
+def _dot_to_svg(ir, emoji=True, stagger=5):
     """Run `dot -Tsvg` on the styled DOT for this IR. Returns SVG source."""
     if shutil.which("dot") is None:
         sys.exit(
             "plan-dag-render requires `dot` (graphviz) on PATH. "
             "Install: apt install graphviz, or brew install graphviz."
         )
-    dot_src = render_dot(ir, emoji=emoji)
+    dot_src = _unflatten_dot(render_dot(ir, emoji=emoji), stagger)
     try:
         svg_res = subprocess.run(
             ["dot", "-Tsvg"], input=dot_src,
@@ -286,7 +314,7 @@ def _dot_to_svg(ir, emoji=True):
     return svg_res.stdout
 
 
-def render_png(ir, out_path, emoji=True):
+def render_png(ir, out_path, emoji=True, stagger=5):
     """Render the IR as a high-quality PNG.
 
     Pipeline: dot -Tsvg → headless Chromium (via Playwright) → PNG. Going
@@ -296,7 +324,7 @@ def render_png(ir, out_path, emoji=True):
     """
     # _dot_to_svg checks dot first (the upstream tool); after that we need
     # node + Playwright for the rasterisation step.
-    svg = _dot_to_svg(ir, emoji=emoji)
+    svg = _dot_to_svg(ir, emoji=emoji, stagger=stagger)
     if shutil.which("node") is None:
         sys.exit(
             "plan-dag-render requires Node (node ≥18) on PATH for Playwright."
@@ -335,7 +363,17 @@ def main():
              "text markers. Turn off if the rendering system lacks a color "
              "emoji font and you see tofu boxes.",
     )
+    ap.add_argument(
+        "--stagger", type=int, default=5, metavar="N",
+        help="cap the horizontal width of wide ranks by piping DOT through "
+             "graphviz `unflatten -f -l N`. Siblings that share a successor "
+             "get pushed onto chains up to N deep, trading height for width "
+             "so the rendered PNG fits readable aspect ratios. Default 5; "
+             "use 0 to disable and accept the raw `dot` layout (wider).",
+    )
     args = ap.parse_args()
+    if args.stagger < 0:
+        ap.error("--stagger must be >= 0")
 
     text = sys.stdin.read() if args.ir == "-" else Path(args.ir).read_text()
     try:
@@ -350,7 +388,7 @@ def main():
             sys.stderr.write(f"  - {err}\n")
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    render_png(ir, args.out, emoji=(args.emoji == "on"))
+    render_png(ir, args.out, emoji=(args.emoji == "on"), stagger=args.stagger)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.test.sh b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.test.sh
index f24cbe061..6d00aa5c1 100755
--- a/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.test.sh
+++ b/.agents/skills/plan-dag/scripts/plan-dag-render.test.sh
@@ -316,6 +316,77 @@ else
     printf '  FAIL cycle stderr missing: contains a cycle\n'
 fi
 
+echo "--stagger shrinks width of wide-fanout layouts"
+# Build a wide-fanout IR inline (9 siblings → close). With unflatten on PATH,
+# the default --stagger=5 should produce a measurably narrower SVG than
+# --stagger=0 (raw dot). If unflatten isn't available, we expect identical
+# widths — the renderer falls through silently and the test reports "skip".
+wide_ir='{"nodes":[
+  {"id":"n1","label":"a","status":"open"},{"id":"n2","label":"b","status":"open"},
+  {"id":"n3","label":"c","status":"open"},{"id":"n4","label":"d","status":"open"},
+  {"id":"n5","label":"e","status":"open"},{"id":"n6","label":"f","status":"open"},
+  {"id":"n7","label":"g","status":"open"},{"id":"n8","label":"h","status":"open"},
+  {"id":"n9","label":"i","status":"open"}],
+ "edges":[
+  {"from":"n1","to":"close","source":"closes"},{"from":"n2","to":"close","source":"closes"},
+  {"from":"n3","to":"close","source":"closes"},{"from":"n4","to":"close","source":"closes"},
+  {"from":"n5","to":"close","source":"closes"},{"from":"n6","to":"close","source":"closes"},
+  {"from":"n7","to":"close","source":"closes"},{"from":"n8","to":"close","source":"closes"},
+  {"from":"n9","to":"close","source":"closes"}],
+ "close":"300"}'
+if ! command -v unflatten >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    printf '  skip --stagger width comparison (unflatten not on PATH)\n'
+else
+    "$py3" - <<PY > "$tmp/wide.dot" 2>&1
+import importlib.util, json
+spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("pdr", "scripts/plan-dag-render.py")
+mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec); spec.loader.exec_module(mod)
+ir = json.loads('''$wide_ir''')
+print(mod.render_dot(ir, emoji=False))
+PY
+    raw_w=$(dot -Tsvg < "$tmp/wide.dot" | grep -oE 'width="[0-9.]+pt"' | head -1 | grep -oE '[0-9.]+')
+    stag_w=$(unflatten -f -l 5 < "$tmp/wide.dot" | dot -Tsvg | grep -oE 'width="[0-9.]+pt"' | head -1 | grep -oE '[0-9.]+')
+    # awk for float comparison; require >=20% width reduction so we catch a
+    # complete no-op (e.g. unflatten silently fails) but tolerate engine drift.
+    if [ -z "$raw_w" ] || [ -z "$stag_w" ]; then
+        fail=$((fail + 1))
+        printf '  FAIL could not parse SVG widths (raw=%s stag=%s)\n' "$raw_w" "$stag_w"
+    elif awk -v r="$raw_w" -v s="$stag_w" 'BEGIN{ exit !(s < 0.8 * r) }'; then
+        pass=$((pass + 1))
+        printf '  ok  --stagger shrinks width %s → %s pt\n' "$raw_w" "$stag_w"
+    else
+        fail=$((fail + 1))
+        printf '  FAIL --stagger did not measurably shrink width (%s → %s pt)\n' "$raw_w" "$stag_w"
+    fi
+fi
+# --stagger=0 must produce a valid PNG (same shape as the happy-path PNG smoke
+# above): gated on node being on PATH, capture the exit code, treat a
+# Playwright-skip stderr as skip, and fail loudly for anything else.
+if command -v node >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    "$SCRIPT" "$FIX/happy.json" --stagger=0 --out "$tmp/stag0.png" \
+        >/dev/null 2>"$tmp/stag0.err"
+    rc=$?
+    if [ "$rc" -ne 0 ]; then
+        if grep -qE "$png_skip_re" "$tmp/stag0.err"; then
+            printf '  skip --stagger=0 PNG (Playwright/Chromium not available)\n'
+        else
+            fail=$((fail + 1))
+            printf '  FAIL --stagger=0 exited %d\n' "$rc"
+            sed 's/^/    /' < "$tmp/stag0.err"
+        fi
+    elif [ ! -s "$tmp/stag0.png" ]; then
+        fail=$((fail + 1))
+        printf '  FAIL --stagger=0 produced empty output\n'
+    elif ! file "$tmp/stag0.png" 2>/dev/null | grep -q 'PNG image'; then
+        fail=$((fail + 1))
+        printf '  FAIL --stagger=0 output is not a PNG (file: %s)\n' \
+            "$(file "$tmp/stag0.png" 2>/dev/null || echo unknown)"
+    else
+        pass=$((pass + 1))
+        printf '  ok  --stagger=0 renders a PNG\n'
+    fi
+fi
+
 echo "missing dot on PATH (must error, not silently fall back)"
 PATH="" "$py3" "$SCRIPT" "$FIX/happy.json" --out "$tmp/nodot.png" \
     > "$tmp/nodot.out" 2>"$tmp/nodot.err"
diff --git a/skills-lock.json b/skills-lock.json
index a567d0be3..5f55abf61 100644
--- a/skills-lock.json
+++ b/skills-lock.json
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
       "source": "onsager-ai/onsager-skills",
       "sourceType": "github",
       "skillPath": "skills/plan-dag/SKILL.md",
-      "computedHash": "2dfad0d270654877aa3a5d663afcd80e69f8c238af0ccb170991f732075ed692"
+      "computedHash": "6787d3a8369eb736f269fa3acb6ec996af92e0acd98897545ba8059158b7d78f"
     }
   }
 }