Umbrella for the remaining smaller findings from the pre-stable validation pass (all verified against main @ 75ac47d). Larger items are tracked separately: #1477 (response preparation), #1478 (SSE disconnect), #1479 (non-Error throws), #1481 (!val.ok header drop). The double-readBody Node hang is being addressed upstream in srvx.

Response handling

• HEAD body stripping misses the in-place merge path — src/response.ts:129-131: only the fast path (:120) and the immutable-headers catch path (:134) strip HEAD bodies. When prepared headers merge in place into a mutable 2xx Response, the body is returned intact — app.fetch/web-mode/service-worker consumers see a HEAD response with a body (Node strips it at the socket), contradicting the "keep self-consistent" intent at :119.
• kHandled ignores event.res state — src/response.ts:62-63: returns a bare FastResponse(null) before preparedRes is read or kEventRes cleared. A handler that sets event.res.status = 201 + headers then returns kHandled produces a 200 with no headers, and onResponse hooks observe a synthetic 200 that doesn't match what was actually sent. we can't alter node.js responses in reality
• Throwing onResponse hook fails the request raw — src/response.ts:30: Promise.resolve(onResponse(...)).then(() => response) has no rejection handling, so a hook that throws turns the request into an unhandled rejection and onError is never invoked. If intentional (avoiding hook recursion), it's undocumented.

Exports / types drift

• kNotFound / kHandled not exported from src/index.ts they're part of the documented handler return contract (AGENTS.md), but users can only reach them via Symbol.for("h3.notFound"). Either export them or. fix the agents.md docs
• Declared H3Core type is missing "~dispatch" and the static "~h3" brand — src/types/h3.ts:102 gained "~composed" in perf(middleware): precompose middleware chains #1475 but not "~dispatch" (src/h3.ts:50), and the exported H3 is cast to the declared type, so TS consumers (e.g. nitro) can't see or invalidate the dispatch cache the way use()/mount() do. The static "~h3" brand (src/h3.ts:42, used by src/handler.ts for instance detection) is also absent from the declared class.
• event.context.clientAddress can be silently ignored — src/types/context.ts:27 declares it, but the only reader is getRequestIP at src/utils/request.ts:542, which reads event.req.context?.clientAddress — a different object from event.context when a context is passed explicitly or req.context is unset (H3Event ctor falls back to a fresh object, src/event.ts:83).
• StaticAssetMeta.path is typed but never read by serveStatic — src/utils/static.ts:13.

Deprecated compat (src/_deprecated.ts)

• appendResponseHeaders param typed string but iterated as a record — :245 does Object.entries(headers) over a headers: string param; should be Record<string, string> (v1 signature). The appendHeaders alias at :252 inherits the wrong type.
• sendRedirect requires code — :133: v1 defaulted to 302 (and the delegated redirect() has status = 302), so code should be optional.

Docs-level

• bodyLimit/assertBodySize buffers before next() — src/utils/body.ts:224-234 drains a req.clone() (up to the limit) before the handler runs, so streaming handlers behind bodyLimit() can't start until the whole body has arrived and is buffered. Enforcement itself is correct (no chunked-encoding bypass; content-length + transfer-encoding rejected with 400) — but the latency/memory behavior deserves a doc note, or eventually a streaming enforcement mode.
• AGENTS.md says the node entry "adds serve()" — every platform entry exports serve; only toNodeHandler is node-specific.