diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/cpp-tests.yml b/.gitea/workflows/cpp-tests.yml
index 8b60d16..af8baf8 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/cpp-tests.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/cpp-tests.yml
@@ -112,3 +112,51 @@ jobs:
       # the price of guaranteeing the documented workflow stays working.
       - name: End-to-end smoke test (scripts/try_it.sh)
         run: bash scripts/try_it.sh
+
+# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# Job 3 — quality-gates  (style + convention block)
+#
+# Cheap, deterministic checks that should never break unless a contributor
+# introduces a regression.  Each gate is a script under scripts/quality/
+# and exits 0 only when its tree is clean.  These ran for weeks locally
+# at zero findings before being promoted here.
+#
+# Tools installed at job-start (the ci-cpp image already has python3 +
+# bash; we add codespell + shellcheck on top).  Total wall-time: ~30 s
+# on the eulernest runner.
+#
+# Strictly required for merges into main/dev — a regression fails the PR.
+# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  quality-gates:
+    needs: test-fast
+    runs-on: eulernest
+    container:
+      image: git.eulernest.eu/conformallab/ci-cpp:latest
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Install codespell + shellcheck (job-local)
+        run: |
+          apt-get update -qq
+          apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+            codespell shellcheck
+
+      - name: License headers (every C++ source carries MIT SPDX)
+        run: bash scripts/quality/license-headers.sh
+
+      - name: CGAL conventions (6 rules over CGAL public headers)
+        run: python3 scripts/quality/cgal-conventions.py
+
+      - name: codespell (docs + source comments + script messages)
+        run: bash scripts/quality/codespell.sh
+
+      - name: shellcheck (scripts/**/*.sh, severity=warning, strict)
+        run: bash scripts/quality/shellcheck.sh --strict
+
+      - name: Summary
+        if: always()
+        run: |
+          echo "QUALITY ▸ all four gates passed."
+          echo "  see scripts/quality/README.md for the full catalogue"
+          echo "  (sanitizers, clang-tidy, coverage, etc. are local-only)"
diff --git a/code/.gitignore b/code/.gitignore
index 7c0f88c..d7ac37b 100644
--- a/code/.gitignore
+++ b/code/.gitignore
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ deps/*
 !deps/tarballs
 !deps/single_includes/
 !deps/CMakeLists.txt
+!deps/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md
 
 # macOS iCloud Drive duplicates ("file 2.cpp", "file 2.hpp", …)
 * 2.*
diff --git a/code/deps/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md b/code/deps/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31fc209
--- /dev/null
+++ b/code/deps/THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+# Third-party licenses
+
+This directory contains source code from external projects that
+conformallab++ vendors at fixed versions for build reproducibility.
+Each project is governed by its own license; this file enumerates them
+so downstream packagers, distributors, and reviewers can audit
+compatibility without crawling each upstream tarball.
+
+> **Why vendored at all?**  conformallab++ is header-only and ships
+> nothing it does not author except the optional CLI binary
+> (`-DWITH_CGAL=ON`).  Vendoring guarantees that the CGAL / Eigen /
+> Boost API surface every contributor sees is identical, removing
+> "works on my machine because I have CGAL 6.0 not 5.6" failure modes
+> during early review.  Downstream packagers replacing the vendored
+> trees with system installs is supported and is the recommended path
+> for distribution-level packaging (see `doc/architecture/dependencies.md`).
+
+## conformallab++ itself
+
+| Item | License | Notes |
+|---|---|---|
+| `code/include/**`, `code/src/**`, `code/tests/**`, `scripts/**`, `doc/**` | **MIT** (see `LICENSE` at repo root) | Every C++ source file carries `SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT`; CI gate `scripts/quality/license-headers.sh` enforces this. |
+
+## Vendored dependencies
+
+The table below lists each tree under `code/deps/`, its upstream
+license, the SPDX identifier, and any compatibility note relevant to
+shipping conformallab++ as MIT.
+
+| Directory | Upstream project | Version | License (SPDX) | Compatibility with MIT distribution | Notes |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| `CGAL-6.1.1/` | [CGAL](https://www.cgal.org) | 6.1.1 | **LGPL-3.0-or-later** (most headers) + **GPL-3.0-or-later** (a small subset — see CGAL's per-header `\cgal_license{...}` macro) | Header-only consumption is compatible; we ONLY include LGPL'd parts (`Surface_mesh`, `Polygon_mesh_processing`, BGL adapters, kernels). | conformallab++ does not include any of the GPL-only CGAL packages (e.g. `Triangulation_3` parts, certain mesh-3 internals). The `\cgal_license` macro is checked at compile time and would fail the build if a GPL-only header were transitively pulled in. Commercial licenses are available from GeometryFactory for users who can't accept (L)GPL. |
+| `eigen-3.4.0/` | [Eigen](https://eigen.tuxfamily.org) | 3.4.0 | **MPL-2.0** for almost everything, **LGPL-2.1-or-later** for a few legacy files (e.g. `Eigen/src/Core/util/NonMPL2.h` gates these) | MPL-2.0 is permissive enough for MIT; the LGPL files are NOT pulled in by `<Eigen/Dense>` / `<Eigen/Sparse>` (the only Eigen headers conformallab++ includes). | We define no preprocessor flag that activates the non-MPL2 code paths. The default Eigen build is pure MPL-2.0. |
+| `libigl-2.6.0/` | [libigl](https://libigl.github.io) | 2.6.0 | **MPL-2.0** | Compatible with MIT distribution. | Only the viewer subsystem under `code/src/viewer/` uses libigl, and only when `-DWITH_VIEWER=ON`. The library headers and the CGAL wrapper headers do not depend on libigl. |
+| `libigl-glad/` | [Glad](https://glad.dav1d.de/) (the generated OpenGL loader libigl ships) | bundled with libigl 2.6.0 | **MIT** (the generator's output is licensed permissively; the loader code itself is in the public domain via the original Khronos headers) | Compatible. | Built only with `-DWITH_VIEWER=ON`. |
+| `glfw-3.4/` | [GLFW](https://www.glfw.org) | 3.4 | **zlib/libpng** | Permissive; compatible with MIT. | Built only with `-DWITH_VIEWER=ON`. See `code/deps/glfw-3.4/LICENSE.md` for the verbatim text. |
+| `single_includes/json.hpp` | [nlohmann/json](https://github.com/nlohmann/json) | 3.x (header-only single-include) | **MIT** | Identical to ours. | The file itself carries the SPDX header `MIT`; see `code/deps/single_includes/json.hpp` first lines. |
+| `tarballs/` | (build-artefact cache) | — | n/a | n/a | This directory just caches the downloaded source tarballs to avoid re-downloading on every clean build. The tarballs are bit-for-bit identical to the upstream releases. |
+
+## Auto-fetched (not vendored)
+
+These are pulled by CMake `FetchContent` at configure time. They are
+**not** redistributed by conformallab++; the user's CMake fetches them
+during build. We list them anyway for transparency.
+
+| Item | Upstream | Version | License | Fetched by |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| **GoogleTest** | https://github.com/google/googletest | v1.14.0 | **BSD-3-Clause** | `code/CMakeLists.txt` (test target only) |
+
+## System dependencies (required at build time, not redistributed)
+
+| Item | Where it lives | License | Purpose |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **Boost** (header-only subset) | system package (`apt install libboost-dev`, etc.) | **Boost Software License 1.0** | Required by CGAL's BGL adapters (only when `WITH_CGAL=ON` or `WITH_CGAL_TESTS=ON`). |
+| **C++17 standard library** | the compiler's libstdc++ / libc++ / msvc | LGPL-3.0 with exception / Apache 2.0 with LLVM exception / MSVC redist | normal compiler runtime. |
+
+## Summary for downstream packagers
+
+If you are packaging conformallab++ for a distribution, the practical
+license matrix is:
+
+```
+   binary you ship (CLI app, -DWITH_CGAL=ON)
+   ├── conformallab++  (MIT)
+   ├── CGAL            (LGPL-3.0-or-later — comply with §4 LGPL: source
+   │                    of CGAL must be obtainable or shipped)
+   ├── Eigen           (MPL-2.0 — comply with §3 MPL: any modifications
+   │                    must be released under MPL-2.0)
+   ├── libigl          (MPL-2.0 — same as Eigen)
+   ├── GLFW            (zlib/libpng — acknowledgement in product docs)
+   ├── Glad            (MIT — preserve copyright notice)
+   └── Boost (headers) (BSL-1.0 — preserve copyright notice)
+
+   header-only consumer (just #include our headers)
+   ├── conformallab++  (MIT)
+   ├── Eigen           (MPL-2.0 transitively)
+   ├── CGAL            (LGPL-3.0-or-later transitively)
+   └── Boost (headers) (BSL-1.0 transitively, only if you include any
+                        CGAL/* header)
+```
+
+The header-only consumer typically doesn't trigger LGPL §4 obligations
+because LGPL §3 explicitly permits use of LGPL'd material as
+"templates, inline functions, macros" by an "Application" without
+imposing copyleft on the Application — which is exactly the
+header-only consumption pattern.
+
+If you have specific compliance questions, the upstream license texts
+are authoritative; this file is a navigational aid.
+
+## How this file is maintained
+
+* Updated whenever a `code/deps/` tree is added, removed, or version-bumped.
+* Cross-referenced by `doc/architecture/dependencies.md`.
+* There is no CI gate that auto-verifies the SPDX entries against
+  upstream — that would require either an SBOM tool (e.g. `syft`,
+  `tern`) or a manual audit. The current policy is "review on
+  dep-tree change", logged in the commit message of the bump.