diff --git a/src-frontend/src/hooks/useTauri.js b/src-frontend/src/hooks/useTauri.js
index 3a53a8f6..0cb0ee83 100644
--- a/src-frontend/src/hooks/useTauri.js
+++ b/src-frontend/src/hooks/useTauri.js
@@ -63,20 +63,20 @@ export async function getStreamlineDebug(passIdx, hullIdx, params = DEFAULT_STRE
 
 // Default PaintParams must match Rust's `impl Default for PaintParams`.
 export const DEFAULT_PAINT_PARAMS = {
-  brush_radius_factor:     1.15,
-  brush_radius_offset_px:  0.25,
-  brush_radius_percentile: 0.85,
+  brush_radius_factor:     0.88,
+  brush_radius_offset_px:  0.50,
+  brush_radius_percentile: 0.93,
   step_size_factor:       0.40,
   n_directions:           48,
   lookahead_steps:        3,
   momentum_weight:        0.20,
   overpaint_penalty:      0.10,
-  walk_bg_penalty:        4.0,
+  walk_bg_penalty:        0.69,
   min_score_factor:       0.20,
-  polish_iters:           1,
+  polish_iters:           2,
   polish_search_factor:   0.5,
   bg_penalty:             2.0,
-  min_component_factor:   1.20,
+  min_component_factor:   1.49,
   pen_lift_penalty:       0.0,
   pen_lift_reach:         3.0,
   max_steps_per_stroke:   4000,
diff --git a/src/brush_paint.rs b/src/brush_paint.rs
index 85610eea..35d4981e 100644
--- a/src/brush_paint.rs
+++ b/src/brush_paint.rs
@@ -140,27 +140,26 @@ pub struct PaintParams {
 impl Default for PaintParams {
     fn default() -> Self {
         Self {
-            // OPTIMIZER-TUNED DEFAULTS (under hard 5%-bg / 5%-unpainted /
-            // 2×-skel ceilings, score 333M → 41M). Bigger brush,
-            // step_size_factor=0.4 to keep disks tightly packed,
-            // walk_bg_penalty=4 to steer the walker onto the ridge,
-            // n_directions=48 for finer turning resolution. Dijkstra
-            // repaint still disabled — single-stroke W/M still need it
-            // turned on per-letter via the slider.
-            brush_radius_factor:    1.15,
-            brush_radius_offset_px: 0.25,
-            brush_radius_percentile: 0.85,
+            // META-OPTIMIZER WINNING CONFIG (idx 20 of 24-sample lex-
+            // ranked search). Tier-1 result on the corpus: cov_fail=8,
+            // bg_fail=0, len_fail=0; ~12 px bg per letter on average.
+            // Stroke-count constraints (12 single-stroke + 11 two-stroke
+            // letters miscounted) are NOT respected — known limitation
+            // of the soft inner-score the meta search uses.
+            brush_radius_factor:    0.88,
+            brush_radius_offset_px: 0.50,
+            brush_radius_percentile: 0.93,
             step_size_factor:       0.40,
             n_directions:           48,
             lookahead_steps:        3,
             momentum_weight:        0.20,
             overpaint_penalty:      0.10,
-            walk_bg_penalty:        4.0,
+            walk_bg_penalty:        0.69,
             min_score_factor:       0.20,
-            polish_iters:           1,
+            polish_iters:           2,
             polish_search_factor:   0.5,
             bg_penalty:             2.0,
-            min_component_factor:   1.20,
+            min_component_factor:   1.49,
             pen_lift_penalty:       0.0,
             pen_lift_reach:         3.0,
             max_steps_per_stroke:   4000,
@@ -1645,16 +1644,21 @@ impl Default for ScoreWeights {
         // So the sweep prefers a smaller-radius solution that leaves a
         // few unpainted pixels over a larger-radius solution that paints
         // 50× as many bg pixels.
+        // Meta-optimizer winning weights (idx 20). Note: meta-opt
+        // didn't fix stroke-count constraint failures — those need a
+        // larger per-letter penalty in the inner score before they
+        // bite the gradient. Soft costs are well-tuned for the
+        // tier-1/tier-2 lex objective.
         Self {
-            stroke:            500.0,
-            length:            5.0,
-            bg:                50.0,
-            repaint:           30.0,
-            unpainted:         50.0,    // mild — density carries the weight
-            unpainted_density: 10.0,    // cluster_size^1.5 × 10
-            length_excess:     300.0,
-            curvature:         500.0,
-            brush_size:        2000.0,   // pressure toward bigger brush. Per
+            stroke:            844.0,
+            length:            8.6,
+            bg:                98.0,
+            repaint:           8.8,
+            unpainted:         70.0,
+            unpainted_density: 22.8,
+            length_excess:     423.0,
+            curvature:         515.0,
+            brush_size:        214.0,   // (was 2000 — meta dropped pressure
                                      // letter, +1 px brush = +2000 bonus;
                                      // vs bg=50/px that's "worth" up to
                                      // ~40 extra bg pixels per letter. So