diff --git a/backend/src/db-kysely/CONVENTIONS.md b/backend/src/db-kysely/CONVENTIONS.md
index 891ae45..ae4fc60 100644
--- a/backend/src/db-kysely/CONVENTIONS.md
+++ b/backend/src/db-kysely/CONVENTIONS.md
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ Kysely uses the `pg` driver directly, so a Postgres SQLSTATE stays on `err.code`
 
 ## The worked example
 
-`buildItemFilterSql` is the hardest query in the codebase — six optional clauses composed at run time, a recursive CTE for the category subtree, an `ANY(...::int[])` tag match with a count equality, and array parameters. It was the #216 spike's target and #297's, and it is still raw `pg` in `src/itemFilters.ts`, used by both the storefront and the admin listing. The conversion below is an example rather than a source file: committing it as one would put a second copy of a live function in `src/` that nothing calls, which is precisely what the #216 spike became.
+`buildItemFilterSql` was the hardest query in the codebase — six optional clauses composed at run time, a recursive CTE for the category subtree, an `ANY(...::int[])` tag match with a count equality, and array parameters. It was the #216 spike's target and #297's, and #308 converted it: it is now `itemFilterExpressions` in `src/itemFilters.ts`, returning Kysely expressions that the storefront and admin listings compose with `eb.and`. What follows is the shape it took, kept here because it is the worked reference for converting anything else of that difficulty.
 
 ```ts
 if (filters.categoryIds.length) {
diff --git a/backend/src/itemSelect.ts b/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
index ab5d487..ab24510 100644
--- a/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
+++ b/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
@@ -21,12 +21,27 @@
 // aggregate independent and drop the GROUP BY entirely. `jsonArrayFrom` emits
 // `coalesce(json_agg(agg), '[]')`, which is what these hand-wrote before.
 
-import { ExpressionBuilder } from 'kysely';
+import { ExpressionBuilder, Generated, Kysely } from 'kysely';
 import { jsonArrayFrom } from 'kysely/helpers/postgres';
 import { db } from './db';
 import { DB } from './db-kysely/schema';
 import { ItemStatus, ItemImage, ItemTag } from './types';
 
+/**
+ * The mirror types `items.status` as `Generated<string>` because Postgres holds
+ * it as CHECK-constrained text rather than a native enum, so `kysely-codegen`
+ * has nothing narrower to emit. `types.ts` already states the real domain.
+ *
+ * Narrowed here, once, rather than asserted at each call site. `$castTo` at the
+ * call site would have replaced the entire row type with an assertion — which
+ * would silently accept a projection that had lost a column, and losing the
+ * compile error on exactly that is what this change exists to prevent.
+ */
+type ItemsWithStatus = Omit<DB['items'], 'status'> & { status: Generated<ItemStatus> };
+type ItemDB = Omit<DB, 'items'> & { items: ItemsWithStatus };
+
+const itemDb = db as unknown as Kysely<ItemDB>;
+
 /**
  * The aliases every item query and every filter clause is written against.
  *
@@ -36,7 +51,7 @@ import { ItemStatus, ItemImage, ItemTag } from './types';
  * the builder would have made the diff unreadable against the SQL it replaces.
  */
 export type ItemContext = ExpressionBuilder<
-  DB & { i: DB['items']; c: DB['categories'] },
+  ItemDB & { i: ItemDB['items']; c: ItemDB['categories'] },
   'i' | 'c'
 >;
 
@@ -92,7 +107,7 @@ function tagsFor(eb: ItemContext) {
  * obvious that adding a `where` does not affect anyone else.
  */
 export function publicItemQuery() {
-  return db
+  return itemDb
     .selectFrom('items as i')
     .leftJoin('categories as c', 'c.id', 'i.category_id')
     .select([
@@ -111,7 +126,7 @@ export function publicItemQuery() {
 
 /** The admin projection — every item column, plus the admin image fields. */
 export function adminItemQuery() {
-  return db
+  return itemDb
     .selectFrom('items as i')
     .leftJoin('categories as c', 'c.id', 'i.category_id')
     .selectAll('i')
@@ -135,7 +150,7 @@ interface ItemRowBase {
   tags: ItemTag[];
 }
 
-/** What PUBLIC_ITEM_SELECT returns. Deliberately no payment or reservation columns. */
+/** What publicItemQuery returns. Deliberately no payment or reservation columns. */
 export type PublicItemRow = ItemRowBase;
 
 /**
@@ -148,7 +163,7 @@ export interface AdminItemImage extends ItemImage {
 }
 
 /**
- * What ADMIN_ITEM_SELECT returns: `i.*`, so every column on the table.
+ * What adminItemQuery returns: `i.*`, so every column on the table.
  *
  * The extra fields are the ones the storefront is not allowed to see, which is
  * the whole reason the two selects differ. `images` is narrowed rather than
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
index 7f416c0..d29b20e 100755
--- a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
@@ -137,15 +137,9 @@ router.get('/items', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
   // sixteen lines in itemFilters.ts explained why that was safe. The clauses
   // are Kysely expressions now: a value cannot reach the SQL text, because the
   // types do not let it.
-  // `.$castTo` narrows `status` from the schema mirror's generic `string` (the
-  // column is a CHECK-constrained text column, not a native Postgres enum, so
-  // kysely-codegen has no literal union to give it) to the app-level
-  // `ItemStatus` the CHECK constraint actually enforces. Every other field on
-  // AdminItemRow already matches the projection without a cast.
   const rows: AdminItemRow[] = await adminItemQuery()
     .where((eb) => eb.and(itemFilterExpressions(eb, filters, null)))
     .orderBy('i.created_at', 'desc')
-    .$castTo<AdminItemRow>()
     .execute();
 
   res.json(rows);
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/items.ts b/backend/src/routes/items.ts
index 5e1e8c4..c94064b 100755
--- a/backend/src/routes/items.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/items.ts
@@ -79,11 +79,6 @@ router.get('/', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
     status: filters.status ?? [...defaultStatuses]
   };
 
-  // `.$castTo` narrows `status` from the schema mirror's generic `string` (the
-  // column is a CHECK-constrained text column, not a native Postgres enum, so
-  // kysely-codegen has no literal union to give it) to the app-level
-  // `ItemStatus` the CHECK constraint actually enforces. Every other field on
-  // PublicItemRow already matches the projection without a cast.
   const rows: PublicItemRow[] = await publicItemQuery()
     .where((eb) =>
       eb.and([
@@ -92,7 +87,6 @@ router.get('/', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
       ])
     )
     .orderBy('i.created_at', 'desc')
-    .$castTo<PublicItemRow>()
     .execute();
 
   res.json(rows);