diff --git a/pmacs-protocol/src/lib.rs b/pmacs-protocol/src/lib.rs
index 1b14df6..9a0a2dc 100644
--- a/pmacs-protocol/src/lib.rs
+++ b/pmacs-protocol/src/lib.rs
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ pub mod crdt;
 pub mod ids;
 pub mod message;
 pub mod panel;
+pub mod scroll;
 pub mod terminal;
 pub mod transport;
 pub mod wire_grid;
diff --git a/pmacs-protocol/src/scroll.rs b/pmacs-protocol/src/scroll.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d56df81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmacs-protocol/src/scroll.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+//! Scroll-position classification, shared by both frontends.
+//!
+//! # Why this lives in the protocol crate
+//!
+//! It is not a wire type, and it is deliberately not presentation
+//! either. The split it encodes (long-lines framing §5d.6,
+//! `COHERENCE.md` §16) is:
+//!
+//! - **each frontend computes its own local layout facts** — whether
+//!   the buffer's first or last row is on screen is a question only the
+//!   frontend that laid the text out can answer;
+//! - **the shared crate owns the semantic decision those facts feed** —
+//!   what `All` / `Top` / `Bot` / `NN%` *mean* is one rule, not two.
+//!
+//! Rendering the outcome to a string stays in each frontend.
+//!
+//! `pmacs-gpu` depends on `pmacs-protocol` and never on the `pmacs`
+//! lib, so before this module the status readout was **duplicated
+//! structurally**: `format_scroll_indicator` exists once in
+//! `src/editor.rs` and again in `pmacs-gpu/src/main.rs`, each with its
+//! own tests. That is not a tidiness complaint — it produced a real
+//! defect during this lane's own review, where a fix landed in one copy
+//! and the other kept reporting `All` for a wrapped one-line buffer.
+//! With one classifier, a frontend *cannot* classify differently.
+//!
+//! Adding this needs **no wire message and no protocol-version bump**:
+//! [`classify`] is a pure function over values each side already holds.
+//!
+//! # Why the arguments are booleans and bytes
+//!
+//! The pre-existing formatter took four counts
+//! (`view_top, visible, total_lines, cursor_row`) and derived every
+//! branch from `total_lines`. Under line wrapping there is no row total
+//! to give it: the GPU shapes only its viewport slice, so it cannot
+//! count rows it never laid out, and computing a total by arithmetic
+//! would disagree with the break points cosmic-text actually chose.
+//!
+//! Handing that signature byte counts instead would make
+//! `view_top + visible >= total_lines` compare **rows against bytes** —
+//! plausible strings, meaningless arithmetic. So the mixing is not
+//! merely avoided here, it is **unrepresentable**: the caller supplies
+//! two decided predicates and a byte pair, and no count of rows enters
+//! this module at all.
+
+/// Where the viewport sits in its buffer.
+///
+/// `Percent` carries whole percent in `0..=100`.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
+pub enum ScrollPosition {
+    /// Every row of the buffer is on screen.
+    All,
+    /// The first row is on screen and the last is not.
+    Top,
+    /// The last row is on screen and the first is not.
+    Bot,
+    /// Neither end is on screen; whole percent through the buffer.
+    Percent(u8),
+}
+
+/// Classify the viewport's position from local facts.
+///
+/// `first_visible` / `last_visible` are the frontend's own answers
+/// about its current layout. `byte_pos` is the cursor's byte offset and
+/// `byte_len` the buffer's length in bytes; the percentage is taken
+/// from those rather than from a row ordinal, because no row total
+/// exists (see the module docs).
+///
+/// An empty buffer (`byte_len == 0`) cannot have a meaningful
+/// percentage, and division would trap. It only ever reaches the
+/// `Percent` arm if the caller claims neither end is on screen, which
+/// is already contradictory for an empty buffer — so that combination
+/// yields `All`, matching what the caller's own facts would have said.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn classify(
+    first_visible: bool,
+    last_visible: bool,
+    byte_pos: u64,
+    byte_len: u64,
+) -> ScrollPosition {
+    match (first_visible, last_visible) {
+        (true, true) => ScrollPosition::All,
+        (true, false) => ScrollPosition::Top,
+        (false, true) => ScrollPosition::Bot,
+        (false, false) => {
+            if byte_len == 0 {
+                return ScrollPosition::All;
+            }
+            // Saturating, then clamped: a caller that reports a cursor
+            // past the end (a stale readout mid-edit) gets 100%, not a
+            // wrapped or panicking percent.
+            let pct = byte_pos.saturating_mul(100) / byte_len;
+            ScrollPosition::Percent(u8::try_from(pct.min(100)).unwrap_or(100))
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The four outcomes are decided by the two predicates alone.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_two_predicates_decide_the_three_named_states() {
+        assert_eq!(classify(true, true, 0, 100), ScrollPosition::All);
+        assert_eq!(classify(true, false, 0, 100), ScrollPosition::Top);
+        assert_eq!(classify(false, true, 99, 100), ScrollPosition::Bot);
+        assert!(matches!(
+            classify(false, false, 50, 100),
+            ScrollPosition::Percent(_)
+        ));
+    }
+
+    /// The case the whole of framing §5d exists for.
+    ///
+    /// A one-source-line buffer that wraps to more rows than fit must
+    /// report `Top`, not `All`. The pre-existing formatter returned
+    /// `All` here unconditionally — its first branch was
+    /// `if total_lines <= 1 { return "All" }`, and a wrapped single line
+    /// still has `total_lines == 1`.
+    ///
+    /// This classifier cannot reproduce that bug, because it is never
+    /// told how many lines there are.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_wrapped_single_line_is_top_not_all() {
+        // One line, first row on screen, last row far below.
+        assert_eq!(classify(true, false, 0, 4_000), ScrollPosition::Top);
+    }
+
+    /// Percent comes from bytes, and only when neither end shows.
+    #[test]
+    fn percent_is_byte_based_and_only_in_the_middle() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            classify(false, false, 250, 1_000),
+            ScrollPosition::Percent(25)
+        );
+        // Even at a byte position that would read as "the end", an
+        // explicit `last_visible` wins — the predicate is the fact, the
+        // percentage is only a readout.
+        assert_eq!(classify(false, true, 1_000, 1_000), ScrollPosition::Bot);
+    }
+
+    /// Degenerate inputs stay total: no panic, no wrap, no divide by zero.
+    #[test]
+    fn degenerate_inputs_are_total() {
+        assert_eq!(classify(false, false, 0, 0), ScrollPosition::All);
+        assert_eq!(
+            classify(false, false, 10, 5),
+            ScrollPosition::Percent(100),
+            "a cursor past the end clamps rather than exceeding 100"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            classify(false, false, u64::MAX, 1),
+            ScrollPosition::Percent(100),
+            "saturating multiply, so a huge offset cannot wrap into a small percent"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Percent never leaves `0..=100`, for any input.
+    #[test]
+    fn percent_is_always_in_range() {
+        for pos in [0_u64, 1, 7, 99, 100, 1_000, u64::MAX / 2, u64::MAX] {
+            for len in [1_u64, 3, 100, 9_999, u64::MAX] {
+                if let ScrollPosition::Percent(p) = classify(false, false, pos, len) {
+                    assert!(p <= 100, "pos={pos} len={len} gave {p}%");
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}