diff --git a/src/random.rs b/src/random.rs
index daf137f..98bcc91 100644
--- a/src/random.rs
+++ b/src/random.rs
@@ -29,6 +29,17 @@ pub struct Edits {
     /// one. Region nodes change what a move writes and how deep a primitive's
     /// chain is, so a tree that never grows one leaves both untested.
     pub nodes: HashMap<usize, bool>,
+    /// Whether a [`Branch`] takes the side it would take at any measurement,
+    /// rather than the side the one it made says. The oracle wants the
+    /// measured side -- that is the whole point of a branch, and how a widget
+    /// believing a measurement a cold start would not have given it becomes a
+    /// different tree. A rig measuring cost wants this instead: a fixture
+    /// whose shape moves with the thing being measured cannot be compared
+    /// with itself across a change to it, and seed 1 at depth 8 went from 88
+    /// drawn widgets and 2,298 primitive writes a frame to 115 and 8,209
+    /// across fixed point, which is three and a half times the work behind a
+    /// number read as three and a half times the cost.
+    pub fixed_branches: bool,
 }
 
 #[derive(Default, Clone)]
@@ -286,7 +297,14 @@ impl<Rsc: UiRsc + 'static> Grow<'_, Rsc> {
             let probe = self.node(depth - 1);
             let wide = self.node(depth - 1);
             let narrow = self.node(depth - 1);
-            let threshold = self.rng.below(500) as f32;
+            // Drawn either way, so the side a fixed branch takes is still a
+            // side the generator chose -- and it consumes the same randomness
+            // as a measured one, so the two grow the same ids.
+            let measured = self.rng.below(500) as f32;
+            let threshold = match self.edits.fixed_branches {
+                true => f32::MIN,
+                false => measured,
+            };
             let id = Branch {
                 probe,
                 wide,
diff --git a/tests/layout_diagnostics.rs b/tests/layout_diagnostics.rs
index e7a9548..db4e618 100644
--- a/tests/layout_diagnostics.rs
+++ b/tests/layout_diagnostics.rs
@@ -92,9 +92,18 @@ fn trace_selected(tree: &Tree) {
 #[cfg(not(feature = "layout-diagnostics"))]
 fn trace_selected(_: &Tree) {}
 
+/// The shape a cost is measured on must not depend on what layout measured,
+/// or two commits are compared on two different trees. See `Edits`.
+fn rig_edits() -> Edits {
+    Edits {
+        fixed_branches: true,
+        ..Default::default()
+    }
+}
+
 fn warm(seed: u64, depth: usize) -> (Harness, Tree) {
     let mut harness = Harness::new(OUTPUT);
-    let (root, tree) = grow(&mut harness.rsc, seed, depth, &Edits::default());
+    let (root, tree) = grow(&mut harness.rsc, seed, depth, &rig_edits());
     harness.state.root = Some(root);
     harness.frame();
     println!(
@@ -173,7 +182,7 @@ fn layout_cost() {
 
     if selected("cold") {
         let mut harness = Harness::new(OUTPUT);
-        let (root, tree) = grow(&mut harness.rsc, seed, depth, &Edits::default());
+        let (root, tree) = grow(&mut harness.rsc, seed, depth, &rig_edits());
         harness.state.root = Some(root);
         println!(
             "fixture: seed {seed}, depth {depth}, {} widgets",