diff --git a/.beads/formulas/mol-deacon-patrol.formula.toml b/.beads/formulas/mol-deacon-patrol.formula.toml
index ff76269a..3dfb1984 100644
--- a/.beads/formulas/mol-deacon-patrol.formula.toml
+++ b/.beads/formulas/mol-deacon-patrol.formula.toml
@@ -257,8 +257,20 @@ For each rig, run:
 ```bash
 gt witness status <rig>
 gt refinery status <rig>
+
+# Health ping (clears backoff as side effect)
+gt nudge <rig>/witness 'HEALTH_CHECK from deacon'
+gt nudge <rig>/refinery 'HEALTH_CHECK from deacon'
 ```
 
+**Health Ping Benefit**: The nudge commands serve dual purposes:
+1. **Liveness verification** - Agent responds to prove it's alive
+2. **Backoff reset** - Any nudge resets agent's backoff to base interval
+
+This ensures patrol agents remain responsive even during quiet periods when the
+feed has no mutations. Deacon patrols every ~1-2 minutes, so maximum backoff
+is bounded by the ping interval.
+
 **Signals to assess:**
 
 | Component | Healthy Signals | Concerning Signals |