diff --git a/pipelines/songs/render.py b/pipelines/songs/render.py
index c7dfc44..926b8ad 100644
--- a/pipelines/songs/render.py
+++ b/pipelines/songs/render.py
@@ -76,15 +76,23 @@ def connect_wiki() -> mwclient.Site:
     return site
 
 
+AUTO_BANNER_PREFIX = "{{Auto-generated"
+
+
 def publish_one(rel: Path, post, site: mwclient.Site, source_ref: str, gitea_repo_url: str) -> str:
-    """Returns 'published' or 'noop'."""
+    """Returns 'published', 'noop', or 'skipped-manual'."""
     fm = post.metadata
     body_wikitext = markdown_to_wikitext(strip_first_h1(post.content))
     source_url = f"{gitea_repo_url}/src/commit/{source_ref}/{rel}"
     page_content = build_wikitext(fm, body_wikitext, source_url, source_ref)
 
     page = site.pages[fm["title"]]
-    if page.text() == page_content:
+    existing = page.text()
+
+    if existing and not existing.startswith(AUTO_BANNER_PREFIX):
+        return "skipped-manual"
+
+    if existing == page_content:
         return "noop"
 
     ref_short = source_ref[:8] if source_ref else "unknown"
@@ -157,14 +165,20 @@ def main() -> None:
 
     site = connect_wiki()
 
-    counts = {"published": 0, "noop": 0}
+    counts = {"published": 0, "noop": 0, "skipped-manual": 0}
     for abs_path, post in posts.items():
         rel = abs_path.relative_to(source_dir)
         outcome = publish_one(rel, post, site, source_ref, gitea_repo_url)
         counts[outcome] += 1
-        print(f"  [{outcome}] {rel}")
+        if outcome == "skipped-manual":
+            print(f"  [skipped-manual] {rel}  ← page exists without auto-gen banner; delete or add banner to hand over to bot", file=sys.stderr)
+        else:
+            print(f"  [{outcome}] {rel}")
 
-    print(f"\nDone: {counts['published']} published, {counts['noop']} unchanged.")
+    print(
+        f"\nDone: {counts['published']} published, {counts['noop']} unchanged, "
+        f"{counts['skipped-manual']} skipped (existing manual pages)."
+    )
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":