diff --git a/_text/world-settings.json b/_text/world-settings.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20bff9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_text/world-settings.json
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+{
+  "world_info_settings": {
+    "world_info": {
+      "globalSelect": []
+    },
+    "world_info_budget": 25,
+    "world_info_budget_cap": 0,
+    "world_info_case_sensitive": false,
+    "world_info_character_strategy": 1,
+    "world_info_depth": 2,
+    "world_info_include_names": true,
+    "world_info_match_whole_words": true,
+    "world_info_max_recursion_steps": 0,
+    "world_info_min_activations": 0,
+    "world_info_min_activations_depth_max": 0,
+    "world_info_overflow_alert": false,
+    "world_info_recursive": true,
+    "world_info_use_group_scoring": false
+  }
+}
diff --git a/st-export.py b/st-export.py
index d0f5ddf..2f9475a 100755
--- a/st-export.py
+++ b/st-export.py
@@ -146,17 +146,47 @@ def install_hook() -> int:
     return 0
 
 
+def export_world_settings() -> int:
+    """The gating, not the worlds — which lorebooks are active and how they fire.
+
+    ⚠ A lorebook is INERT until something selects it, and the selection lives in
+    settings.json, which is untracked. Versioning `worlds/*.json` without this
+    captures the content and loses the wiring: a restore would hand back every
+    lorebook with no record of which were global, which rode on a character, or
+    what the token budget was. Small, non-secret, and it is the half that makes
+    the other half mean something.
+    """
+    p = os.path.join(HERE, "settings.json")
+    if not os.path.exists(p):
+        return 0
+    d = json.load(open(p, encoding="utf-8"))
+    out = {"world_info_settings": d.get("world_info_settings")}
+    pu = d.get("power_user") or {}
+    # per-persona lorebook bindings, without dragging in the persona text again
+    binds = {k: v.get("lorebook") for k, v in (pu.get("persona_descriptions") or {}).items()
+             if isinstance(v, dict) and v.get("lorebook")}
+    if binds:
+        out["persona_lorebooks"] = binds
+    with open(os.path.join(OUT, "world-settings.json"), "w", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+        json.dump(out, fh, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False, sort_keys=True)
+        fh.write("\n")
+    wis = (out.get("world_info_settings") or {}).get("world_info") or {}
+    return len(wis.get("globalSelect") or [])
+
+
 def main() -> int:
     if "--install-hook" in sys.argv:
         return install_hook()
     os.makedirs(OUT, exist_ok=True)
     cards = export_cards()
     personas = export_personas()
+    active = export_world_settings()
     worlds = len([f for f in os.listdir(os.path.join(HERE, "worlds"))
                   if f.endswith(".json")]) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(HERE, "worlds")) else 0
     print(f"  _text/cards/     {cards} card(s) extracted from PNG")
     print(f"  _text/personas.json  {personas} persona(s)")
     print(f"  worlds/          {worlds} lorebook(s) already JSON, tracked as-is")
+    print(f"  _text/world-settings.json  gating captured; {active} world(s) globally active")
     return 0