diff --git a/server/src/agents/pool/auto_assign/story_checks.rs b/server/src/agents/pool/auto_assign/story_checks.rs
index e2b106c0..fbf4e0b2 100644
--- a/server/src/agents/pool/auto_assign/story_checks.rs
+++ b/server/src/agents/pool/auto_assign/story_checks.rs
@@ -72,9 +72,11 @@ pub(super) fn has_content_conflict_failure(
     if !is_merge_failure {
         return false;
     }
-    // The projection does not carry the reason string; read the raw content
-    // from the CRDT content store and scan for conflict markers.
-    crate::db::read_content(story_id)
+    // The projection does not carry the reason string; read the gate output
+    // (where the merge runner persists the failure message) and scan for
+    // conflict markers. NB: the key is `{story_id}:gate_output`, not `{story_id}`
+    // — the latter is the story's *description* text and would never match.
+    crate::db::read_content(&format!("{story_id}:gate_output"))
         .map(|content| {
             content.contains("Merge conflict") || content.contains("CONFLICT (content):")
         })