diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/audioTracks.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/audioTracks.ts
index 19ca98964..232d72af8 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/audioTracks.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/audioTracks.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 // outer edges only.
 
 import type { AxcutAudioTrack, AxcutClip, AxcutDocument } from "../schema";
+import { isGeneratedAssetId } from "../timeline/clip-parts";
 import { anchorRegionsWithDerivedMs, clampSpanAgainstNeighbours } from "../timeline/timelineMap";
 
 /** Every fragment of one user-visible track shares this key. */
@@ -170,7 +171,40 @@ export function removeAudioTrack(doc: AxcutDocument, trackId: string): AxcutDocu
 		audioTracks.some((t) => t.assetId === assetId) ||
 		doc.timeline.clips.some((c) => c.assetId === assetId);
 	const assets = stillReferenced ? doc.assets : doc.assets.filter((a) => a.id !== assetId);
-	return { ...doc, audioTracks, assets };
+	return dropUnusedGeneratedMedia({ ...doc, audioTracks, assets });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Drop the generated media nothing plays any more.
+ *
+ * The same rule as the asset drop just above, for the media an inserted word owns. That
+ * media is generated FROM the word: exactly one clip or one track plays it, nothing else
+ * can want it, and the file is remade from the text on the next save. So when the last
+ * thing playing it goes, it goes.
+ *
+ * It has to live here rather than in the insertion code because the delete the user
+ * actually performs is usually not the transcript's: the trash icon on the clip calls
+ * `removeClip` and the assistant calls the tool of the same name, neither of which has
+ * ever heard of an insertion. Leaving the asset behind left the deleted word in the
+ * transcript pane, playing nowhere.
+ *
+ * Scoped to generated ids on purpose. A recording whose last clip is deleted must stay in
+ * the document — "Restore full timeline" has to have something to restore.
+ */
+export function dropUnusedGeneratedMedia(doc: AxcutDocument): AxcutDocument {
+	const played = new Set([
+		...doc.timeline.clips.map((c) => c.assetId),
+		...doc.audioTracks.map((t) => t.assetId),
+	]);
+	const dead = (id: string) => isGeneratedAssetId(id) && !played.has(id);
+	if (!doc.assets.some((a) => dead(a.id)) && !doc.transcripts.some((t) => dead(t.assetId))) {
+		return doc;
+	}
+	return {
+		...doc,
+		assets: doc.assets.filter((a) => !dead(a.id)),
+		transcripts: doc.transcripts.filter((t) => !dead(t.assetId)),
+	};
 }
 
 /** Patch the shared payload of every fragment of one track. Payload edits (gain,
diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.test.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.test.ts
index ec0192829..23efb0dae 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.test.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.test.ts
@@ -179,6 +179,35 @@ describe("removeGeneratedClips", () => {
 	});
 });
 
+describe("deleting the amber clip from the TIMELINE, not from the transcript", () => {
+	// The trash icon on the clip calls `removeClip`, and so does the agent's tool. Neither
+	// goes through `removeGeneratedClips`, so if the media were only dropped there, the
+	// deleted word would still be in the transcript pane and its file still on disk.
+	it("takes the generated media with it, like the transcript path does", () => {
+		const back = removeClip(withInsertion(), "ext:synth_1");
+		expect(back.assets.map((a) => a.id)).toEqual(["a1"]);
+		expect(back.transcripts.map((t) => t.assetId)).toEqual(["a1"]);
+	});
+
+	it("leaves the recording in the document when its LAST clip goes", () => {
+		// Why the sweep is scoped to generated ids rather than "anything nothing plays":
+		// `restoreFullTimeline` reads the primary asset's duration, so emptying the
+		// timeline must not take the recording with it or the button has nothing to
+		// restore. This is the branch that empties it.
+		const back = removeClip(doc(), "c1");
+		expect(back.timeline.clips).toEqual([]);
+		expect(back.assets.map((a) => a.id)).toEqual(["a1"]);
+	});
+
+	it("leaves generated media alone when an ORDINARY clip goes and the insertion stays", () => {
+		// The other way an over-eager sweep goes wrong: a delete somewhere else must not
+		// collect media that is still on the timeline.
+		const back = removeClip(withInsertion(), "c1");
+		expect(back.timeline.clips.some((c) => c.assetId === "ext:synth_1")).toBe(true);
+		expect(back.assets.map((a) => a.id)).toEqual(["a1", "ext:synth_1"]);
+	});
+});
+
 describe("the join is blind to what made the clips contiguous", () => {
 	it("also heals two halves when an ORDINARY clip between them goes", () => {
 		// The accepted cost of the rule, on the record. Two clips of one recording whose media
diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.ts
index 32a726294..14de27197 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertion.ts
@@ -233,23 +233,16 @@ export function insertGeneratedClip(
  * Delete inserted words.
  *
  * `removeClip` does the whole of it: the gap closes, the halves rejoin when they are still
- * one continuous piece of media, and the rows anchored to the half that goes away follow.
- * What is left here is the media the clip was the only user of.
+ * one continuous piece of media, the rows anchored to the half that goes away follow, and
+ * the generated media nothing plays any more goes with them. Nothing is left to do here —
+ * the trash icon on the clip calls the same mutator, so both deletes had to end the same
+ * way whichever this function did.
  */
 export function removeGeneratedClips(
 	document: AxcutDocument,
 	wordIds: readonly string[],
 ): AxcutDocument {
-	return wordIds.reduce((next, wordId) => {
-		const id = extensionAssetId(wordId);
-		if (!next.timeline.clips.some((c) => c.id === id)) return next;
-		const after = removeClip(next, id);
-		return {
-			...after,
-			assets: after.assets.filter((a) => a.id !== id),
-			transcripts: after.transcripts.filter((t) => t.assetId !== id),
-		};
-	}, document);
+	return wordIds.reduce((next, wordId) => removeClip(next, extensionAssetId(wordId)), document);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.test.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.test.ts
index cf5695464..e7fcd8fc4 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.test.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.test.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
 import type { AxcutDocument } from "../schema";
-import { collapseTracksToPills } from "./audioTracks";
+import { collapseTracksToPills, removeAudioTrack } from "./audioTracks";
 import { insertGeneratedClip } from "./insertion";
 import {
 	insertGeneratedTrack,
@@ -142,6 +142,14 @@ describe("removeGeneratedTracks", () => {
 		expect(back.assets.some((a) => a.id === "ext:synth_1")).toBe(false);
 		expect(back.transcripts.some((t) => t.assetId === "ext:synth_1")).toBe(false);
 	});
+
+	it("does the same when the pill is deleted from the LANE instead", () => {
+		// The trash on the pill calls `removeAudioTrack`, which has never heard of an
+		// insertion. It has to end where the transcript path ends anyway.
+		const back = removeAudioTrack(inserted(), "ext:synth_1");
+		expect(back.assets.some((a) => a.id === "ext:synth_1")).toBe(false);
+		expect(back.transcripts.some((t) => t.assetId === "ext:synth_1")).toBe(false);
+	});
 });
 
 describe("retextGeneratedTrack", () => {
diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.ts
index eb7797124..c9a3af977 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/insertionTrack.ts
@@ -27,7 +27,12 @@ const EPS = 1e-6;
 import { extensionAssetId, extensionDurationSec } from "../timeline/clip-parts";
 import { removedRawSpans } from "../timeline/programme-time";
 import { takeProgramme } from "../timeline/take-programme";
-import { collapseTracksToPills, reanchorAudioTracks, trackGroupId } from "./audioTracks";
+import {
+	collapseTracksToPills,
+	dropUnusedGeneratedMedia,
+	reanchorAudioTracks,
+	trackGroupId,
+} from "./audioTracks";
 import { createId } from "./ids";
 import {
 	generatedAsset,
@@ -170,12 +175,10 @@ export function removeGeneratedTracks(
 		const pills = collapseTracksToPills(next.audioTracks)
 			.filter((pill) => pill.assetId !== id)
 			.map((pill) => shiftIfAfter(pill, generated.endMs, -spanMs));
-		return {
+		return dropUnusedGeneratedMedia({
 			...next,
-			assets: next.assets.filter((a) => a.id !== id),
-			transcripts: next.transcripts.filter((t) => t.assetId !== id),
 			audioTracks: reanchorAudioTracks(pills, next.timeline.clips, () => createId("take")),
-		};
+		});
 	}, document);
 }
 
diff --git a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/timeline.ts b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/timeline.ts
index 3bfe91fbc..8ae93098f 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai-edition/document/timeline.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai-edition/document/timeline.ts
@@ -23,7 +23,12 @@ import {
 	hasCompleteClipAnchor,
 } from "../timeline/timelineMap";
 import { dropTrimPillsByIds, trimAppliesToClip } from "../timeline/trim-mapping";
-import { reanchorAudioTracks, removeAudioTrack, separateAudioLanes } from "./audioTracks";
+import {
+	dropUnusedGeneratedMedia,
+	reanchorAudioTracks,
+	removeAudioTrack,
+	separateAudioLanes,
+} from "./audioTracks";
 import { createId } from "./ids";
 
 /** The region families a delete can target by id. Shared with the store so "which kinds
@@ -1178,13 +1183,14 @@ export function removeClip(document: AxcutDocument, clipId: string): AxcutDocume
 	// a transient wipe deleting everything), which is why the empty case is handled
 	// here rather than left to it.
 	if (arr.length === 0) {
-		return mapAllRegionCollections(
+		const emptied = mapAllRegionCollections(
 			{ ...next, timeline: { ...next.timeline, clips: [] } },
 			(regions) =>
 				regions.filter((region) => !(hasCompleteClipAnchor(region) && region.clipId === clipId)),
 		);
+		return dropUnusedGeneratedMedia(emptied);
 	}
-	return withClipsChanged(next, arr);
+	return dropUnusedGeneratedMedia(withClipsChanged(next, arr));
 }
 
 export function restoreFullTimeline(document: AxcutDocument): AxcutDocument {