diff --git a/e2e/tests/generation-live.spec.ts b/e2e/tests/generation-live.spec.ts
index 7b47408..491da5e 100644
--- a/e2e/tests/generation-live.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e/tests/generation-live.spec.ts
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ test.describe('Live generation with OpenAI', () => {
 
   test('full generation pipeline produces valid synthesis', async ({
     page,
+    request,
   }) => {
     test.setTimeout(180_000);
 
@@ -141,6 +142,8 @@ test.describe('Live generation with OpenAI', () => {
       ai_provider: 'openai',
       ai_model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
       ai_model_writing: 'gpt-4o-mini',
+      use_llm_for_source_links: false,
+      use_llm_for_article_extraction: false,
     });
     expect(settingsResp.status).toBe(200);
 
@@ -222,5 +225,47 @@ test.describe('Live generation with OpenAI', () => {
         expect(item.summary.trim().length).toBeGreaterThan(50);
       }
     }
+
+    // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+    // Comprehensive synthesis validation
+    // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+    const allUrls: string[] = [];
+    const domainCounts: Record<string, number> = {};
+
+    for (const section of synthesis.sections) {
+      for (const item of section.items) {
+        allUrls.push(item.url);
+        try {
+          const domain = new URL(item.url).hostname;
+          domainCounts[domain] = (domainCounts[domain] || 0) + 1;
+        } catch {
+          // URL parse failure — already caught by earlier assertions
+        }
+      }
+
+      // Category article count check (including Autre)
+      expect(section.items.length).toBeLessThanOrEqual(4); // max_items_per_category
+    }
+
+    // No duplicate URLs across all sections
+    const uniqueUrls = new Set(allUrls);
+    expect(uniqueUrls.size).toBe(allUrls.length);
+
+    // No domain exceeds max_articles_per_source (3)
+    for (const [domain, count] of Object.entries(domainCounts)) {
+      expect(count).toBeLessThanOrEqual(3);
+    }
+
+    // Verify a sample of article links actually work (Playwright request API, no CORS issues)
+    const sampleUrls = allUrls.slice(0, 3);
+    for (const articleUrl of sampleUrls) {
+      try {
+        const resp = await request.head(articleUrl);
+        expect(resp.status()).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(200);
+        expect(resp.status()).toBeLessThan(400);
+      } catch {
+        // Some sites block HEAD requests — skip rather than fail
+      }
+    }
   });
 });