diff --git a/components/pid/TODO.md b/components/pid/TODO.md
index 1041177..8be35a9 100644
--- a/components/pid/TODO.md
+++ b/components/pid/TODO.md
@@ -118,6 +118,43 @@ git history for `temp_controller.py`/`temp_controller_smith.py`).
   `TestHoldOvershootRecoversToSetpoint` in
   `tests/components/pid/test_temp_controller_closed_loop.py`.
 
+- [ ] **Architecture isn't ready for a real active cooler yet, only a
+  heat-only actuator.** Asked (not yet built): would the cascade/FSM
+  design still hold up if an active cooler (compressor/chiller, some
+  finite cooling power) replaced "heater off + passive ambient loss"?
+  Mostly yes at the PID/plant-model level: `Pid.y_min`/`y_max` are
+  already symmetric `-1.0`/`1.0` (`pid.py:12-13`), `Pot.set_power()`/
+  `process()` are sign-agnostic so the simulator already models negative
+  power correctly, and the FSM already has a dedicated `COOL` state with
+  its own PID instance (`pid_inner_cool`, `temp_controller_fsm.py:35-39`)
+  whose comment explicitly anticipates this ("the actuator ... is
+  responsible for clamping the resulting negative power to whatever it's
+  actually capable of").
+  The gap is at the actuator boundary: today `y` only ever reaches one
+  consumer, `tasks/heater.py:59`'s `self.power_actor = max(0, ...  * y)`,
+  which silently discards every negative command — that's what's made
+  tuning mismatches free so far. A real cooler needs (a) a second
+  actuator/device class consuming the negative half instead of that
+  `max(0, ...)` clamp — there's no `Cooler`/chiller abstraction anywhere
+  yet (`grep -rniE "cooler|chiller|compressor"` across all `.py` is
+  empty, fully greenfield), and `heater_hendi.py:80`'s `set_power` only
+  clamps to a max, not a min, so feeding it a negative value today would
+  call `setPowerWatts(negative)` on real hardware with undefined result;
+  and (b) its own power ceiling, since one normalized `y` scaled by one
+  `get_power_max()` breaks once heater and cooler have different max
+  power.
+  Biggest risk once that clamp is removed: two separate paths start
+  issuing real negative-power commands that were previously harmless -
+  HOLD's `Outer.y_hold_min` floor (via `Inner.Hold`, see the steady-state
+  overshoot item above) and the pre-existing `pid_inner_cool` (via
+  `Inner.Cool`) - and neither has been tuned against actual active-cooling
+  dynamics (compressor lag, min-on-time). `Inner.Cool` in the demo
+  configs is literally a copy of `Inner.Heat`'s gains, never validated
+  independently. So adding a real cooler is a wiring task (new actuator
+  class, per-actuator power scaling) plus a re-tuning task (`Inner.Cool`,
+  and re-checking the `HoldCool`/`CoolHold` thresholds in
+  `temp_controller_fsm.py:14-17`), not just wiring.
+
 - [ ] **`kalman.py` is now dead code in production.** Neither
   `temp_controller.py` nor `temp_controller_smith.py` uses `Kalman`
   anymore; the only remaining references are