diff --git a/.github/scripts/docs-playground-preview/test/parser.test.mjs b/.github/scripts/docs-playground-preview/test/parser.test.mjs
index b38bb98e5fbc0..e6319d62046aa 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/docs-playground-preview/test/parser.test.mjs
+++ b/.github/scripts/docs-playground-preview/test/parser.test.mjs
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Staging: touched to exercise the tests workflow and the stale-comment path.
 import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 import { mkdir, mkdtemp, readFile, symlink, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import os from 'node:os';
diff --git a/src/wp-includes/functions.php b/src/wp-includes/functions.php
index 54b3eb30cdfe9..57c3a2cf161f4 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/functions.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/functions.php
@@ -5001,6 +5001,9 @@ function smilies_init() {
  * This function is used throughout WordPress to allow for both string or array
  * to be merged into another array.
  *
+ * STAGING PROBE: this sentence exists only to confirm the Code Reference
+ * preview renders the pull request's own docblock, not trunk's.
+ *
  * @since 2.2.0
  * @since 2.3.0 `$args` can now also be an object.
  *