diff --git a/hbrdd/dbf/dbf.go b/hbrdd/dbf/dbf.go
index ef75b82..2591460 100644
--- a/hbrdd/dbf/dbf.go
+++ b/hbrdd/dbf/dbf.go
@@ -393,6 +393,25 @@ func (a *DBFArea) Close() error {
 	if a.dirty {
 		a.flushRecord()
 	}
+	// Shared-mode EOF write — same max-merge as updateHeader. A
+	// peer Append between our last refresh and this write may have
+	// grown the file past our local recCount. Writing the EOF
+	// marker at our stale offset (HeaderLen + localCount*RecLen)
+	// would overwrite byte 0 of the peer's just-appended record
+	// (its delete flag) — the record body bytes survive but byte 0
+	// flips from ' ' (RecordActive) to 0x1A (EOFMarker). Re-read
+	// the disk header to pick the larger of {local, disk} before
+	// computing EOFOffset.
+	if a.shared {
+		if _, err := a.dataFile.Seek(0, 0); err == nil {
+			if hdr, err := ReadHeader(a.dataFile); err == nil {
+				if hdr.RecCount > a.recCount {
+					a.recCount = hdr.RecCount
+					a.header.RecCount = hdr.RecCount
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
 	a.dataFile.WriteAt([]byte{EOFMarker}, a.header.EOFOffset())
 	a.updateHeader()
 	// Release any held byte-range locks before closing the fd — POSIX
@@ -784,8 +803,15 @@ func (a *DBFArea) Append() error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("table is read-only")
 	}
 
-	// Batch consecutive APPENDs: save current dirty record to appendBuf instead of writing to disk.
-	if a.dirty && a.ghost {
+	// Batch consecutive APPENDs: save current dirty record to
+	// appendBuf instead of writing to disk. SHARED mode opts out
+	// of batching — a peer SELECT that opens the file while one
+	// of our slots is still buffered would iterate to that slot,
+	// ReadAt zero bytes (slot is reserved on disk but unwritten),
+	// and treat the record as garbage. Writing each APPEND straight
+	// through trades some throughput for "self+peer-coherent on
+	// every cursor move" semantics. EXCLUSIVE mode still batches.
+	if a.dirty && a.ghost && !a.shared {
 		// Previous was also an APPEND — accumulate in batch buffer (no syscall)
 		recLen := int(a.header.RecordLen)
 		if a.appendBuf == nil {