diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-26-iphone-budget-measurement-design.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-26-iphone-budget-measurement-design.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5fc5ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-26-iphone-budget-measurement-design.md
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+# Design — iPhone compute-budget measurement overlay
+
+**Date:** 2026-06-26
+**Status:** Approved (brainstorming) — ready for implementation plan
+**App:** `iphone-arbody/` (ARBodyTracker, iOS)
+
+## 1. Goal
+
+Surface, on the iPhone screen, the runtime metrics needed to decide how much
+more compute the device can absorb (the "max compute on the iPhone" direction):
+- **ARKit fps** (actual `session(_:didUpdate:)` cadence, smoothed)
+- **Vision latency** (duration of `handler.perform([hands, face])`, EMA, ms)
+- **Vision drop rate** (frames skipped by the `visionBusy` drop-if-busy guard)
+- **Thermal state** (`ProcessInfo.thermalState`: nominal/fair/serious/critical)
+
+These four tell us the spare budget before stacking A (derive shader uniforms
+on-device) and B (run SMPL-X mesh on-device). This is step 0 of that track.
+
+## 2. Non-goals
+
+- No sending metrics to the Mac (the operator reads the phone screen; `meta`
+  tag stays unused here).
+- No fine CPU%/GPU profiling — thermal state + drop rate are the decision
+  signals.
+- No A (uniform derivation) or B (on-device mesh) work — those follow, gated on
+  these numbers.
+
+## 3. Architecture
+
+All metrics are produced inside `ARBodySession` (it already owns the frame loop
+and the Vision worker) and published for the SwiftUI UI to read.
+
+```
+ARBodySession (@MainActor, ARSessionDelegate)
+  session(_:didUpdate:)  ─ measures inter-frame dt → arkitFps (EMA)
+                         ─ counts vision attempts vs drops → visionDropRate
+  runVision(...)         ─ times handler.perform(...) → visionMs (EMA)
+  thermal                ─ ProcessInfo.thermalState (+ change notification)
+       │ @Published arkitFps / visionMs / visionDropRate / thermalLabel
+       ▼
+ContentView (SwiftUI)    ─ small metrics overlay panel
+```
+
+## 4. Components
+
+### 4.1 `ARBodySession` metrics (modify)
+Add `@Published`:
+- `arkitFps: Double` — EMA of `1 / dt` between consecutive `didUpdate` frames
+  (α≈0.1). Existing `lastFrameTime` already tracks the previous timestamp.
+- `visionMs: Double` — EMA of the `handler.perform([...])` wall time in
+  `runVision` (measure with `CACurrentMediaTime()` / `Date`), α≈0.2.
+- `visionDropRate: Double` — ratio of dropped frames (the `visionBusy` early
+  return path) to Vision attempts, over a rolling window (e.g. last 60
+  decisions) so it reflects current load, not lifetime.
+- `thermalLabel: String` — "nominal" | "fair" | "serious" | "critical" from
+  `ProcessInfo.processInfo.thermalState`, updated on
+  `ProcessInfo.thermalStateDidChangeNotification` (and read once at start).
+
+`visionMs` is computed off-main (in `runVision`) and the published write hops to
+`@MainActor` (mirror the existing `usb.send` hop). Drop/attempt counters are
+mutated on `@MainActor` (where the throttle decision already runs).
+
+### 4.2 `ContentView` overlay (modify)
+A compact, always-on metrics panel (corner overlay) showing the four values,
+e.g. `fps 28.4 | vis 22 ms | drop 6% | thermal fair`, color-coding thermal
+(green nominal/fair, orange serious, red critical). Read-only; does not affect
+capture.
+
+## 5. Testing
+
+- **Build:** `xcodebuild ... -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' build` succeeds.
+- **Unit (if a pure helper is extracted):** an EMA/drop-rate helper can be unit
+  tested with synthetic samples; otherwise the metrics are observed live.
+- **On-device (operator):** deploy, run ~1 min with a body + hands + face in
+  frame, read fps / vision ms / drop% / thermal. These numbers feed the A/B
+  decision. (This is the actual deliverable of the step — a measurement.)
+
+## 6. File structure
+
+| File | Action | Responsibility |
+|------|--------|----------------|
+| `iphone-arbody/ARBodyTracker.swiftpm/Sources/ARBodyTracker/ARBodySession.swift` | Modify | compute + publish the 4 metrics |
+| `iphone-arbody/ARBodyTracker.swiftpm/Sources/ARBodyTracker/ContentView.swift` | Modify | metrics overlay panel |
+
+## 7. Sequencing
+
+This is step 0 of the "max compute on iPhone" track (measure → A derive uniforms
+on-device → B mesh on-device). A and B get their own design once these numbers
+are in hand (B's feasibility depends on the thermal/drop headroom).