diff --git a/hosts/ocaml/bin/run_tests.ml b/hosts/ocaml/bin/run_tests.ml
index 1b5658ac..50decf7a 100644
--- a/hosts/ocaml/bin/run_tests.ml
+++ b/hosts/ocaml/bin/run_tests.ml
@@ -3696,6 +3696,7 @@ let run_spec_tests env test_files =
   load_module "router.sx" web_dir;
   load_module "deps.sx" web_dir;
   load_module "orchestration.sx" web_dir;
+  load_module "console-render.sx" web_dir;
   (* Library modules for lib/tests/ *)
   load_module "bytecode.sx" lib_dir;
   load_module "compiler.sx" lib_dir;
diff --git a/web/console-render.sx b/web/console-render.sx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..299d14c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/console-render.sx
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+;; web/console-render.sx — render a live DOM element tree to terminal text.
+;;
+;; The SX hypermedia engine builds the SAME element tree whatever the platform: a
+;; browser PAINTS that tree, the test harness ASSERTS it, and this PRINTS it. Three
+;; bindings of one tree — the proof that the engine is a general runtime, not a
+;; browser library (Phase 3 of plans/sx-native-engine-tests.md).
+;;
+;; It reads the tree through the engine's own dom-* accessors, so it renders
+;; whatever the engine produced — e.g. the ~relate-picker after a load/filter/paging
+;; swap: the results <ul> becomes a bulleted list, the filter <input> a text field,
+;; the load-more sentinel a "…" line, and an .sx-error element a flagged line. The
+;; same render-to-console is the console platform's draw step; the picker's SX engine
+;; tests (web/tests/test-relate-picker.sx) double as its regression suite — they
+;; already drive the tree, this just prints it.
+
+;; class membership via the live classList (dom-has-class?), NOT the parsed `class`
+;; attribute — the engine adds .sx-error through classList, which leaves the static
+;; attribute untouched, so an attribute read would miss it.
+(define cr/has-class?
+  (fn (el cls) (dom-has-class? el cls)))
+
+;; The visible text of an element: its own textContent when it has no element
+;; children, else the concatenation of its children's text (the mock parser hangs
+;; leaf text on textContent, so this covers both row buttons and the sentinel).
+(define cr/text-of
+  (fn (el)
+    (if (nil? el)
+      ""
+      (let ((kids (dom-child-list el)))
+        (if (empty? kids)
+          (or (host-get el "textContent") "")
+          (let ((parts (map cr/text-of kids)))
+            (let ((joined (join "" parts)))
+              (if (= joined "")
+                (or (host-get el "textContent") "")
+                joined))))))))
+
+;; A <ul>/<ol> renders one line per <li>: a bullet for a candidate row, an ellipsis
+;; for the load-more sentinel (.rp-more).
+(define cr/list-lines
+  (fn (el)
+    (map
+      (fn (li)
+        (if (cr/has-class? li "rp-more")
+          (str "  … " (cr/text-of li))
+          (str "  • " (cr/text-of li))))
+      (dom-child-list el))))
+
+;; An <input> renders as a labelled text field; hidden inputs aren't drawn.
+(define cr/input-line
+  (fn (el)
+    (let ((type (or (dom-get-attr el "type") "text")))
+      (if (= type "hidden")
+        ""
+        (let ((label (or (dom-get-attr el "placeholder") (dom-get-attr el "name") ""))
+              (val (or (host-get el "value") "")))
+          (str label ": [" (if (= val "") "          " val) "]"))))))
+
+;; Flatten the rendered lines of an element's children, dropping blanks.
+(define cr/children-lines
+  (fn (el)
+    (let ((out (list)))
+      (for-each
+        (fn (kid)
+          (for-each
+            (fn (ln) (when (not (= ln "")) (append! out ln)))
+            (cr/lines kid)))
+        (dom-child-list el))
+      out)))
+
+;; Render one element to a list of text lines, tag-driven. An .sx-error element is
+;; flagged with a leading status line (the terminal's red line).
+(define cr/lines
+  (fn (el)
+    (if (nil? el)
+      (list)
+      (let ((tag (lower (dom-tag-name el)))
+            (err (cr/has-class? el "sx-error")))
+        (let
+          ((body
+            (cond
+              (or (= tag "ul") (= tag "ol")) (cr/list-lines el)
+              (= tag "input") (let ((l (cr/input-line el))) (if (= l "") (list) (list l)))
+              (= tag "button") (list (str "[ " (cr/text-of el) " ]"))
+              (or (= tag "h1") (= tag "h2") (= tag "h3")) (list (upper (cr/text-of el)))
+              :else (cr/children-lines el))))
+          (if err
+            (cons "✖ connection problem — retrying…" body)
+            body))))))
+
+;; render-to-console — the DOM-tree → terminal-text mode, alongside render-to-html /
+;; render-to-dom. Returns the rendered tree as a single newline-joined string.
+(define render-to-console
+  (fn (el) (join "\n" (cr/lines el))))
diff --git a/web/tests/test-relate-picker.sx b/web/tests/test-relate-picker.sx
index 52dcef82..e7927d50 100644
--- a/web/tests/test-relate-picker.sx
+++ b/web/tests/test-relate-picker.sx
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@
         " sx-swap=\"innerHTML\""
         " sx-retry=\"exponential:1000:30000\">"
         "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"kind\" value=\"" kind "\">"
-        "<input type=\"text\" name=\"q\" class=\"rp-filter\">"
+        "<input type=\"text\" name=\"q\" class=\"rp-filter\" placeholder=\"filter…\">"
         "<ul id=\"rp-" kind "-results\" class=\"rp-results\"></ul>"
       "</form>")))
 
@@ -200,6 +200,12 @@
       (process-elements root)
       (assert-true (> _mock-fetch-calls 0))
       (assert-equal 5 (count-candidates results))
+      ;; Phase 3: the SAME populated tree renders to the console — the results
+      ;; <ul> becomes a bulleted list of candidate titles. (Console renderer driven
+      ;; for free by the engine tree; web/console-render.sx.)
+      (let ((txt (render-to-console results)))
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "• Picker Item 0"))
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "• Picker Item 4")))
       (clear-root! root))))
 
 (defsuite
@@ -272,6 +278,9 @@
       ;; visible failure state: .sx-error lands on the picker form
       (assert-true (dom-has-class? form "sx-error"))
       (assert-equal 0 (count-candidates results))
+      ;; Phase 3: the console rendering of the errored picker shows the failure as
+      ;; a flagged line (the terminal's "red line") — same tree, different binding.
+      (assert-true (contains? (render-to-console form) "✖"))
       ;; recovery: the endpoint works again, the next input retries and the error
       ;; clears as the results populate
       (set! _mock-fetch-fail false)
@@ -280,3 +289,41 @@
       (assert-false (dom-has-class? form "sx-error"))
       (assert-equal 3 (count-candidates results))
       (clear-root! root))))
+
+;; ── Phase 3: the engine drives a non-browser target (the console) ───
+;; render-to-console (web/console-render.sx) prints the live engine tree as text.
+;; These assert the picker's terminal rendering directly on a built tree — the
+;; console platform's draw step, proven without a terminal.
+(defsuite
+  "relate-picker:console"
+  (deftest
+    "the picker form renders as a filter field over a bulleted candidate list"
+    (let
+      ((root (mk-root (str
+               "<form class=\"relate-picker\">"
+                 "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"kind\" value=\"related\">"
+                 "<input type=\"text\" name=\"q\" class=\"rp-filter\" placeholder=\"filter…\">"
+                 "<ul class=\"rp-results\">"
+                   (row-html "host" "related" "item-0" "Picker Item 0")
+                   (row-html "host" "related" "item-1" "Picker Item 1")
+                   (sentinel-html "host" "related" 20)
+                 "</ul>"
+               "</form>")))
+        (form (dom-query ".relate-picker")))
+      (let ((txt (render-to-console form)))
+        ;; the text input becomes a labelled field (placeholder as the label)...
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "filter…: ["))
+        ;; ...the hidden kind input is not drawn...
+        (assert-false (contains? txt "related: ["))
+        ;; ...each candidate is a bullet, the sentinel an ellipsis line
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "• Picker Item 0"))
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "• Picker Item 1"))
+        (assert-true (contains? txt "… Loading more…")))
+      (clear-root! root)))
+  (deftest
+    "an empty results list renders no bullets"
+    (let
+      ((root (mk-root "<ul class=\"rp-results\"></ul>"))
+        (results (dom-query root ".rp-results")))   ;; scope to this root
+      (assert-equal "" (render-to-console results))
+      (clear-root! root))))