diff --git a/docs/gestures.md b/docs/gestures.md
index 92df466..db05d25 100644
--- a/docs/gestures.md
+++ b/docs/gestures.md
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ A face is either the system's guess or the user's judgement, and the two are nev
 
 This is the point of having identified anybody. Without it the screen is a filing cabinet with no drawer handles.
 
-<sub>`ui/dr-ui/ui/identity.slint:552`</sub>
+<sub>`ui/dr-ui/ui/identity.slint:571`</sub>
 
 ### Change how faces are grouped
 
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ This is the point of having identified anybody. Without it the screen is a filin
 
 The right match confidence is a property of your library, not of the model. "What would this do?" answers for this library without writing anything; names, confirmations and the groups you have set aside are kept whatever the dials say.
 
-<sub>`ui/dr-ui/ui/identity.slint:589`</sub>
+<sub>`ui/dr-ui/ui/identity.slint:608`</sub>
 
 ## Library grid
 
diff --git a/ui/dr-ui/src/identity.rs b/ui/dr-ui/src/identity.rs
index 29c4c25..a23107a 100644
--- a/ui/dr-ui/src/identity.rs
+++ b/ui/dr-ui/src/identity.rs
@@ -156,6 +156,25 @@ pub struct IdentityView {
 }
 
 /// Read the people rail.
+///
+/// **A group holding no faces is not a group, and does not appear.** Only the
+/// unnamed ones, which is exactly the set `faces::prune_empty_unnamed` treats
+/// as debris: a pass creates a person per cluster, the next pass regroups those
+/// faces elsewhere, and the person it emptied survives until something prunes
+/// it. Nothing prunes on this path, so they accumulate — the reference library
+/// reached 11,739 of them against 2,525 real people, and the rail was 85 per
+/// cent rows that named nobody and could do nothing.
+///
+/// Filtered rather than deleted, because this is a screen being drawn and not a
+/// catalog being repaired. A row is withheld; nothing is lost, a sync cannot
+/// resurrect what was never removed, and the prune stays the one place that
+/// decides these are disposable.
+///
+/// An empty group with a *name* still shows. That one is not debris, it is the
+/// symptom of a real failure — a named person whose faces were regrouped out
+/// from under them (see `Population::read` on why naming has to anchor) — and
+/// the user cannot merge it back into the group that took them if the rail has
+/// hidden it.
 pub fn load_people(
     catalog: &Catalog,
     model_id: &str,
@@ -163,6 +182,9 @@ pub fn load_people(
     let conn = catalog.connection();
     let people = faces::people(conn)?
         .into_iter()
+        .filter(|p| {
+            p.confirmed_faces + p.suggested_faces > 0 || !p.name.trim().is_empty() || p.ignored
+        })
         .map(|p| PersonRow {
             id: p.id,
             name: p.name,
@@ -812,6 +834,53 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    /// The rail withholds the debris a regrouping pass leaves behind, and only
+    /// that: the same rows `prune_empty_unnamed` treats as disposable.
+    ///
+    /// Not a nicety. Every pass creates a person per cluster and the next pass
+    /// may empty it, nothing on this path prunes, and the reference library
+    /// reached 11,739 of them against 2,525 real people — a rail that was 85
+    /// per cent rows naming nobody, each one costing a query and a built row.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_rail_withholds_empty_unnamed_groups_and_nothing_else() {
+        let c = catalog();
+        let i1 = image(&c, 1);
+        let held =
+            faces::record_detections(c.connection(), i1, "w600k_mbf", 1024, &[face(1)]).unwrap();
+
+        let with_faces = faces::create_person(c.connection(), "Anna").unwrap();
+        faces::confirm(c.connection(), held[0], with_faces).unwrap();
+
+        // The three that hold nothing. Only the first is debris.
+        faces::create_person(c.connection(), "").unwrap();
+        let named = faces::create_person(c.connection(), "Bob").unwrap();
+        let set_aside = faces::create_person(c.connection(), "").unwrap();
+        faces::set_ignored(c.connection(), set_aside, true).unwrap();
+
+        let shown: Vec<_> = load_people(&c, "w600k_mbf")
+            .unwrap()
+            .people
+            .into_iter()
+            .map(|p| p.id)
+            .collect();
+
+        assert!(shown.contains(&with_faces), "a group with faces is a group");
+        assert!(
+            shown.contains(&named),
+            "an empty group with a name is the visible symptom of a regroup that \
+             emptied it, and hiding it takes away the only way to merge it back"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            shown.contains(&set_aside),
+            "set aside is a judgement the user made, and the prune spares it too"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            shown.len(),
+            3,
+            "the empty unnamed group is the one that goes"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn confirm_all_promotes_every_suggestion_and_nothing_else() {
         let c = catalog();