diff --git a/PlotLine.Tests/Program.cs b/PlotLine.Tests/Program.cs
index ea5faf0..3476a12 100644
--- a/PlotLine.Tests/Program.cs
+++ b/PlotLine.Tests/Program.cs
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ var tests = new (string Name, Action Test)[]
     ("Character sex hints are conservative and reviewable", CharacterSexHintsAreConservativeAndReviewable),
     ("Character discovery does not truncate scan review candidates", CharacterDiscoveryDoesNotTruncateScanReviewCandidates),
     ("Character discovery rejects sentence-start words", CharacterDiscoveryRejectsSentenceStartWords),
+    ("Manuscript scan preview keeps only auto-selected character candidates", ManuscriptScanPreviewKeepsOnlyAutoSelectedCharacterCandidates),
     ("Scan review aliases feed Story Intelligence known character context", ScanReviewAliasesFeedStoryIntelligenceKnownCharacterContext),
     ("Scan review post supports full-book form submissions", ScanReviewPostSupportsFullBookFormSubmissions),
     ("Story Intelligence experience boot does not serialise live model", StoryIntelligenceExperienceBootDoesNotSerialiseLiveModel),
@@ -1315,6 +1316,23 @@ static void CharacterDiscoveryRejectsSentenceStartWords()
     Assert(!actionCandidates.Any(candidate => candidate.Text is "Door" or "Glass" or "Window"), "Repeated sentence-start action nouns must not become character candidates.");
 }
 
+static void ManuscriptScanPreviewKeepsOnlyAutoSelectedCharacterCandidates()
+{
+    var preview = new ManuscriptScanPreview
+    {
+        CharacterCandidates =
+        [
+            new() { TemporaryCharacterKey = "c-colin", Name = "Colin", MentionCount = 4, QualityScore = 7, Category = "ProbableCharacter" },
+            new() { TemporaryCharacterKey = "c-door", Name = "Door", MentionCount = 4, QualityScore = 2, Category = "PossibleCharacter" },
+            new() { TemporaryCharacterKey = "c-road", Name = "Road", MentionCount = 8, QualityScore = 1, Category = "Excluded" }
+        ]
+    };
+
+    var candidates = WordCompanionService.DiscoverManuscriptScanCharacterCandidates(preview);
+    Assert(candidates.Count == 1, $"Scan preview should keep only auto-selected character candidates; got {candidates.Count}.");
+    Assert(candidates[0].Name == "Colin", "Scan preview should keep probable character candidates.");
+}
+
 static void StoryIntelligenceExperienceBootDoesNotSerialiseLiveModel()
 {
     var view = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(AppContext.BaseDirectory, "../../../../PlotLine/Views/Development/StoryIntelligenceExperience.cshtml"));
diff --git a/PlotLine/Services/WordCompanionService.cs b/PlotLine/Services/WordCompanionService.cs
index f507b5f..f3ccf41 100644
--- a/PlotLine/Services/WordCompanionService.cs
+++ b/PlotLine/Services/WordCompanionService.cs
@@ -658,6 +658,7 @@ public sealed class WordCompanionService(
         }
 
         return DiscoverCharacterCandidates(manuscriptText)
+            .Where(IsAutoSelectedScanCharacterCandidate)
             .Select((candidate, index) => new ManuscriptScanCharacterCandidatePreview
             {
                 TemporaryCharacterKey = $"c-{StableCandidateKey(candidate.Text, index)}",
@@ -995,7 +996,7 @@ public sealed class WordCompanionService(
         IReadOnlyList<ManuscriptScanCharacterCandidatePreview> candidates)
         => candidates
             .Where(candidate => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(candidate.Name))
-            .Where(candidate => !string.Equals(candidate.Category, "Excluded", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+            .Where(IsAutoSelectedScanCharacterCandidate)
             .Where(candidate =>
                 candidate.Name.Split(' ', StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length > 1
                 || candidate.QualityScore >= 4
@@ -1008,6 +1009,12 @@ public sealed class WordCompanionService(
             .ThenBy(candidate => candidate.Name, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
             .ToList();
 
+    private static bool IsAutoSelectedScanCharacterCandidate(WordCompanionCharacterCandidateDto candidate)
+        => string.Equals(candidate.Category, "ProbableCharacter", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+
+    private static bool IsAutoSelectedScanCharacterCandidate(ManuscriptScanCharacterCandidatePreview candidate)
+        => string.Equals(candidate.Category, "ProbableCharacter", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
+
     private static string StableCandidateKey(string name, int index)
     {
         var slug = Regex.Replace(name.ToLowerInvariant(), @"[^a-z0-9]+", "-").Trim('-');
diff --git a/PlotLine/wwwroot/js/word-companion-host.js b/PlotLine/wwwroot/js/word-companion-host.js
index c17a703..e6b0619 100644
--- a/PlotLine/wwwroot/js/word-companion-host.js
+++ b/PlotLine/wwwroot/js/word-companion-host.js
@@ -2349,12 +2349,11 @@
                 const discovery = await postJson("/api/word-companion/manuscript/discover-characters", {
                     projectId: preview.projectID,
                     documentText: documentTextForDiscovery,
-                    includeExcluded: true
+                    includeExcluded: false
                 });
-                preview.characterCandidates = mapOnboardingCharacterCandidates(discovery?.candidates);
-                preview.characterCandidateCount = preview.characterCandidates
-                    .filter((candidate) => String(candidate.category || "").toLowerCase() !== "excluded")
-                    .length;
+                preview.characterCandidates = mapOnboardingCharacterCandidates(discovery?.candidates)
+                    .filter((candidate) => String(candidate.category || "").toLowerCase() === "probablecharacter");
+                preview.characterCandidateCount = preview.characterCandidates.length;
             } catch (discoveryError) {
                 console.warn("Unable to refine onboarding character candidates.", discoveryError);
                 preview.characterCandidates = [];