diff --git a/crates/neuron/src/harness/arch/qwen3_5/rope.rs b/crates/neuron/src/harness/arch/qwen3_5/rope.rs
index 01cfa5a..f1d1b16 100644
--- a/crates/neuron/src/harness/arch/qwen3_5/rope.rs
+++ b/crates/neuron/src/harness/arch/qwen3_5/rope.rs
@@ -239,11 +239,44 @@ impl RotaryEmbedding {
 /// to a plain decode offset so text resumes from the counter after the
 /// (position-compressed) image blocks.
 ///
+/// Whether interleaved M-RoPE for image tokens is enabled. Default
+/// **off** — the initial implementation degraded image understanding
+/// (the model misread spatial layout and rambled), so until the
+/// interleave is validated against a numerical reference it is opt-in
+/// via `NEURON_MROPE=1`. When off, image tokens get plain sequential
+/// positions (the pre-M-RoPE behaviour: content recognition works,
+/// spatial layout is approximate).
+pub(crate) fn mrope_enabled() -> bool {
+    std::env::var("NEURON_MROPE")
+        .map(|v| {
+            matches!(
+                v.trim().to_ascii_lowercase().as_str(),
+                "1" | "true" | "yes" | "on"
+            )
+        })
+        .unwrap_or(false)
+}
+
+/// Position ids for the forward path. Gated by [`mrope_enabled`]: when
+/// off, returns plain sequential identity positions on all three axes
+/// (`mrope_cos_sin` then reduces exactly to plain RoPE), restoring the
+/// pre-M-RoPE behaviour without touching the rest of the forward.
+pub(crate) fn get_rope_index(input_ids: &[u32], image_token_id: u32) -> Result<MRopeIndex> {
+    if !mrope_enabled() {
+        let seq: Vec<i64> = (0..input_ids.len() as i64).collect();
+        return Ok((seq.clone(), seq.clone(), seq, 0));
+    }
+    compute_mrope_index(input_ids, image_token_id)
+}
+
+/// The real interleaved-M-RoPE position-id computation (always active in
+/// unit tests; gated behind [`get_rope_index`] at runtime).
+///
 /// Fixed-resolution assumption (Stage C): each image run is a perfect
 /// square with `grid_t = 1` (still image) and `grid_h = grid_w =
 /// isqrt(run_len)` — 196 → 14×14. Dynamic resolution (#14) would thread
 /// real per-image grids instead.
-pub(crate) fn get_rope_index(input_ids: &[u32], image_token_id: u32) -> Result<MRopeIndex> {
+pub(crate) fn compute_mrope_index(input_ids: &[u32], image_token_id: u32) -> Result<MRopeIndex> {
     let n = input_ids.len();
     let mut text = Vec::with_capacity(n);
     let mut height = Vec::with_capacity(n);
@@ -415,7 +448,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[test]
     fn get_rope_index_text_only_is_sequential() {
-        let (t, h, w, delta) = get_rope_index(&[1, 2, 3, 4], 99).unwrap();
+        let (t, h, w, delta) = compute_mrope_index(&[1, 2, 3, 4], 99).unwrap();
         assert_eq!(t, vec![0, 1, 2, 3]);
         assert_eq!(h, vec![0, 1, 2, 3]);
         assert_eq!(w, vec![0, 1, 2, 3]);
@@ -426,7 +459,7 @@ mod tests {
     fn get_rope_index_text_image_text() {
         // [text, image(2x2 run of 4), text]. image_token = 99.
         let ids = [1u32, 99, 99, 99, 99, 2];
-        let (t, h, w, delta) = get_rope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
+        let (t, h, w, delta) = compute_mrope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
         // token 0: text → 0. image base=1, grid 1x2x2:
         //   t all = 1; h = base+row = [1,1,2,2]; w = base+col = [1,2,1,2].
         // resume from base + max(1,2,2) = 3. trailing text → 3.
@@ -440,11 +473,24 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(6 + delta, 4);
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn get_rope_index_gated_off_by_default() {
+        // With NEURON_MROPE unset (default), the runtime path returns
+        // plain sequential identity positions → mrope_cos_sin reduces to
+        // plain RoPE. (compute_mrope_index, tested above, is the real
+        // computation used when the flag is on.)
+        let (t, h, w, delta) = get_rope_index(&[1, 99, 99, 99, 99, 2], 99).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(t, vec![0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
+        assert_eq!(h, t);
+        assert_eq!(w, t);
+        assert_eq!(delta, 0);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn get_rope_index_rejects_non_square_image_run() {
         // 196 is square (14x14) — ok. 195 is not.
-        assert!(get_rope_index(&[99u32; 196], 99).is_ok());
-        assert!(get_rope_index(&[99u32; 195], 99).is_err());
+        assert!(compute_mrope_index(&[99u32; 196], 99).is_ok());
+        assert!(compute_mrope_index(&[99u32; 195], 99).is_err());
     }
 
     #[test]
@@ -455,7 +501,7 @@ mod tests {
         let dev = Device::Cpu;
         let rope = RotaryEmbedding::new(DType::F32, &qwen36_cfg(), &dev).unwrap();
         let ids = [1u32, 99, 99, 99, 99]; // text + 2x2 image
-        let (t, h, w, _d) = get_rope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
+        let (t, h, w, _d) = compute_mrope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
         let pos = mrope_position_tensor(&t, &h, &w, &dev).unwrap();
         assert_eq!(pos.dims(), &[3, 5]);
         let (cos, _sin) = rope.mrope_cos_sin(&pos).unwrap();
@@ -472,7 +518,7 @@ mod tests {
     fn get_rope_index_196_is_14x14() {
         let mut ids = vec![1u32]; // one text token
         ids.extend(std::iter::repeat_n(99u32, 196));
-        let (t, h, w, _delta) = get_rope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
+        let (t, h, w, _delta) = compute_mrope_index(&ids, 99).unwrap();
         // image base = 1. Last image token (index 196) is grid (h=13,w=13).
         assert_eq!(*t.last().unwrap(), 1, "grid_t=1 → temporal const at base");
         assert_eq!(h[1], 1, "first image row at base");