diff --git a/profiling/harness.py b/profiling/harness.py
index b469d20fe..40a9592b9 100644
--- a/profiling/harness.py
+++ b/profiling/harness.py
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
 # profiling/harness.py
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import json
+import subprocess
 import time
 from dataclasses import dataclass
+from datetime import UTC
+from datetime import datetime
+from pathlib import Path
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 from typing import Any
 from typing import Generic
@@ -17,6 +22,8 @@ if TYPE_CHECKING:
 
     from django.db.models import QuerySet
 
+    from profiling.seed import ScaleProfile
+
 T = TypeVar("T")
 
 
@@ -65,3 +72,52 @@ def capture_explain_analyze(queryset: QuerySet[Any]) -> str:
     with connection.cursor() as cur:
         cur.execute(f"EXPLAIN ANALYZE {sql}", params)
         return "\n".join(row[0] for row in cur.fetchall())
+
+
+def _current_git_ref() -> str:
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        ["git", "rev-parse", "--short", "HEAD"],
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+        check=False,
+    )
+    return result.stdout.strip() or "unknown"
+
+
+def append_profiling_history(
+    *,
+    stage: str,
+    scenario: str,
+    best_seconds: float,
+    query_count: int,
+    scale: ScaleProfile,
+    code_ref: str | None = None,
+) -> None:
+    """
+    Append one line to profiling/results/history.jsonl -- an append-only,
+    cross-session record of every profiling run. Unlike the per-stage
+    before/after snapshot JSON files (which the next run of the same stage
+    overwrites), this never gets clobbered, so a profiling effort picked
+    back up days later has a full timeline to resume from instead of only
+    the single most recent comparison.
+
+    ``code_ref`` should identify the *production* code under test (a short
+    SHA on the feature branch, not this `profiling` branch) -- pass it
+    explicitly when known. Left as ``None``, it falls back to this repo's
+    current ``git rev-parse --short HEAD``, which is only meaningful if
+    you're actually running from a checkout where that reflects the code
+    being measured.
+    """
+    results_dir = Path(__file__).parent / "results"
+    results_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    entry = {
+        "timestamp": datetime.now(UTC).isoformat(),
+        "code_ref": code_ref or _current_git_ref(),
+        "stage": stage,
+        "scenario": scenario,
+        "scale": scale,
+        "best_seconds": best_seconds,
+        "query_count": query_count,
+    }
+    with (results_dir / "history.jsonl").open("a") as f:
+        f.write(json.dumps(entry) + "\n")
diff --git a/profiling/test_harness_self_check.py b/profiling/test_harness_self_check.py
index 81c314f77..0bb21a418 100644
--- a/profiling/test_harness_self_check.py
+++ b/profiling/test_harness_self_check.py
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 # profiling/test_harness_self_check.py
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+
 import pytest
 
+from profiling.harness import append_profiling_history
 from profiling.harness import require_postgres
 from profiling.harness import run_profile
 from profiling.seed import seed_permission_dataset
@@ -44,3 +48,27 @@ def test_run_profile_reports_query_count_and_timing() -> None:
     assert result.best_seconds >= 0
     assert len(result.all_seconds) == 3
     assert result.query_count >= 1
+
+
+def test_append_profiling_history_writes_a_valid_json_line() -> None:
+    history_path = Path(__file__).parent / "results" / "history.jsonl"
+    before_lines = (
+        history_path.read_text().splitlines() if history_path.exists() else []
+    )
+
+    append_profiling_history(
+        stage="self-check",
+        scenario="test_append_profiling_history_writes_a_valid_json_line",
+        best_seconds=0.001,
+        query_count=0,
+        scale="medium",
+        code_ref="test-run",
+    )
+
+    after_lines = history_path.read_text().splitlines()
+    assert len(after_lines) == len(before_lines) + 1
+    entry = json.loads(after_lines[-1])
+    assert entry["stage"] == "self-check"
+    assert entry["code_ref"] == "test-run"
+    assert entry["scale"] == "medium"
+    assert "timestamp" in entry