diff --git a/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/bin/train_ddp.rs b/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/bin/train_ddp.rs
index 944becc..eb31dd8 100644
--- a/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/bin/train_ddp.rs
+++ b/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/bin/train_ddp.rs
@@ -88,6 +88,12 @@ fn main() {
     let val_tokens: usize = flag(&args, "--val-tokens", 0);
     let eval_every: usize = flag(&args, "--eval-every", 0);
     let eval_batches: usize = flag(&args, "--eval-batches", 64);
+    // Dropout (Phase T18/T21): residual-path dropout prob, active at training time
+    // only (inverted scaling), identity at eval/sampling/export. Default 0 = off
+    // (forward graph bit-identical to the no-dropout path). Mirrors bin/train; the
+    // train_rank loop calls model.train() each step so dropout is actually live
+    // under DDP (T21 wired this — the launcher previously never set training mode).
+    let dropout: f32 = flag(&args, "--dropout", 0.0f32);
     // bf16 mixed precision (Phase T12): fp32 master weights, bf16 linears +
     // activations. Opt-in; default fp32 reproduces v0–v4 numerics.
     let bf16 = args.iter().any(|a| a == "--bf16");
@@ -139,7 +145,9 @@ fn main() {
         (corpus, None)
     };
 
-    let cfg = Config::from_arch(vocab, n_heads, head_dim, n_layers, ffn).with_kv_heads(kv_heads);
+    let mut cfg =
+        Config::from_arch(vocab, n_heads, head_dim, n_layers, ffn).with_kv_heads(kv_heads);
+    cfg.dropout = dropout;
     println!(
         "model: dim {} layers {} heads {} kv_heads {} head_dim {} ffn {} → core {:.3}M params \
          (+ embed/lm {:.2}M = {:.2}M total)",
@@ -189,6 +197,9 @@ fn main() {
     if flash {
         println!("flash-attention: ON (fused SDPA kernel, no materialized scores)");
     }
+    if dropout > 0.0 {
+        println!("dropout: ON (p={dropout}, residual-path, train-only inverted scaling)");
+    }
     let results = launch(
         &devices,
         &train_corpus,
diff --git a/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/ddp.rs b/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/ddp.rs
index 6d3f847..4b442eb 100644
--- a/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/ddp.rs
+++ b/crates/xtrain-distributed/src/ddp.rs
@@ -124,6 +124,14 @@ pub fn train_rank(
         // all-reduce fires ONLY after the last micro-step (intermediate micro-steps
         // are local-only, no NCCL).
         let mut local_sum = 0.0f32; // Σ over micro of (local_mean · b_local)
+        // Training mode → dropout active (T18; no-op when cfg.dropout == 0). Set
+        // each step so it is restored after a periodic eval flips the model to eval
+        // mode (eval_loss calls model.eval() and does not restore). Mirrors the
+        // single-GPU loop's train/eval discipline — without this, DDP forwards run
+        // in the default eval (identity) mode and --dropout is silently ignored
+        // (the T21 launcher-wiring gap the V9-PILOT caught). Each micro-step's
+        // forward bumps the per-step seed → fresh masks.
+        model.train();
         for _ in 0..accum {
             let mut inputs = Vec::with_capacity(batch_local);
             let mut targets_v = Vec::with_capacity(batch_local);