A stellar light curve pilot leaves recovery gains from flare and artifact controls unresolved

We tested whether explicit flare and artifact controls improve recovery of simulated stellar self-lensing pulses in public Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves. A preregistered sample contains 100 stars, with 40 used for development and 60 for evaluation. At the same empirical background-trigger fraction of 10%, the development-selected controls recovered 269 of 540 pulses (49.8%), versus (%) for the lensing-template baseline. The difference is percentage points, with a paired target-bootstrap interval from to percentage points. This pilot leaves a recovery benefit unresolved. Background triggers are not labeled false alarms, and this study makes no astronomical discovery claim.