diff --git a/datatypes/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/datatypes/Address.java b/datatypes/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/datatypes/Address.java
index 0ddc8ce..1a2b3c4 100644
--- a/datatypes/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/datatypes/Address.java
+++ b/datatypes/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/datatypes/Address.java
@@ -112,6 +112,12 @@ public class Address extends BytesHolder {
   /** AERE PQC precompile: Falcon HashToPoint (FIPS 206) SHAKE256 rejection sampler. */
   public static final Address AERE_HASHTOPOINT = Address.fromHexString("0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000ae7");

+  /**
+   * AERE PQC precompile: DIRECT SP1 (Plonky3) inner FRI/STARK verification (hash-based, no BN254
+   * Groth16 wrap). REFERENCE SKELETON as of 2026-07-18 - fail-closed, NOT a working verifier.
+   */
+  public static final Address AERE_SP1_STARK_VERIFY = Address.fromHexString("0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000ae8");
+
   /** The constant ZERO. */
   public static final Address ZERO = Address.fromHexString("0x0");

diff --git a/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/MainnetPrecompiledContracts.java b/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/MainnetPrecompiledContracts.java
index 38baa14..49c0d1e 100644
--- a/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/MainnetPrecompiledContracts.java
+++ b/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/MainnetPrecompiledContracts.java
@@ -236,6 +236,10 @@ public interface MainnetPrecompiledContracts {
     registry.put(Address.AERE_MLKEM768, new MLKEM768PrecompiledContract(gasCalculator));
     registry.put(Address.AERE_HASHTOPOINT, new HashToPointPrecompiledContract(gasCalculator));
+    // AERE PQ STARK verifier at 0x0AE8. REFERENCE SKELETON: registered so the fork can be built
+    // and the wire/gas/fail-closed behavior tested, but it verifies NOTHING yet (returns EMPTY for
+    // every input) until the delegated crypto core is ported. It MUST NOT be registered under an
+    // already-crossed activation milestone on mainnet. See docs/PQ-STARK-VERIFIER-*-2026-07-18.md.
+    registry.put(Address.AERE_SP1_STARK_VERIFY, new Sp1StarkVerifierPrecompiledContract(gasCalculator));
   }
 }
diff --git a/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/Sp1StarkVerifierPrecompiledContract.java b/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/Sp1StarkVerifierPrecompiledContract.java
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/evm/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/evm/precompile/Sp1StarkVerifierPrecompiledContract.java
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+// See aerenew/pqc-fork/precompiles/Sp1StarkVerifierPrecompiledContract.java for the full class
+// body (kept in the repo tree, not inlined here, to keep this patch reviewable). Copy that file
+// verbatim to this path when applying the patch to a besu checkout. It is a REFERENCE SKELETON:
+// BabyBear field arithmetic + wire parser + challenger/FRI/constraint STRUCTURE are present and
+// testable; the Poseidon2-BabyBear permutation, FRI folding arithmetic, and SP1 recursion-AIR
+// constraint evaluation are DELEGATED (port targets: Plonky3 p3-fri / p3-poseidon2 / p3-uni-stark
+// and SP1 sp1-stark) and currently return UNAVAILABLE, so the precompile fail-closes to EMPTY.