diff --git a/src/reporters/github/github.test.ts b/src/reporters/github/github.test.ts
index c676fd3..07fa0b5 100644
--- a/src/reporters/github/github.test.ts
+++ b/src/reporters/github/github.test.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,29 @@
 import { test, expect, describe } from "vitest";
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+import { dirname, join } from "node:path";
+import n from "nunjucks";
 import { formatCost, queryPreview, buildViewModel } from "./github.ts";
-import type { ReportContext } from "../reporter.ts";
+import { isQueryLong, renderExplain, type ReportContext } from "../reporter.ts";
 import type { RunComparison } from "../site-api.ts";
 
+const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+const __dirname = dirname(__filename);
+const successTemplate = readFileSync(join(__dirname, "success.md.j2"), "utf-8");
+
+n.configure({ autoescape: false, trimBlocks: true, lstripBlocks: true });
+
+function renderTemplate(ctx: ReportContext) {
+  const viewModel = buildViewModel(ctx);
+  return n.renderString(successTemplate, {
+    ...ctx,
+    ...viewModel,
+    isQueryLong,
+    renderExplain,
+    formatCost,
+  });
+}
+
 describe("formatCost", () => {
   test("formats small numbers without commas", () => {
     expect(formatCost(9)).toBe("9");
@@ -300,3 +321,22 @@ describe("buildViewModel", () => {
   });
 
 });
+
+describe("template rendering", () => {
+  test("renders queryStats.total as the query count", () => {
+    const ctx = makeContext({
+      queryStats: { total: 5, matched: 3, optimized: 1, errored: 0 },
+      comparison: makeComparison(),
+    });
+    const output = renderTemplate(ctx);
+    expect(output).toContain("5 queries analyzed");
+  });
+
+  test("renders queryStats.total in no-comparison mode", () => {
+    const ctx = makeContext({
+      queryStats: { total: 3, matched: 1, optimized: 0, errored: 0 },
+    });
+    const output = renderTemplate(ctx);
+    expect(output).toContain("3 queries analyzed");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/reporters/reporter.ts b/src/reporters/reporter.ts
index 165296f..8e55315 100644
--- a/src/reporters/reporter.ts
+++ b/src/reporters/reporter.ts
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ export type ReportMetadata = {
 declare const s: unique symbol;
 
 export interface ReportStatistics {
-  /** Total number of queries seen in the log */
+  /** Number of unique, non-filtered queries analyzed */
   total: number;
   /** Number of queries that matched the query pattern */
   matched: number;
diff --git a/src/runner.ts b/src/runner.ts
index 44f5bd6..a48f15a 100644
--- a/src/runner.ts
+++ b/src/runner.ts
@@ -108,7 +108,6 @@ export class Runner {
       if (loglevel !== "LOG" || !queryString.startsWith("plan:")) {
         continue;
       }
-      total++;
       const planString: string = queryString.split("plan:")[1].trim();
       const json = preprocessEncodedJson(planString);
       if (!json) {
@@ -135,6 +134,7 @@ export class Runner {
         continue;
       }
 
+      total++;
       const recentQuery = await RecentQuery.fromLogEntry(query, hash);
       recentQueries.push(recentQuery)
     }