diff --git a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/backend/ExhortIntegration.java b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/backend/ExhortIntegration.java
index c0d95d75..435393a3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/backend/ExhortIntegration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/backend/ExhortIntegration.java
@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ public void configure() {
       .to(direct("preProcessAnalysisRequest"))
       .process(this::processAnalysisRequest)
       .process(monitoringProcessor::processOriginalRequest)
+      .bean(this, "addSbomIdToDependencyTree")
       .to(direct("analyzeSbom"))
       .to(direct("enrichTrustedLibraries"))
       .to(direct("report"))
@@ -317,6 +318,9 @@ private void processAnalysisRequest(Exchange exchange) {
     var parser = getSbomParser(exchange);
     var tree = parser.parse(exchange.getIn().getBody(InputStream.class));
     exchange.setProperty(Constants.DEPENDENCY_TREE_PROPERTY, tree);
+    if (tree.root() != null) {
+      exchange.setProperty(Constants.SBOM_ID_PROPERTY, tree.root().purl().canonicalize());
+    }
     exchange.getIn().setBody(tree);
   }
 
@@ -418,6 +422,9 @@ private void validateSbomsInput(Exchange exchange) {
 
   public DependencyTree addSbomIdToDependencyTree(
       @Body DependencyTree tree, @ExchangeProperty(Constants.SBOM_ID_PROPERTY) String sbomId) {
+    if (sbomId == null || sbomId.isBlank()) {
+      return tree;
+    }
     Map<PackageRef, DirectDependency> dependencies = new HashMap<>();
     if (tree.dependencies() != null) {
       dependencies.putAll(tree.dependencies());
@@ -426,7 +433,7 @@ public DependencyTree addSbomIdToDependencyTree(
     if (!dependencies.containsKey(sbomRef)) {
       dependencies.put(sbomRef, new DirectDependency(sbomRef, Collections.emptySet()));
     }
-    return DependencyTree.builder().dependencies(dependencies).build();
+    return new DependencyTree(dependencies, null, tree.root(), tree.componentHashes());
   }
 
   public Map.Entry<String, AnalysisReport> transformBatchAnalysisReport(
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/licenses/DepsDevRequestBuilder.java b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/licenses/DepsDevRequestBuilder.java
index 164be9e3..3a744a82 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/licenses/DepsDevRequestBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/licenses/DepsDevRequestBuilder.java
@@ -68,6 +68,9 @@ public List<PackageRef> fromEndpoint(LicensesRequest request) {
 
   public List<PackageRef> fromSbom(DependencyTree tree) {
     var purls = tree.getAll();
+    if (tree.root() != null) {
+      purls.remove(tree.root());
+    }
     return new ArrayList<PackageRef>(purls);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/providers/trustify/TrustifyIntegration.java b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/providers/trustify/TrustifyIntegration.java
index 97dee126..b500e7c3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/providers/trustify/TrustifyIntegration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/github/guacsec/trustifyda/integration/providers/trustify/TrustifyIntegration.java
@@ -462,10 +462,13 @@ private void filterLocalPackages(Exchange exchange) {
             .collect(Collectors.toSet());
     var sbomId = exchange.getProperty(Constants.SBOM_ID_PROPERTY, String.class);
     if (sbomId != null && !sbomId.isBlank()) {
-      // Batch analysis injects the SBOM root component as a dependency entry to drive other
-      // processing; it is not necessarily returned by Trustify and would otherwise stay a cache
-      // miss on every request.
-      packages.remove(new PackageRef(sbomId));
+      // The SBOM root component is injected as a dependency entry to drive recommendation
+      // processing; remove it from the vulnerability scan unless it is an OCI image PURL,
+      // which must stay so the hardened-image recommendation route can match it.
+      PackageRef sbomRef = new PackageRef(sbomId);
+      if (!OCI_PURL_TYPE.equals(sbomRef.purl().getType())) {
+        packages.remove(sbomRef);
+      }
     }
     exchange.getIn().setBody(packages);
   }
@@ -501,6 +504,13 @@ private void aggregateCacheHits(Exchange exchange) {
       return;
     }
 
+    // Cached PackageItems may contain recommendation data from a previous request
+    // with recommend=true. Strip it when the current request has recommend=false.
+    if (!isRecommendEnabled(exchange)) {
+      cacheHits.replaceAll(
+          (ref, item) -> new PackageItem(item.packageRef(), null, item.issues(), item.warnings()));
+    }
+
     ProviderResponse response = exchange.getIn().getBody(ProviderResponse.class);
     if (response == null) {
       String providerName = exchange.getProperty(Constants.PROVIDER_NAME_PROPERTY, String.class);
@@ -520,4 +530,11 @@ private void aggregateCacheHits(Exchange exchange) {
 
     exchange.getIn().setBody(new ProviderResponse(mergedItems, response.status()));
   }
+
+  private boolean isRecommendEnabled(Exchange exchange) {
+    Object param = exchange.getProperty(Constants.RECOMMEND_PARAM);
+    if (param instanceof Boolean b) return b;
+    if (param instanceof String s) return Boolean.parseBoolean(s);
+    return true;
+  }
 }