diff --git a/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogCrashReportProcessor.swift b/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogCrashReportProcessor.swift
index 22517ac9a..e18842fc3 100644
--- a/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogCrashReportProcessor.swift
+++ b/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogCrashReportProcessor.swift
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import Foundation
 
             // Fatal crash
             properties["$exception_level"] = "fatal"
+            properties["$exception_source"] = "ios.crash_reporter"
 
             // Build stack frames once, reuse for both exception info and debug images
             let stackFrames = buildStackFrames(from: report, config: config)
@@ -141,6 +142,10 @@ import Foundation
                 exception["thread_id"] = crashedThread.threadNumber
             }
 
+            var mechanism = exception["mechanism"] as? [String: Any] ?? [:]
+            mechanism["exception_id"] = 0
+            exception["mechanism"] = mechanism
+
             // cleanup nil values
             exception = exception.compactMapValues { $0 }
 
diff --git a/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogExceptionProcessor.swift b/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogExceptionProcessor.swift
index 677cc574e..7a8bb8f8b 100644
--- a/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogExceptionProcessor.swift
+++ b/PostHog/ErrorTracking/PostHogExceptionProcessor.swift
@@ -100,8 +100,9 @@ enum PostHogExceptionProcessor {
     // MARK: - Internal Exception Building
 
     private static func buildProperties(exceptions: [[String: Any]]) -> [String: Any] {
+        let exceptions = canonicalizeExceptions(exceptions)
         var properties: [String: Any] = [
-            "$exception_level": "error", // TODO: figure this out from error wrapped type
+            "$exception_level": "error",
         ]
         attachExceptionsAndDebugImages(exceptions, to: &properties)
         return properties
@@ -133,7 +134,9 @@ enum PostHogExceptionProcessor {
 
         var current = exception
         var seen = Set<ObjectIdentifier>([ObjectIdentifier(exception)])
-        while let underlying = current.userInfo?[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSException {
+        while nsExceptions.count < 50,
+              let underlying = current.userInfo?[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSException
+        {
             let id = ObjectIdentifier(underlying)
             guard seen.insert(id).inserted else { break } // avoid circular references
             nsExceptions.append(underlying)
@@ -183,7 +186,9 @@ enum PostHogExceptionProcessor {
 
         var current = nsError
         var seen = Set<ObjectIdentifier>([ObjectIdentifier(nsError)])
-        while let underlying = current.userInfo[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSError {
+        while errors.count < 50,
+              let underlying = current.userInfo[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSError
+        {
             let id = ObjectIdentifier(underlying)
             guard seen.insert(id).inserted else { break } // avoid circular references
             errors.append(underlying)
@@ -257,9 +262,7 @@ enum PostHogExceptionProcessor {
             exceptionDict["type"] = typeName
         }
 
-        if let reason = exception.reason, !reason.isEmpty {
-            exceptionDict["value"] = reason
-        }
+        exceptionDict["value"] = exception.reason ?? ""
 
         // Use exception's real stack if available, otherwise capture current (synthetic)
         let exceptionAddresses = exception.callStackReturnAddresses
@@ -365,6 +368,28 @@ enum PostHogExceptionProcessor {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Final event assembly owns deterministic flattened-tree linkage. The first entry preserves
+    /// capture-boundary metadata; underlying entries are linked as `inner` relationships and do
+    /// not inherit the outer handled state.
+    private static func canonicalizeExceptions(_ exceptions: [[String: Any]]) -> [[String: Any]] {
+        Array(exceptions.prefix(50)).enumerated().map { index, original in
+            var exception = original
+            var mechanism = exception["mechanism"] as? [String: Any] ?? [:]
+            mechanism["exception_id"] = index
+            if index == 0 {
+                mechanism.removeValue(forKey: "parent_id")
+                mechanism.removeValue(forKey: "source")
+            } else {
+                mechanism["type"] = "chained"
+                mechanism["source"] = "inner"
+                mechanism["parent_id"] = index - 1
+                mechanism.removeValue(forKey: "handled")
+            }
+            exception["mechanism"] = mechanism
+            return exception
+        }
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Stack Trace Capture
 
     /// Build stacktrace dictionary from current thread (synthetic)
diff --git a/PostHog/PostHogSDK.swift b/PostHog/PostHogSDK.swift
index 2b3b7681d..1f7155ae0 100644
--- a/PostHog/PostHogSDK.swift
+++ b/PostHog/PostHogSDK.swift
@@ -2930,7 +2930,17 @@ let maxRetryDelay = 30.0
         additionalProperties: [String: Any]?
     ) {
         var mergedProperties = exceptionProperties
-        additionalProperties?.forEach { mergedProperties[$0.key] = $0.value }
+        let reservedExceptionProperties: Set<String> = [
+            "$exception_list", "$exception_level", "$exception_source", "$debug_images",
+            "$exception_handled", "$exception_types", "$exception_values", "$exception_sources",
+            "$exception_functions", "$exception_fingerprint_version", "$exception_fingerprint_record",
+            "$exception_issue_id", "$exception_release", "$cymbal_errors",
+        ]
+        additionalProperties?.forEach {
+            if !reservedExceptionProperties.contains($0.key) {
+                mergedProperties[$0.key] = $0.value
+            }
+        }
 
         // ignoredExceptionTypes is enforced in captureInternal, the chokepoint for every $exception path
         capture("$exception", properties: mergedProperties)
diff --git a/PostHogTests/PostHogExceptionProcessorTest.swift b/PostHogTests/PostHogExceptionProcessorTest.swift
index 0ccd24c6a..a3760e674 100644
--- a/PostHogTests/PostHogExceptionProcessorTest.swift
+++ b/PostHogTests/PostHogExceptionProcessorTest.swift
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ struct PostHogExceptionProcessorTest {
             #expect(mechHandled == true)
             let mechSynthetic = mechanism?["synthetic"] as? Bool
             #expect(mechSynthetic == true)
+            #expect(mechanism?["exception_id"] as? Int == 0)
+            #expect(mechanism?["parent_id"] == nil)
 
             let stacktrace = exception?["stacktrace"] as? [String: Any]
             #expect(stacktrace != nil)
@@ -110,6 +112,14 @@ struct PostHogExceptionProcessorTest {
             #expect(type0 == "WrapperDomain")
             let type1 = exceptionList?[1]["type"] as? String
             #expect(type1 == "RootDomain")
+            let rootMechanism = exceptionList?[0]["mechanism"] as? [String: Any]
+            let innerMechanism = exceptionList?[1]["mechanism"] as? [String: Any]
+            #expect(rootMechanism?["exception_id"] as? Int == 0)
+            #expect(innerMechanism?["exception_id"] as? Int == 1)
+            #expect(innerMechanism?["parent_id"] as? Int == 0)
+            #expect(innerMechanism?["type"] as? String == "chained")
+            #expect(innerMechanism?["source"] as? String == "inner")
+            #expect(innerMechanism?["handled"] == nil)
         }
 
         @Test("handles circular error references")
@@ -211,7 +221,7 @@ struct PostHogExceptionProcessorTest {
             let exc = exceptionList?.first
             let excType = exc?["type"] as? String
             #expect(excType == "NoReasonException")
-            #expect(exc?["value"] == nil)
+            #expect(exc?["value"] as? String == "")
         }
 
         @Test("marks exception as unhandled")
diff --git a/PostHogTests/Resources/event-shapes-batch.json b/PostHogTests/Resources/event-shapes-batch.json
index 40546bdc3..7aae3be7f 100644
--- a/PostHogTests/Resources/event-shapes-batch.json
+++ b/PostHogTests/Resources/event-shapes-batch.json
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@
           "$exception_list" : [
             {
               "mechanism" : {
+                "exception_id" : 0,
                 "handled" : true,
                 "synthetic" : true,
                 "type" : "generic"