diff --git a/api-v3/src/inspection-findings/dto/merge-finding-catalog-item.dto.ts b/api-v3/src/inspection-findings/dto/merge-finding-catalog-item.dto.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad2dc8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api-v3/src/inspection-findings/dto/merge-finding-catalog-item.dto.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { Transform } from 'class-transformer';
+import { IsString, IsUUID, MaxLength, MinLength } from 'class-validator';
+
+export class MergeFindingCatalogItemDto {
+  @IsUUID('4')
+  canonicalItemId!: string;
+
+  @Transform(({ value }) => (typeof value === 'string' ? value.trim() : value))
+  @IsString()
+  @MinLength(8)
+  @MaxLength(2000)
+  reason!: string;
+}