diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 533fdc6e..e47929e9 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ The terminal provider scans `terminalLinkLine()`, which extends `terminalPathLin
 
 **Ultracode / workflow-run visualization** (opt-in, default OFF): the Workflow tool writes a completion artifact only at run *end*, so live in-flight runs exist solely as transcript dirs. `workflow-run-watcher.ts` therefore synthesizes ACTIVE runs from transcripts until the completion artifact appears and supersedes them. It is **STANDALONE** and deliberately never imports or touches `subagent-watcher.ts`, despite reading the same tree. Two independent toggles: `showUltracodeAgents` (docked panel) and `ultracodeFloatingWindows` (floating windows); the watcher starts if **either** is on. → [architecture-invariants#ultracode-and-workflow-run-visualization](docs/architecture-invariants.md#ultracode-and-workflow-run-visualization)
 
-**Clone a repository as a case** (issue #236, Add Case → **Clone Repo**): `POST /api/cases/clone` clones synchronously into the caller's case space (bounded by `GIT_CLONE_TIMEOUT_MS`, no job store); `POST /api/cases/clone-preflight` checks anonymous cloneability and lists refs. Core in `src/git-clone.ts`. ⚠️ **The URL is a code-execution surface**: refuse every `::` form and a leading `-`, spawn only argv arrays with `--` before operands. ⚠️ Stay non-interactive (`gitNonInteractiveEnv()`) or the open request hangs; never collect credentials, refuse `user:password@` URLs. ⚠️ Timeout kills the process GROUP, remove the destination only if this attempt created it, and repo contents win over scaffolding (existing `CLAUDE.md` kept, hooks merged, repo `.claude/settings*` warned about). ⚠️ A `path` is the folder cloned INTO (no case-name subfolder) and registers a linked case: admin-only in multi-user mode, judged by `prepareNewCasePath()`, empty or new only (`intoEmptyDir` clones straight into an empty one and never removes it; one direct clone per folder at a time, and its cleanup is skipped unless git actually ran (`GitRun.started`: a full queue or a slot wait that timed out wrote nothing) and did not refuse the folder (git's own `already exists and is not an empty directory` text, tested directly and never through the classifier's code, since the refusal quotes the path and a folder named `openssl` once classified as unreachable) and when the mount is unresponsive; a folder at or inside a Docker case workspace is refused `400`, since git would run the new repository's hooks and filters on the host). → [architecture-invariants#clone-a-repository-as-a-case](docs/architecture-invariants.md#clone-a-repository-as-a-case)
+**Clone a repository as a case** (issue #236, Add Case → **Clone Repo**): `POST /api/cases/clone` clones synchronously into the caller's case space (bounded by `GIT_CLONE_TIMEOUT_MS`, no job store); `POST /api/cases/clone-preflight` checks anonymous cloneability and lists refs. Core in `src/git-clone.ts`. ⚠️ **The URL is a code-execution surface**: refuse every `::` form and a leading `-`, spawn only argv arrays with `--` before operands. ⚠️ Stay non-interactive (`gitNonInteractiveEnv()`) or the open request hangs; never collect credentials, refuse `user:password@` URLs. ⚠️ Timeout kills the process GROUP, remove the destination only if this attempt created it, and repo contents win over scaffolding (existing `CLAUDE.md` kept, hooks merged, repo `.claude/settings*` warned about). ⚠️ A `path` is the folder cloned INTO (no case-name subfolder) and registers a linked case: admin-only in multi-user mode, judged by `prepareNewCasePath()`, empty or new only; an empty one is cloned into directly and never removed, and emptied after a failure only when git really ran and did not refuse it. ⚠️ A destination at or inside a Docker case workspace is refused `400` on both branches: git would run the new repository's hooks and filters on the host. → [architecture-invariants#clone-a-repository-as-a-case](docs/architecture-invariants.md#clone-a-repository-as-a-case)
 
 **Git worktrees of a case** (case picker → **Git worktrees…**; `src/git-worktrees.ts`, `routes/worktree-routes.ts`): a local repository case keeps worktrees at `<repo>/.claude/worktrees/<name>` on `worktree-<name>`, Claude Code's own `--worktree` layout. ⚠️ Only that managed path is ever created or removed, every component `lstat`ed and realpath-checked (a symlinked `.claude` is refused). ⚠️ git never runs for a Docker or remote case, nor at or inside a Docker workspace (`worktree add` runs hooks and filters on the host). ⚠️ Remove is `git worktree remove` WITHOUT `--force`, refused while a live session is inside; branch delete is `-d`, never `-D`. ⚠️ Sessions start through the existing create paths (quick-start `worktree`, or `POST /api/sessions` `workingDir`), never a new spawn path. → [architecture-invariants#git-worktrees-of-a-case](docs/architecture-invariants.md#git-worktrees-of-a-case)
 
diff --git a/docs/architecture-invariants.md b/docs/architecture-invariants.md
index 1b070000..f5a741e4 100644
--- a/docs/architecture-invariants.md
+++ b/docs/architecture-invariants.md
@@ -473,6 +473,8 @@ Tests: `test/file-preview-markdown.test.ts` (jsdom-in-vm, pins every rule above)
 - ⚠️ **The URL is a code-execution surface, which is why it is parsed rather than forwarded.** `ext::sh -c <cmd>` makes git run an arbitrary command as its transport, and ANY `<name>::<payload>` dispatches to a `git-remote-<name>` helper, so every `::` form is refused outright. A repository starting with `-` is read by git as a flag; that is rejected AND every spawn puts `--` before the operands, because either defence alone is one edit away from being a hole. Spawns are argv arrays, never a shell (unlike `remote-hosts.ts`, which does build a shell line and must `shellescape`). The Zod schema deliberately only length-bounds `repository` — a weaker regex duplicate of `parseGitRepositoryUrl` would be the copy that drifts.
 - ⚠️ **Non-interactive or it hangs the request.** The clone is synchronous by design (no job store, no polling, no cancellation surface), so an invisible credential prompt would pin an open HTTP request until the timeout. `gitNonInteractiveEnv()` closes all four prompt paths at once: `GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT=0`, empty `GIT_ASKPASS`/`SSH_ASKPASS` + `SSH_ASKPASS_REQUIRE=never` + empty `DISPLAY`, `GCM_INTERACTIVE=never`, and `ssh -oBatchMode=yes`. `HOME`/`PATH` are inherited on purpose — a user whose own agent or credential helper already works keeps working (so a private repo may well clone; Codeman just never collects or stores credentials, and refuses a `user:password@` URL). ⚠️ In multi-user mode a NON-ADMIN's clone and preflight run with `git -c credential.helper=` (`cloneWithoutCredentialHelpers`), because the helpers belong to the one server account every user shares; admins and single-user mode keep them. The Docker server image relies on exactly this: when built with the opt-in `CODEMAN_INSTALL_GH`/`CODEMAN_INSTALL_AZ` args it configures `gh` (github.com) and an `az`-backed helper (`docker/git-credential-azure-cli`, Azure DevOps) in its SYSTEM gitconfig, both silent until the user signs the CLI in, so a private clone there still fails fast rather than prompting.
 - ⚠️ **Bounded in time, output and concurrency.** Timeout → SIGTERM → SIGKILL, signalled to the whole process GROUP (`detached: true`, negative pid) because `git clone` fans out into `git-remote-https`/`index-pack` children that a polite signal to the parent leaves running. stderr is kept as a bounded, credential-redacted, control-stripped TAIL; `ls-remote` stdout is capped and refs are capped at 500 each. A small global pool (default 2, `CODEMAN_MAX_GIT_OPERATIONS`) caps concurrent git network ops, same reasoning as `document-conversion-limiter.ts`.
+- ⚠️ **A direct clone's cleanup has a premise.** One direct (`intoEmptyDir`) clone per folder runs at a time, and a failed one empties the folder only when git actually ran (`GitRun.started`: a full queue or a slot wait that timed out wrote nothing) and did not refuse the folder. That refusal is read from git's own `already exists and is not an empty directory` text, tested directly and never through the classifier's code: the message quotes the path, and a folder named `openssl` once classified as unreachable. A folder whose mount stopped answering is left alone too (`probePathKind()`), so no libuv worker is held on it.
+- ⚠️ **No clone at or inside a Docker case workspace, with or without a `path`.** Git would run the new repository's hooks and filters on the host. Refused `400` on both branches.
 - **Repository contents beat scaffolding.** An existing `CLAUDE.md` is kept (a generated one is written only when absent) and hooks are MERGED into whatever `.claude/settings.local.json` the repo shipped. A repo that ships its own `.claude/settings*.json` is reported back as a warning, because repo-supplied hooks run on the user's machine as soon as a session starts there.
 - **Failure leaves nothing behind.** The destination is removed only when it did not exist before the attempt, and a pre-existing directory is refused rather than cloned into, so a failed clone never squats on a case name and never touches an existing tree.
 - ⚠️ **Error detail comes from the LAST diagnostic line, not the first.** `git clone` opens with `Cloning into '<dest>'…`, so a first-line pick reported the destination path as the reason a bad branch failed (observed against a real remote). `NOT_FOUND` wording must also say "or private": GitHub answers "Repository not found" for a private repo and a typo alike when unauthenticated.
diff --git a/src/git-clone.ts b/src/git-clone.ts
index 51484d7a..513d6a11 100644
--- a/src/git-clone.ts
+++ b/src/git-clone.ts
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ export function classifyGitFailure(stderr: string, timedOut: boolean, spawnError
     };
   }
   if (
-    /could not resolve host|connection refused|connection timed out|network is unreachable|\bssl\b|\btls\b|certificate|handshake/.test(
+    /could not resolve host|connection refused|connection timed out|network is unreachable|\bssl(?:\b|_)|\btls\b|certificate|handshake/.test(
       lower
     )
   ) {
diff --git a/src/web/case-path.ts b/src/web/case-path.ts
index 369464d9..e1219b66 100644
--- a/src/web/case-path.ts
+++ b/src/web/case-path.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ export interface NewCasePathContext {
    * listed as a local case, so it must not be registered as a linked one too.
    */
   casesDirs?: readonly string[];
+  /** What to do instead when the path is the cases folder or directly in it. Defaults to Create New's wording. */
+  casesDirAdvice?: string;
 }
 
 export type NewCasePathResult =
@@ -106,10 +108,10 @@ export function blockedReason(
   // refusing everything below it blocked most of the tree.
   for (const dir of ctx.casesDirs ?? []) {
     if (absPath === dir) {
-      return `That is the cases folder itself (${dir}); create a case inside it with plain Create New (no custom folder)`;
+      return `That is the cases folder itself (${dir}); ${ctx.casesDirAdvice ?? 'create a case inside it with plain Create New (no custom folder)'}`;
     }
     if (dirname(absPath) === dir) {
-      return `That folder is directly in the cases folder (${dir}), where it is listed as a local case; create it there with plain Create New (no custom folder)`;
+      return `That folder is directly in the cases folder (${dir}), where it is listed as a local case; ${ctx.casesDirAdvice ?? 'create it there with plain Create New (no custom folder)'}`;
     }
   }
   return null;
@@ -132,7 +134,7 @@ async function resolvedPolicy(ctx: NewCasePathContext): Promise<[NewCasePathCont
     Promise.all((ctx.casesDirs ?? []).map(realpathOr)),
     Promise.all(BLOCKED_SYSTEM_ROOTS.map(realpathOr)),
   ]);
-  return [{ home, dataDir, casesDirs }, systemRoots];
+  return [{ home, dataDir, casesDirs, casesDirAdvice: ctx.casesDirAdvice }, systemRoots];
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/web/routes/case-routes.ts b/src/web/routes/case-routes.ts
index ecb3a667..80cd75ab 100644
--- a/src/web/routes/case-routes.ts
+++ b/src/web/routes/case-routes.ts
@@ -727,6 +727,7 @@ export function registerCaseRoutes(
           home: homedir(),
           dataDir: getDataDir(),
           casesDirs: [...new Set([casesDir, resolveCasesDir()])],
+          casesDirAdvice: 'clone there without a custom folder',
         });
         if (!prepared.ok) {
           reply.code(
diff --git a/test/routes/case-clone-custom-folder.test.ts b/test/routes/case-clone-custom-folder.test.ts
index 2c8ee229..39e1ac0d 100644
--- a/test/routes/case-clone-custom-folder.test.ts
+++ b/test/routes/case-clone-custom-folder.test.ts
@@ -296,6 +296,13 @@ describe.skipIf(!isGitAvailable())('POST /api/cases/clone with a custom folder',
       'HOST_UNREACHABLE'
     );
     expect(classifyGitFailure('fatal: TLS handshake failure', false).code).toBe('HOST_UNREACHABLE');
+    // `_` is a word character, so a bare \bssl\b misses OpenSSL's and LibreSSL's usual flaky-network error.
+    expect(
+      classifyGitFailure(
+        "fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/o/r/': OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to github.com:443",
+        false
+      ).code
+    ).toBe('HOST_UNREACHABLE');
     expect(classifyGitFailure('fatal: could not resolve host: example.invalid', false).code).toBe('HOST_UNREACHABLE');
     expect(classifyGitFailure("fatal: repository 'https://x/y.git/' not found", false).code).toBe('NOT_FOUND');
   });
@@ -318,6 +325,18 @@ describe.skipIf(!isGitAvailable())('POST /api/cases/clone with a custom folder',
     }
   });
 
+  it('points Clone Repo at itself, not Create New, for the cases folder and a folder directly in it', async () => {
+    const { app } = await createRouteTestHarness(registerCaseRoutes);
+    const casesDir = join(homedir(), 'codeman-cases');
+    mkdirSync(casesDir, { recursive: true });
+    for (const path of [casesDir, join(casesDir, 'direct-child')]) {
+      const res = await clone(app, { name: 'direct-child', repository: origin, path });
+      expect(res.statusCode, path).toBe(400);
+      expect(res.json().error, path).toMatch(/clone there without a custom folder/);
+      expect(res.json().error, path).not.toMatch(/Create New/);
+    }
+  });
+
   it('refuses a blocked tree such as ~/.ssh', async () => {
     const { app } = await createRouteTestHarness(registerCaseRoutes);
     mkdirSync(join(homedir(), '.ssh'), { recursive: true });