diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index e6f2f9b2..a04e8e3c 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with co
 >
 > **This file is in `.prettierignore` on purpose.** Prettier's markdown printer escapes underscores inside the glob-heavy paths used throughout (`agent-*.jsonl` became `agent-\_.jsonl`, collapsing backtick spans and corrupting a whole paragraph). Do not remove the ignore entry, and do not run `prettier --write` on it.
 >
-> **Repo root is kept short on purpose** (the README sits below the file listing on GitHub). Config lives in `config/` (`eslint.config.js`, `knip.json`, the vitest configs), Prettier's config is the `"prettier"` key in `package.json`, and `SECURITY.md` is under `.github/`. Root-only files are the ones tools genuinely require there: `CLAUDE.md` + `AGENTS.md` (loaded from the root by Claude Code / Codex), `CHANGELOG.md` (changesets writes it next to `package.json`), `tsconfig.json`, `.editorconfig`, `.nvmrc`/`.npmrc`, `.prettierignore` (resolved relative to cwd), `LICENSE` (GitHub detection), `.dockerignore` (the build context is the repo root, so Docker resolves it there and nowhere else) and `install.sh` (its raw URL is the published install one-liner). `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` is root-only for the same reason: `/plugin marketplace add Ark0N/Codeman` reads it from the repo root and nowhere else, which makes the repo its own plugin marketplace. The one plugin it lists is `plugins/codeman/` (manifest + README + a MIRROR of `skills/codeman/`), and ⚠️ the plugin is a small separate directory on purpose: `claude plugin install` copies the plugin root into its cache, and a plugin root that carries a `package.json` gets an **npm install** at install time (measured with the repo root as plugin root: 832 MB, 511 packages and this repo's postinstall on every installer's machine), while a symlink to `skills/codeman` would dangle in the copy. `skills/codeman/` stays the single source; `scripts/sync-plugin.mjs` mirrors it and writes `package.json`'s version into both manifests inside `version-packages`, and `test/plugin-manifest.test.ts` pins the byte-identity, the versions, the absence of a `package.json` in the plugin root and that no other component (`commands/`, `agents/`, `hooks/`, `.mcp.json`, `settings.json`) rides along. `npm run check:plugin` runs that drift check plus both strict validations with EXPLICIT paths (`plugins/codeman`, `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`): a bare `.` argument copied out of prose reads as a full stop and gets dropped, which surfaces as `missing required argument 'path'`. Needs the `claude` CLI, so it is a local check, not a CI step. Don't relocate those.
+> **Repo root is kept short on purpose** (the README sits below the file listing on GitHub). Config lives in `config/` (`eslint.config.js`, `knip.json`, the vitest configs), Prettier's config is the `"prettier"` key in `package.json`, and `SECURITY.md` is under `.github/`. Root-only files are the ones tools genuinely require there: `CLAUDE.md` + `AGENTS.md` (loaded from the root by Claude Code / Codex), `CHANGELOG.md` (changesets writes it next to `package.json`), `tsconfig.json`, `.editorconfig`, `.nvmrc`/`.npmrc`, `.prettierignore` (resolved relative to cwd), `vitest.config.ts` (a one-line re-export of `config/vitest.ci.config.ts`: vitest finds its config by walking up from cwd, so without it a bare `npx vitest` ran with no setup file and wrote into the real `~/.codeman`, #640), `LICENSE` (GitHub detection), `.dockerignore` (the build context is the repo root, so Docker resolves it there and nowhere else) and `install.sh` (its raw URL is the published install one-liner). `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` is root-only for the same reason: `/plugin marketplace add Ark0N/Codeman` reads it from the repo root and nowhere else, which makes the repo its own plugin marketplace. The one plugin it lists is `plugins/codeman/` (manifest + README + a MIRROR of `skills/codeman/`), and ⚠️ the plugin is a small separate directory on purpose: `claude plugin install` copies the plugin root into its cache, and a plugin root that carries a `package.json` gets an **npm install** at install time (measured with the repo root as plugin root: 832 MB, 511 packages and this repo's postinstall on every installer's machine), while a symlink to `skills/codeman` would dangle in the copy. `skills/codeman/` stays the single source; `scripts/sync-plugin.mjs` mirrors it and writes `package.json`'s version into both manifests inside `version-packages`, and `test/plugin-manifest.test.ts` pins the byte-identity, the versions, the absence of a `package.json` in the plugin root and that no other component (`commands/`, `agents/`, `hooks/`, `.mcp.json`, `settings.json`) rides along. `npm run check:plugin` runs that drift check plus both strict validations with EXPLICIT paths (`plugins/codeman`, `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`): a bare `.` argument copied out of prose reads as a full stop and gets dropped, which surfaces as `missing required argument 'path'`. Needs the `claude` CLI, so it is a local check, not a CI step. Don't relocate those.
 
 ## Quick Reference
 
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ A raw `npx vitest` used to find no config, so `setup.ts` never ran and the suite
 
 **Config**: Vitest with `globals: true`, `fileParallelism: false`. Timeout 30s, teardown 60s. `config/vitest.config.ts` is the everything-config behind `test:all`; `config/vitest.ci.config.ts` is the gate and derives its excludes from `config/test-suites.ts`, which is also what `vitest.browser.config.ts` and `vitest.perf.config.ts` derive their includes from — so the exclusions and the runners cannot drift apart. Keep shared options in sync across them.
 
-**Tmux safety**: under vitest (`VITEST`), `TmuxManager` no-ops ALL shell commands (`IS_TEST_MODE` in `src/tmux-manager.ts`), docker IO is no-op'd likewise, and `Session` spawns an echo PTY (`TEST_PTY_SCRIPT`) instead of attaching tmux. `test/setup.ts` gives each file a temp `HOME`/`USERPROFILE` and strips `CODEMAN_PASSWORD`/`CODEMAN_USERNAME`, `CODEMAN_GESTURE` and `CODEMAN_INSTANCE`/`CODEMAN_DATA_DIR`/`CODEMAN_TMUX_SOCKET` (pinned by `test/test-env-isolation.test.ts`). ⚠️ `CODEMAN_DATA_DIR` overrides the temp HOME, so never drop its strip; strip `CODEMAN_INSTANCE` in the setup file, never in a hook (captured at first import). ⚠️ Delete case trees only via `safeRmHomeTree()`. ⚠️ Raw `npx vitest` without `--config` skips `setup.ts` and its isolation. → [architecture-invariants#test-isolation-tmux-docker-and-home](docs/architecture-invariants.md#test-isolation-tmux-docker-and-home)
+**Tmux safety**: under vitest (`VITEST`), `TmuxManager` no-ops ALL shell commands (`IS_TEST_MODE` in `src/tmux-manager.ts`), docker IO is no-op'd likewise, and `Session` spawns an echo PTY (`TEST_PTY_SCRIPT`) instead of attaching tmux. `test/setup.ts` gives each file a temp `HOME`/`USERPROFILE` and strips `CODEMAN_PASSWORD`/`CODEMAN_USERNAME`, `CODEMAN_GESTURE` and `CODEMAN_INSTANCE`/`CODEMAN_DATA_DIR`/`CODEMAN_TMUX_SOCKET` (pinned by `test/test-env-isolation.test.ts`). ⚠️ `CODEMAN_DATA_DIR` overrides the temp HOME, so never drop its strip; strip `CODEMAN_INSTANCE` in the setup file, never in a hook (captured at first import). ⚠️ Delete case trees only via `safeRmHomeTree()`. ⚠️ A bare `npx vitest` gets `setup.ts` only through the root `vitest.config.ts` (a re-export of the gate config): keep that file, and never point `--config` at a config without `setupFiles`. → [architecture-invariants#test-isolation-tmux-docker-and-home](docs/architecture-invariants.md#test-isolation-tmux-docker-and-home)
 
 **Ports**: every in-process test server binds port 0 (the one exception, `test/codex-predictive-echo.test.ts`, starts a separate lab server process on 3222). A test that constructs `WebServer` reads `server.boundPort` (mobile tests: `createTestServer()`, then `server.boundPort`); a raw `http`/`net`/Fastify/`ws` server listens on `0` and reads `address().port`. `test/test-ports-guard.test.ts` fails a `WebServer` built on any other port and a raw `listen` on a number or `…PORT` constant. A test that needs a port nothing listens on binds 0, reads it and closes (`closedPort()` in `test/daemon-control.test.ts`), never "the server's port + 1". Never 3000 (the live instance).
 
diff --git a/docs/architecture-invariants.md b/docs/architecture-invariants.md
index 896e8d73..3e056e49 100644
--- a/docs/architecture-invariants.md
+++ b/docs/architecture-invariants.md
@@ -1170,9 +1170,9 @@ The repair is a **chmod, not a rebuild**: the prebuilt binary is fine. `scripts/
 
 ⚠️ `CODEMAN_DATA_DIR` is the one that matters: `getDataDir()` reads it as an ABSOLUTE override before it ever looks at `homedir()`, so one inherited from the shell (a second instance, a beta run, a shell left over from `codeman web -d`) bypasses the temp HOME entirely, and a bare suite run once overwrote the real `remote-hosts.json` with a route test's fixture. `os.homedir()` itself DOES follow `$HOME`, so the temp HOME is what redirects everything else; `CODEMAN_INSTANCE` must be stripped in the setup file and never in a hook, because `config/instance.ts` captures it into a module-level const on first import.
 
-Tests that delete case trees go through `safeRmHomeTree()` (`test/mocks`), which refuses any path outside the temp HOME, so a wrong anchor leaves a temp dir behind instead of deleting `~/codeman-cases`.
+Tests that delete case trees go through `safeRmHomeTree()` (`test/mocks`), which refuses any path outside the temp HOME, so a wrong anchor leaves a temp dir behind instead of deleting `~/codeman-cases`. ⚠️ It also refuses everything unless HOME IS the throwaway dir `test/setup.ts` made (`isSandboxedHome()`: its basename starts with `TEST_HOME_PREFIX`, `codeman-vitest-`, the one thing a real home cannot have). "Under HOME" alone is vacuous when setup never ran: on 2026-10-10 a bare `vitest` run had the developer's real home as HOME, every real file was "under the test HOME", and the guard written to prevent exactly that deleted the real linked-cases registry. `isUnderTestHome()` (for single-file deletes such as `linked-cases.json`) carries the same requirement, and the shared route harness `createRouteTestHarness()` calls `assertSandboxedHome()`, so a route test built on it refuses to start against a real `~/.codeman` (a route test that builds its own app from `createMockRouteContext()` is not covered by that).
 
-⚠️ Raw `npx vitest` without `--config` skips `setup.ts` and with it the temp-HOME isolation.
+⚠️ A bare `npx vitest` (no `--config`) resolves the root `vitest.config.ts`, which re-exports `config/vitest.ci.config.ts`, so it runs `setup.ts` and gets the temp HOME like `npm test`. Vitest looks for its config by walking up from cwd, so this holds from `test/` as well, while `packages/xterm-zerolag-input` keeps its own config. Before that file existed a bare run found no config, ran without the setup file, and wrote fixtures into the real `~/.codeman` (#640: a `clis.json` with a test entry, `users.json`, `webhook.json`, `.env`, settings values). `test/test-env-isolation.test.ts` pins it; a `--config` pointing at a config without `setupFiles` would still skip the isolation.
 
 ### install.sh: the public installer
 
diff --git a/test/mocks/test-helpers.ts b/test/mocks/test-helpers.ts
index c930e0a2..12c0a280 100644
--- a/test/mocks/test-helpers.ts
+++ b/test/mocks/test-helpers.ts
@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ export function isSandboxedHome(): boolean {
 
 /**
  * Throw unless the suite is running under `test/setup.ts`'s temp HOME. The shared route harness
- * calls this, so every route test refuses to start against a real `~/.codeman`.
+ * (`createRouteTestHarness`) calls this, so a route test built on it refuses to start against a real
+ * `~/.codeman`. A route test that builds its own app from `createMockRouteContext` is not covered.
  */
 export function assertSandboxedHome(what = 'this test'): void {
   if (!isSandboxedHome()) {