diff --git a/goodwe_controller/test_version_gate.py b/goodwe_controller/test_version_gate.py
index e579336..0bd76e4 100644
--- a/goodwe_controller/test_version_gate.py
+++ b/goodwe_controller/test_version_gate.py
@@ -231,6 +231,44 @@ check("...and because config.yaml IS a runtime path, that cosmetic commit is "
       r8.returncode == 1 and "COSMETIC" in r8.stdout)
 
 
+print()
+print("⭐ A GIT LOOKUP THAT GENUINELY FAILS - THE SHAPE NO FIXTURE COULD REACH")
+# ⚠️ EVERY FIXTURE ABOVE CREATES ITS OWN REPOSITORY AS ITS OWN UID, so none of
+# them could ever meet the failure that actually happened: the documented
+# invocation runs the container as uid 0 against a checkout owned by the
+# operator, git refuses with "detected dubious ownership", `_git` returns
+# non-zero, and the no-op half reports SKIPPED. It degraded honestly - exit 2,
+# never a false clearance - but the check this file exists for had never once
+# run in its documented form, and nothing here could see that.
+#
+# `_git` now sets `safe.directory`, so ownership no longer breaks it. This
+# section grades the REMAINING failure mode: git answering not at all.
+root5 = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix="test_version_gate.nogit.")
+tmpdirs.append(root5)
+addon5 = os.path.join(root5, "goodwe_controller")
+os.makedirs(addon5)
+write(addon5, "config.yaml", 'name: t\nversion: "0.7.0"\n')          # NOT a git repo
+
+check("a repository git cannot answer for reports no last-bump commit",
+      last_version_change(root5) is None)
+
+r9 = run_gate(addon5, root5, "0.7.0", opts_file(VALID))
+check("⭐ AND THE GATE DOES NOT CLEAR ON IT. An unanswerable git lookup is "
+      "INCONCLUSIVE, not clean - the one thing it must never do is call a "
+      "tree it could not inspect deployable",
+      r9.returncode != 0 and "CLEARED for deploy" not in r9.stdout)
+check("...it says INCONCLUSIVE in those words", "INCONCLUSIVE" in r9.stdout)
+
+# ⚠️ AND THE EXIT CODES ARE PINNED BY VALUE, NOT BY TRUTHINESS. `returncode != 0`
+# is satisfied by collapsing NOT-CLEARED into REFUSED, which review found the
+# earlier draft could not tell apart. 1 and 2 mean different things to an
+# operator: 1 says "this deploy is wrong", 2 says "nobody checked".
+check("NOT CLEARED is exactly 2, not merely non-zero", r9.returncode == 2)
+r10 = run_gate(addon3, root3, "0.7.0", opts_file(dict(VALID, slew_w=1000)))
+check("REFUSED is exactly 1, not merely non-zero",
+      r10.returncode == 1 and "REFUSED" in r10.stdout)
+
+
 print("\nthe shipped tree's own version is readable")
 check("shipped_version() finds a version", bool(shipped_version(HERE)))
 
diff --git a/goodwe_controller/tools/predeploy_check.py b/goodwe_controller/tools/predeploy_check.py
index e5512bb..cc718af 100644
--- a/goodwe_controller/tools/predeploy_check.py
+++ b/goodwe_controller/tools/predeploy_check.py
@@ -84,8 +84,42 @@ def is_runtime(path):
 
 
 def _git(*args, repo=None):
-    return subprocess.run(["git", "-C", repo or os.path.dirname(ADDON), *args],
-                          capture_output=True, text=True)
+    """git, run so it answers regardless of who owns the checkout.
+
+    ⚠️ WITHOUT `safe.directory` THIS TOOL SILENTLY DID HALF ITS JOB. The
+    invocation this file's own docstring documents runs the container as uid 0
+    against a checkout owned by the operator, and git refuses that:
+
+        fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at '/w/goodwe-addon'
+
+    `_git` then returned non-zero, `last_version_change()` returned None, and
+    the no-op check reported SKIPPED - so **the silent-no-op half, which is the
+    reason this file exists, had never once run in its documented form.**
+
+    It degraded honestly: exit 2, INCONCLUSIVE, never a false clearance. But a
+    check that cannot fire is not a check, and the two documented environments
+    were mutually exclusive - in the container the validator ran and git
+    skipped; on a bare host git ran and the validator skipped on aiohttp.
+    Neither documented command ran both halves.
+
+    ⚠️ AND IT WAS INVISIBLE IN THE ONLY CASE ANYONE HAD RUN. `main()` consults
+    the git result only when `shipped == deployed`; every real run so far
+    compared 0.7.0 against 0.9.0 and printed its verdict without needing git.
+
+    `test_version_gate.py` could not see it either: it invokes the gate with
+    `sys.executable` against fixtures it creates as its own uid, so no fixture
+    ever met the ownership mismatch. MUTATION.md habit 4, in a fourth shape,
+    inside the file written to prevent it.
+
+    `safe.directory` is the right fix rather than `--user`: it makes the tool
+    correct however it is invoked, instead of making every future caller
+    remember a flag. The read is read-only, on a repository the operator is
+    about to deploy from.
+    """
+    where = repo or os.path.dirname(ADDON)
+    return subprocess.run(
+        ["git", "-c", f"safe.directory={where}", "-C", where, *args],
+        capture_output=True, text=True)
 
 
 def _version_at(sha, repo=None, path=CONFIG_PATH):