@codyswann/lisa 4.4.0 → 4.4.2

package/plugins/lisa-phaser/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-phaser",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Phaser 4 game-development rules for TypeScript projects",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-phaser/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-phaser",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Phaser 4 game-development rules for TypeScript projects",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-phaser-agy/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-phaser",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Phaser 4 game-development rules for TypeScript projects",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-phaser-copilot/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-phaser",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Phaser 4 game-development rules for TypeScript projects",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-phaser-cursor/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-phaser",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Phaser 4 game-development rules for TypeScript projects",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-rails/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-rails",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Ruby on Rails-specific hooks — RuboCop linting/formatting and ast-grep scanning on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-rails/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-rails",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Ruby on Rails-specific skills and hooks for RuboCop and ast-grep scanning on edit.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-rails-agy/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-rails",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Ruby on Rails-specific hooks — RuboCop linting/formatting and ast-grep scanning on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-rails-copilot/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-rails",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Ruby on Rails-specific hooks — RuboCop linting/formatting and ast-grep scanning on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-rails-cursor/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-rails",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Ruby on Rails-specific hooks — RuboCop linting/formatting and ast-grep scanning on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-typescript/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-typescript",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "TypeScript-specific hooks — Prettier formatting, ESLint linting, ast-grep scanning, and error-suppression blocking on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-typescript/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-typescript",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "TypeScript-specific hooks for formatting, linting, and ast-grep scanning on edit.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-typescript-agy/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-typescript",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "TypeScript-specific hooks — Prettier formatting, ESLint linting, ast-grep scanning, and error-suppression blocking on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-typescript-copilot/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-typescript",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "TypeScript-specific hooks — Prettier formatting, ESLint linting, ast-grep scanning, and error-suppression blocking on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-typescript-cursor/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-typescript",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "TypeScript-specific hooks — Prettier formatting, ESLint linting, ast-grep scanning, and error-suppression blocking on edit",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-wiki/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-wiki",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "LLM Wiki — a distributable, git-native markdown knowledge base for Claude Code and Codex",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-wiki/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-wiki",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "Distributable LLM Wiki kernel — ingest, query, lint, and maintain a git-native markdown knowledge base across Claude and Codex.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-wiki-agy/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-wiki",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "LLM Wiki — a distributable, git-native markdown knowledge base for Claude Code and Codex",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-wiki-copilot/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-wiki",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "LLM Wiki — a distributable, git-native markdown knowledge base for Claude Code and Codex",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/lisa-wiki-cursor/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "lisa-wiki",
-  "version": "4.4.0",
+  "version": "4.4.2",
   "description": "LLM Wiki — a distributable, git-native markdown knowledge base for Claude Code and Codex",
   "author": {
     "name": "Cody Swann"

package/plugins/src/base/skills/lisa-secrets-access/scripts/materialize-secrets.mjs

@@ -68,11 +68,114 @@ function writeAtomic(destination, contents) {
  * @param {object} [cfg] Resolved configuration.
  * @returns {{count: number, dir: string}} What was written, and where.
  */
+/**
+ * Marker version this build writes. Bumping it is SAFE, which is the point.
+ *
+ * The recognisers below match the FAMILY — the frozen identifier plus any
+ * version — rather than one literal string, so a block written by an older
+ * build is still found and replaced in place. Before that, the reader looked
+ * for the exact text it was about to write, so the first rename made it
+ * conclude there was no block here and append a second one.
+ *
+ * That failure is additive and silent, and this module is the worst place in
+ * Lisa for it: it writes into `~/.aws` files and a shell profile, outside any
+ * repository, where no apply, diff, or review ever revisits the result. An
+ * orphaned block in a shell profile is STILL SOURCED, and profiles apply
+ * assignments in order — so whichever block comes last wins, and an operator
+ * can end up running under credentials from a block Lisa believes it no longer
+ * manages. That is credential selection going wrong with no review step.
+ *
+ * Everywhere else in the codebase the mitigation is "widen the recogniser and
+ * accept the old shape until an apply normalises the file". There is no such
+ * operation here: the old population never drains and cannot be counted, so
+ * the recogniser must accept every past version permanently.
+ *
+ * Following `core/apply-receipt`, which treats a `schema_version` it does not
+ * recognise as NO RECEIPT rather than one it half-understands: on an
+ * unrecognised marker, fail toward redoing the work, not toward assuming it is
+ * done. Here that means replacing every family member found, so a file already
+ * carrying orphans from a past rename is repaired on the next run rather than
+ * accumulating one more.
+ */
+const MARKER_VERSION = "v2";
+
+/**
+ * The frozen half of each marker. Changing one of these DOES orphan blocks —
+ * that is the whole contract, and it is why the version lives beside it.
+ *
+ * This does not make renaming impossible, it makes it deliberate: an innocuous
+ * text edit no longer orphans a block, and the one edit that still would is the
+ * one these comments forbid.
+ */
+const PROFILE_FAMILY = "lisa secrets (managed";
+
+/** The frozen family identifier for an `~/.aws` managed region. */
+const MANAGED_FAMILY = "managed by lisa-secrets-access";
+
+/**
+ * Build the start/end recognisers for one marker family.
+ *
+ * Matches the family followed by anything up to the closing delimiter, so
+ * `(managed)` — every block in the field today — and `(managed v2)` are both
+ * found by the same reader.
+ * @param {string} family Frozen family identifier.
+ * @returns {{start: RegExp, end: RegExp}} Global recognisers for the family.
+ */
+function familyRecognisers(family) {
+  const quoted = family.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, "\\$&");
+  return {
+    start: new RegExp(`# >>> ${quoted}[^\\n]*>>>`, "g"),
+    end: new RegExp(`# <<< ${quoted}[^\\n]*<<<`, "g"),
+  };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Index of the first family match at or after `from`, and its length.
+ * @param {string} text Haystack.
+ * @param {RegExp} recogniser Global family recogniser.
+ * @param {number} from Index to search from.
+ * @returns {{index: number, length: number}} `index` is -1 when absent.
+ */
+function findFamily(text, recogniser, from = 0) {
+  recogniser.lastIndex = from;
+  const match = recogniser.exec(text);
+  return match === null
+    ? { index: -1, length: 0 }
+    : { index: match.index, length: match[0].length };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Remove every managed block of one family, leaving the rest of the file.
+ *
+ * Every block, not just the first: a file that already carries orphans from a
+ * rename that happened before this fix must come out with exactly one block,
+ * or the fix would leave the damage it exists to prevent.
+ * @param {string} text File contents.
+ * @param {string} family Frozen family identifier.
+ * @returns {string} The file with every family block removed.
+ */
+function stripFamilyBlocks(text, family) {
+  const { start, end } = familyRecognisers(family);
+  let out = text;
+  for (;;) {
+    const opened = findFamily(out, start);
+    if (opened.index === -1) return out;
+    const closed = findFamily(out, end, opened.index + opened.length);
+    // A truncated block (opened, never closed) would otherwise swallow the rest
+    // of the file on every subsequent write.
+    const after =
+      closed.index === -1
+        ? ""
+        : out.slice(closed.index + closed.length).replace(/^\n/, "");
+    out = `${out.slice(0, opened.index)}${after}`;
+  }
+}
+
 /** Marks the block this owns, so it is replaced rather than appended twice. */
-const PROFILE_MARKER = "# >>> lisa secrets (managed) >>>";
+const PROFILE_MARKER = `# >>> ${PROFILE_FAMILY} ${MARKER_VERSION}) >>>`;
 
 /** Closes the managed block. */
-const PROFILE_END = "# <<< lisa secrets (managed) <<<";
+const PROFILE_END = `# <<< ${PROFILE_FAMILY} ${MARKER_VERSION}) <<<`;
 
 /**
  * Identifies an `~/.aws` file as one this wrote, and may therefore replace.
@@ -81,10 +184,10 @@ const PROFILE_END = "# <<< lisa secrets (managed) <<<";
  * consumer while still being the thing that distinguishes "our file, refresh
  * it" from "someone else's file, leave it alone".
  */
-const MANAGED_MARKER = "# >>> managed by lisa-secrets-access >>>";
+const MANAGED_MARKER = `# >>> ${MANAGED_FAMILY} ${MARKER_VERSION} >>>`;
 
 /** Closes the managed region of an `~/.aws` file. */
-const MANAGED_END = "# <<< managed by lisa-secrets-access <<<";
+const MANAGED_END = `# <<< ${MANAGED_FAMILY} ${MARKER_VERSION} <<<`;
 
 /**
  * Replace this module's delimited region in a file, preserving everything else.
@@ -99,22 +202,21 @@ const MANAGED_END = "# <<< managed by lisa-secrets-access <<<";
  */
 export function upsertManagedBlock(current, body) {
   const block = `${MANAGED_MARKER}\n${body.trimEnd()}\n${MANAGED_END}`;
-  const start = current.indexOf(MANAGED_MARKER);
+  const opened = findFamily(current, familyRecognisers(MANAGED_FAMILY).start);
 
-  if (start === -1) {
+  if (opened.index === -1) {
     const prefix =
       current && !current.endsWith("\n") ? `${current}\n` : current;
     return `${prefix}${prefix ? "\n" : ""}${block}\n`;
   }
 
-  const endAt = current.indexOf(MANAGED_END, start);
-  // A truncated block (marker opened, never closed) would otherwise swallow the
-  // rest of the file on every subsequent write.
-  const after =
-    endAt === -1
-      ? ""
-      : current.slice(endAt + MANAGED_END.length).replace(/^\n/, "");
-  return `${current.slice(0, start)}${block}\n${after}`;
+  // Everything this module owns is stripped first, so a file already carrying
+  // orphans from a rename that predates the family recogniser comes out with
+  // exactly one block rather than one more.
+  const withoutOurs = stripFamilyBlocks(current, MANAGED_FAMILY);
+  const head = withoutOurs.slice(0, opened.index);
+  const tail = withoutOurs.slice(opened.index);
+  return `${head}${block}\n${tail}`;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -173,13 +275,18 @@ export function installProfileSourcing(valuesFile, options = {}) {
 
     // Replace an existing managed block rather than appending another: this
     // runs on every session, and an appended-forever profile is its own bug.
-    const start = current.indexOf(PROFILE_MARKER);
+    const opened = findFamily(current, familyRecognisers(PROFILE_FAMILY).start);
+    // Stripping EVERY family block before writing one is what makes an already
+    // orphaned profile self-heal. It matters more here than anywhere else in
+    // Lisa: an orphaned block in a shell profile is still sourced, and the last
+    // assignment wins, so a stale block silently selects the wrong credentials.
+    const withoutOurs = stripFamilyBlocks(current, PROFILE_FAMILY);
     const next =
-      start === -1
+      opened.index === -1
         ? `${current}${current.endsWith("\n") || !current ? "" : "\n"}\n${block}\n`
-        : `${current.slice(0, start)}${block}${current.slice(
-            current.indexOf(PROFILE_END, start) + PROFILE_END.length
-          )}`;
+        : `${withoutOurs.slice(0, opened.index)}${block}\n${withoutOurs
+            .slice(opened.index)
+            .replace(/^\n/, "")}`;
 
     if (next !== current) {
       write(file, next, { mode: 0o600 });
@@ -214,13 +321,10 @@ export function collidingProfiles(dir, names, io = {}) {
   if (!exists(file)) return [];
 
   const text = String(read(file, "utf8"));
-  const start = text.indexOf(MANAGED_MARKER);
-  const endAt = start === -1 ? -1 : text.indexOf(MANAGED_END, start);
-  const outside =
-    start === -1
-      ? text
-      : text.slice(0, start) +
-        (endAt === -1 ? "" : text.slice(endAt + MANAGED_END.length));
+  // Every family block, not just the current version's. An orphan left by an
+  // older marker is still OUR previous output, so counting its profiles as a
+  // host collision would refuse to write the very names we wrote last time.
+  const outside = stripFamilyBlocks(text, MANAGED_FAMILY);
 
   return names.filter(name =>
     new RegExp(

package/scripts/check-delivery-deletion-conflicts.mjs

@@ -82,12 +82,12 @@
  *
  * @module scripts/check-delivery-deletion-conflicts
  */
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import fs from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
 import process from "node:process";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 
+import { boundedExecFileSync } from "./lib/bounded-spawn.mjs";
 import { invokedAsScript } from "./lib/invoked-as-script.mjs";
 
 const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ export function matchDeletion(delivered, deleted) {
 function listTrackedFiles(root) {
   let stdout;
   try {
-    stdout = execFileSync("git", ["-C", root, "ls-files", "-z"], {
+    stdout = boundedExecFileSync("git", ["-C", root, "ls-files", "-z"], {
       encoding: "utf8",
       maxBuffer: MAX_GIT_OUTPUT_BYTES,
       stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],

package/scripts/check-derived-artifacts.mjs

@@ -44,10 +44,10 @@
  * on a commit that owed nothing, which is the safe direction to be wrong in.
  * @module scripts/check-derived-artifacts
  */
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import path from "node:path";
 import process from "node:process";
 
+import { boundedExecFileSync, isChildTimeout } from "./lib/bounded-spawn.mjs";
 import { invokedAsScript } from "./lib/invoked-as-script.mjs";
 
 const repoRoot = path.resolve(import.meta.dirname, "..");
@@ -118,18 +118,26 @@ export function requiresManifestCheck(stagedPaths) {
  * Renames report their destination (`-M` plus `--diff-filter=R`), and deletions
  * are included because removing a template is also a way to move what the
  * artifacts describe.
- * @returns {string[]} Staged paths, empty when git cannot be consulted
+ *
+ * A KILLED child re-raises rather than returning empty. An empty list means
+ * "nothing staged touches the artifacts", which makes this guard SKIP — so a
+ * busy machine would let through the commit that moves a template without
+ * regenerating what describes it. "I could not ask" is not "there is nothing
+ * to check", and only one of those is safe to act on.
+ * @returns {string[]} Staged paths, empty when git said there were none
+ * @throws {Error} When the child was killed at its deadline
  */
 export function stagedPaths() {
   try {
-    return execFileSync(
+    return boundedExecFileSync(
       "git",
       ["diff", "--cached", "--name-only", "--diff-filter=ACMRD"],
       { cwd: repoRoot, encoding: "utf8", stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"] }
     )
       .split("\n")
       .filter(Boolean);
-  } catch {
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (isChildTimeout(error)) throw error;
     return [];
   }
 }
@@ -172,13 +180,24 @@ export function readableFailure(raw) {
  */
 function runCheck(script) {
   try {
-    execFileSync(process.execPath, [script, "--check"], {
+    boundedExecFileSync(process.execPath, [script, "--check"], {
       cwd: repoRoot,
       encoding: "utf8",
       stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "pipe"],
     });
     return { ok: true, output: "" };
   } catch (error) {
+    // Already fail-closed — `ok: false` fails the guard either way — so the
+    // catch stays. What it must NOT do is stay silent about a kill: a killed
+    // child hands back EMPTY streams, so a timeout would otherwise render as a
+    // generator that failed with no diagnostic, which reads as a content
+    // problem and sends the operator to the wrong place entirely.
+    if (isChildTimeout(error)) {
+      return {
+        ok: false,
+        output: `${script} was killed before it finished. This is a timeout, not a check failure — nothing about the artifact was measured.`,
+      };
+    }
     const stderr = error?.stderr ?? "";
     const stdout = error?.stdout ?? "";
     return { ok: false, output: readableFailure(`${stdout}${stderr}`) };

package/scripts/check-orphan-test-processes.mjs

@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@
  *
  * @module scripts/check-orphan-test-processes
  */
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import process from "node:process";
+import { boundedExecFileSync } from "./lib/bounded-spawn.mjs";
 import { invokedAsScript } from "./lib/invoked-as-script.mjs";
 
 /**
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ export function selectOrphans(rows, minAgeSeconds) {
  */
 function readProcessTable() {
   // eslint-disable-next-line sonarjs/no-os-command-from-path -- fixed executable and argv
-  return execFileSync("ps", ["-eo", "pid,ppid,etime,command"], {
+  return boundedExecFileSync("ps", ["-eo", "pid,ppid,etime,command"], {
     encoding: "utf8",
     maxBuffer: 32 * 1024 * 1024,
   });

package/scripts/check-security-floors.mjs

@@ -23,10 +23,11 @@
  * @module scripts/check-security-floors
  */
 
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import { existsSync, readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { globSync } from "node:fs";
 
+import { boundedExecFileSync } from "./lib/bounded-spawn.mjs";
+
 /**
  * Fixed absolute git locations, tried in order rather than a bare command name
  * so a writeable directory early on `PATH` cannot decide which binary runs.
@@ -129,18 +130,28 @@ const NOT_A_MANIFEST = [
 /**
  * Every manifest git tracks, so the glob can be checked against reality.
  *
- * Returns null when the question cannot be asked — outside a checkout, or with
- * no git. A null is reported as "not reconciled", never folded into "nothing
- * missing": the whole defect being fixed here is a scan that narrowed silently.
+ * Returns null when the question cannot be asked — outside a checkout, with no
+ * git, or with the child killed at its deadline. A null is reported as "not
+ * reconciled", never folded into "nothing missing": the whole defect being
+ * fixed here is a scan that narrowed silently.
+ *
+ * The swallow is therefore KEPT for a timeout rather than kept by inheritance.
+ * A kill is one more way the question cannot be asked, and this function
+ * already routes "cannot ask" to the safe answer — so re-raising would trade a
+ * correct report for a crash and gain nothing.
  * @returns {string[]|null} Tracked manifest paths, or null when unknowable.
  */
 function trackedManifests() {
   try {
-    return execFileSync(GIT_BIN, ["ls-files", "-z", "*package.lisa.json"], {
-      encoding: "utf8",
-      maxBuffer: 8 * 1024 * 1024,
-      stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
-    })
+    return boundedExecFileSync(
+      GIT_BIN,
+      ["ls-files", "-z", "*package.lisa.json"],
+      {
+        encoding: "utf8",
+        maxBuffer: 8 * 1024 * 1024,
+        stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
+      }
+    )
       .split("\0")
       .filter(Boolean)
       .filter(

package/scripts/check-template-workflow-refs.mjs

@@ -57,12 +57,12 @@
  *
  * @module scripts/check-template-workflow-refs
  */
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
 import fs from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
 import process from "node:process";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 
+import { boundedExecFileSync, isChildTimeout } from "./lib/bounded-spawn.mjs";
 import { invokedAsScript } from "./lib/invoked-as-script.mjs";
 
 const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ export function findWorkflowRefs(content) {
 function listTrackedFiles(root) {
   let stdout;
   try {
-    stdout = execFileSync("git", ["-C", root, "ls-files", "-z"], {
+    stdout = boundedExecFileSync("git", ["-C", root, "ls-files", "-z"], {
       encoding: "utf8",
       maxBuffer: MAX_GIT_OUTPUT_BYTES,
       stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
@@ -140,13 +140,19 @@ function listTrackedFiles(root) {
 /**
  * Whether `ref` names an object present in this clone.
  *
+ * A KILLED child re-raises. `false` here does not mean "unknown", it means
+ * "this reference is broken" — a verdict the caller reports. So a busy machine
+ * would manufacture a failure about a reference that is perfectly fine, and a
+ * guard that invents failures is one people learn to re-run rather than read.
+ * That is the sibling harm to failing open, and it is just as corrosive.
  * @param {string} root - the repository root.
  * @param {string} ref - a tag, branch, or SHA.
  * @returns {boolean} whether the ref resolves locally.
+ * @throws {Error} When the child was killed at its deadline
  */
 function refExists(root, ref) {
   try {
-    execFileSync(
+    boundedExecFileSync(
       "git",
       ["-C", root, "rev-parse", "--verify", `${ref}^{commit}`],
       {
@@ -154,7 +160,8 @@ function refExists(root, ref) {
       }
     );
     return true;
-  } catch {
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (isChildTimeout(error)) throw error;
     return false;
   }
 }
@@ -162,18 +169,26 @@ function refExists(root, ref) {
 /**
  * Whether `target` exists in the tree named by `ref`.
  *
+ * A KILLED child re-raises, for the reason given on `refExists` above: `false`
+ * is a verdict of "absent at that ref", not an admission of ignorance.
  * @param {string} root - the repository root.
  * @param {string} ref - a tag, branch, or SHA known to resolve.
  * @param {string} target - a repo-relative path.
  * @returns {boolean} whether the path exists at that ref.
+ * @throws {Error} When the child was killed at its deadline
  */
 function pathExistsAtRef(root, ref, target) {
   try {
-    execFileSync("git", ["-C", root, "cat-file", "-e", `${ref}:${target}`], {
-      stdio: ["ignore", "ignore", "ignore"],
-    });
+    boundedExecFileSync(
+      "git",
+      ["-C", root, "cat-file", "-e", `${ref}:${target}`],
+      {
+        stdio: ["ignore", "ignore", "ignore"],
+      }
+    );
     return true;
-  } catch {
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (isChildTimeout(error)) throw error;
     return false;
   }
 }