An unopenable repository fails loudly — the standing row, the paused surface, the honest heal

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014PtZdPwqZuqEDLc6wZMtEy

KanbanTests/BranchSwitchTests.swift

@@ -583,6 +583,37 @@ struct BranchSwitchSequenceTests {
         #expect(GitRepository.branchName(at: fixture.root) == "main")
     }
 
+    /// The same refusal through the **real** pause rather than an injected one: an unreadable
+    /// repository is a `GitRepositoryPause` like any other, so the switch's existing gate closes on
+    /// it with nothing added here (06-history-undo.md ▸ Rules, the corrupt-`.git` loud failure, ruled
+    /// 2026-07-31: "the whole git surface paused").
+    @Test("A switch refuses against a repository the app cannot open, and changes nothing")
+    @MainActor
+    func anUnreadableRepositoryRefusesTheSwitch() async throws {
+        let (fixture, git) = try await makeGitBoard()
+        defer { fixture.tearDown() }
+        let switcher = try makeSwitcher(git)
+        #expect(GitBranchOperation.createAndSwitch("redesign", at: fixture.root) == .switched("redesign"))
+        #expect(GitBranchOperation.checkout("main", at: fixture.root) == .switched("main"))
+
+        var asked = 0
+        switcher.settleSessions = { asked += 1; return .proceed }
+
+        let head = fixture.root.appendingPathComponent(".git/HEAD")
+        let savedHead = try Data(contentsOf: head)
+        try FileManager.default.removeItem(at: head)
+        await git.committer?.refreshPause()
+        #expect(git.isRepositoryUnreadable)
+
+        #expect(await switcher.switchTo("redesign") == false)
+        #expect(asked == 0, "no modal, no stamp, no checkout — nothing is attempted at all")
+        #expect(switcher.lastFailure == nil, "a pause is not a failure; the standing banner is the message")
+
+        // The repository is exactly as it was found, which is the promise the row makes.
+        try savedHead.write(to: head)
+        #expect(GitRepository.branchName(at: fixture.root) == "main")
+    }
+
     /// "Contention outlasting the brief retry surfaces as a *waiting* state in the operation's
     /// in-progress banner row … a wait that persists implausibly long names the lock path — never an
     /// error dialog, never a hammer."
@@ -946,6 +977,45 @@ struct BoardGitBranchSurfaceTests {
         ).controlsEnabled)
     }
 
+    /// **The corrupt-`.git` loud failure at this one control** (06-history-undo.md ▸ Rules, ruled
+    /// 2026-07-31: "Never a silent placeholder discovered only in the popover"). The bug this pins
+    /// against is the shipped one: `GitRepository.branchName` answers `nil` on a repository it cannot
+    /// open, and the placeholder meant "still reading" — forever.
+    @Test("An unreadable repository reads as broken, never as still loading")
+    func anUnreadableSurface() {
+        let surface = BoardGitBranchSurface.resolve(
+            branch: nil,
+            pause: .unreadable,
+            isSwitching: false,
+            isWritable: true
+        )
+
+        #expect(surface.branchLabel == BoardGitBranchSurface.unavailableLabel)
+        #expect(surface.branchLabel != BoardGitBranchSurface.placeholder)
+        #expect(!surface.isReadingBranch, "there is nothing in flight to be waiting for")
+        #expect(surface.isRepositoryUnreadable)
+        #expect(!surface.controlsEnabled, "the whole git surface is paused")
+        #expect(surface.accessibilityLabel == "Branch unavailable")
+
+        // The section's own sentence — a sibling of the popover's nested and unverifiable notes, and
+        // not the pause note, whose second line would be advice about an operation nobody started.
+        #expect(BoardGitBranchSurface.unreadableNote
+            == "Lanework can't read this board's git repository, so history is paused; the repository is left untouched.")
+    }
+
+    @Test("A branch name read before the repository broke does not survive the pause")
+    func anUnreadableSurfaceDropsAStaleBranch() {
+        let surface = BoardGitBranchSurface.resolve(
+            branch: "main",
+            pause: .unreadable,
+            isSwitching: false,
+            isWritable: true
+        )
+
+        #expect(surface.branchLabel == BoardGitBranchSurface.unavailableLabel,
+                "the line must not go on naming a branch nothing can read")
+    }
+
     @Test("Before the first read the line is a placeholder, not a guess at a branch name")
     func theReadingSurface() {
         let surface = BoardGitBranchSurface.resolve(