diff --git a/devtools/e2e_live/scenarios.py b/devtools/e2e_live/scenarios.py
index 486a83a88..99d8db69d 100644
--- a/devtools/e2e_live/scenarios.py
+++ b/devtools/e2e_live/scenarios.py
@@ -475,8 +475,8 @@ def worktree_after_commit(clone: pathlib.Path) -> tuple[bool, str, list[str]]:
 
 def _git_show(clone: pathlib.Path, rev: str, path: str) -> str:
     """The exact text of ``path`` at ``rev`` ('' when absent there)."""
-    proc = subprocess.run(["git", "show", f"{rev}:{path}"], cwd=str(clone), check=False, capture_output=True, text=True)
-    return proc.stdout if proc.returncode == 0 else ""
+    proc = subprocess.run(["git", "show", f"{rev}:{path}"], cwd=str(clone), check=False, capture_output=True)
+    return proc.stdout.decode("utf-8") if proc.returncode == 0 else ""
 
 
 def release_carriers_desync_at(clone: pathlib.Path, rev: str) -> str:
diff --git a/docs/architecture/03-web-ui-pages-and-buttons.md b/docs/architecture/03-web-ui-pages-and-buttons.md
index 4aac0c9e6..5c8a4188f 100644
--- a/docs/architecture/03-web-ui-pages-and-buttons.md
+++ b/docs/architecture/03-web-ui-pages-and-buttons.md
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ The synchronous lock-owning apply executor publishes process-local stage observa
 
 Settings has Accounts, Secrets, Models, Agents, Behavior, Appearance, Advanced and About tabs — a sequence from connections to runtime detail. Accounts: managed subscriptions and their shared service banner, API providers, custom compatible endpoints, local runtime entry points, and the optional non-loopback network gate. Secrets: known provider/integration secrets, skill-requested keys and owner-defined custom keys, without returning stored values. Models: compact source/model/account role rows, ordered fallbacks, context assertions and effort lanes. Agents: task actors and review lanes, with delegation permissions, per-root and depth limits and subagent path roots; their accounts are managed in Accounts. Behavior: context, safety-supervisor coverage, task acceptance, self-evolution, prompt-cache posture. Appearance: the client-local theme choice described above, never a runtime-settings value. Advanced: process, timeout, local-model, integration, source-control and cleanup controls (worker count is process capacity, so it lives here). About reports application/runtime identity. Keys, defaults and per-key semantics are the §7 Default settings table, not this chapter. Models, Available subagents and Review lanes share ONE grouped source select owned by `web/modules/route_editor_primitives.js` (`routeChoiceGroups`, `configuredApiProviders`): the owner picks a source and the editor composes the stored id, so the provider prefixes (`provider::model`, `claudexor::source=model`, `harness=model`) are serialization only, never owner input.
 
-`settings_catalog.js` owns model-catalog reads and the Accounts subscription: a changed confirmed account or recovery from a failed read refreshes discovery; identical settled status stays quiet, and `settings.js` arms/disposes the subscription with the page. Catalog updates preserve the owner's current model draft.
+`settings_catalog.js` owns model-catalog reads and the Accounts subscription: a changed confirmed account or recovery from a failed read refreshes discovery; identical settled status stays quiet, and `settings.js` arms/disposes the subscription with the page. Catalog updates preserve drafts. Per-button request ownership releases busy state independently of global response freshness; a newer background read cannot strand a manual button.
 
 The Settings client validates the whole current draft before Save; a local error keeps every value available for correction and sends no partial save (`settings_controls.js` keeps custom-key collection pure and dirty reads passive). Ordinary refresh and failed writes preserve current edits, leaving or explicitly reloading a dirty draft asks first, the write response distinguishes saved, unsaved and unknown outcomes, and there is no durable cross-page draft store or secret persistence.
 
diff --git a/ouroboros/commit_admission.py b/ouroboros/commit_admission.py
index 0f4577d2b..a966ff6f1 100644
--- a/ouroboros/commit_admission.py
+++ b/ouroboros/commit_admission.py
@@ -39,8 +39,9 @@ def changed_worktree_paths(
     try:
         result = subprocess.run(
             ["git", "--no-optional-locks", "status", "--porcelain"] + path_args,
-            cwd=str(repo_dir), capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
+            cwd=str(repo_dir), capture_output=True, timeout=10,
         )
+        stdout = result.stdout.decode("utf-8")
     except Exception:
         if strict:
             raise
@@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ def changed_worktree_paths(
         if strict:
             raise RuntimeError("git status failed")
         return []
-    return parse_changed_paths_from_porcelain(result.stdout)
+    return parse_changed_paths_from_porcelain(stdout)
 
 
 def auto_sync_release_metadata_if_needed(
@@ -104,9 +105,11 @@ def read_release_file(repo_dir, path: str, *, source: str) -> str | None:
     present.check_returncode()
     result = subprocess.run(
         ["git", "show", f":{path}"], cwd=str(repo_dir), capture_output=True,
-        encoding="utf-8", timeout=10, check=True,
+        timeout=10, check=True,
     )
-    return result.stdout
+    # Decode on the caller thread (Windows pipe-reader errors otherwise disappear),
+    # retaining the universal-newline semantics of worktree read_text().
+    return result.stdout.decode("utf-8").replace("\r\n", "\n").replace("\r", "\n")
 
 
 def release_metadata_diagnostics(
@@ -133,9 +136,9 @@ def release_metadata_diagnostics(
             result = subprocess.run(
                 ["git", "--no-optional-locks", "diff", "--cached", "--name-only", "--diff-filter=d", "-z"],
                 cwd=str(repo_dir),
-                capture_output=True, encoding="utf-8", timeout=10, check=True,
+                capture_output=True, timeout=10, check=True,
             )
-            touched.update(filter(None, result.stdout.split("\0")))
+            touched.update(filter(None, result.stdout.decode("utf-8").split("\0")))
     except Exception as exc:
         unavailable.append(f"Changed {source} paths could not be read ({type(exc).__name__}).")
 
diff --git a/tests/test_release_metadata_diagnostics.py b/tests/test_release_metadata_diagnostics.py
index 9cee659b6..c80e96235 100644
--- a/tests/test_release_metadata_diagnostics.py
+++ b/tests/test_release_metadata_diagnostics.py
@@ -74,6 +74,24 @@ def candidate(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
                            emit_progress_fn=lambda *_: None)
 
 
+def test_crlf_carriers_have_same_text_semantics_in_index_and_worktree(candidate):
+    repo = candidate.repo_dir
+    _git(repo, "config", "core.autocrlf", "false")
+    for name, text in _release("1.2.4").items():
+        (repo / name).write_bytes(text.replace("\n", "\r\n").encode("utf-8"))
+    _git(repo, "add", ".")
+    for source in ("worktree", "index"):
+        result = admission.release_metadata_diagnostics(repo, ["VERSION"], source=source)
+        assert result["status"] == "clean", result
+
+
+def test_unicode_worktree_discovery_is_not_locale_decoded(candidate):
+    repo = candidate.repo_dir
+    _git(repo, "config", "core.quotepath", "false")
+    (repo / "А.py").write_text("value = 1\n", encoding="utf-8")
+    assert "А.py" in admission.changed_worktree_paths(repo, strict=True)
+
+
 def _broken(repo):
     files = _release("1.2.4")
     files["README.md"] = _release()["README.md"] + "".join(
@@ -208,8 +226,8 @@ def test_index_read_failure_and_unmerged_entries_are_unavailable(candidate):
     _git(repo, "add", ".")
     blob = _git(repo, "rev-parse", ":pyproject.toml")
     # Install an unmerged optional carrier in this disposable fixture index.
-    subprocess.run(["git", "update-index", "--index-info"], cwd=repo, check=True, text=True,
-                   input=f"0 {'0' * 40}\tpyproject.toml\n100644 {blob} 1\tpyproject.toml\n100644 {blob} 2\tpyproject.toml\n")
+    subprocess.run(["git", "update-index", "--index-info"], cwd=repo, check=True,
+                   input=(f"0 {'0' * 40}\tpyproject.toml\n100644 {blob} 1\tpyproject.toml\n100644 {blob} 2\tpyproject.toml\n").encode("utf-8"))
     report = _diagnose(candidate, "index")
     assert report["status"] == "unavailable"
     assert any("pyproject.toml" in item for item in report["unavailable"])
diff --git a/tests/test_ui_smoke_status_attention.py b/tests/test_ui_smoke_status_attention.py
index 9fa645f49..e0e12e662 100644
--- a/tests/test_ui_smoke_status_attention.py
+++ b/tests/test_ui_smoke_status_attention.py
@@ -324,7 +324,9 @@ def test_task_status_stays_factual_in_main_and_project_chat(
         assert failed.get_attribute("data-finished") == "1"
         assert phase_text(failed) == "Failed"
         assert_phase_accessibility(failed, "Task", "Failed")
-        assert "provider_route_failed" not in failed.locator(
+        # This synthetic code has no producer phrase. Unknown reasons remain
+        # visible verbatim; hiding them would discard the only available cause.
+        assert "provider_route_failed" in failed.locator(
             ":scope > [data-live-summary-button]"
         ).inner_text()
 
diff --git a/web/modules/settings_catalog.js b/web/modules/settings_catalog.js
index 7d84020d3..9de2e4f4b 100644
--- a/web/modules/settings_catalog.js
+++ b/web/modules/settings_catalog.js
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { apiFetch } from './api_client.js';
 import { setInlineStatus } from './ui_helpers.js';
 export const MODEL_CATALOG_TIMEOUT_MS = 25000;
 let catalogRefreshSeq = 0;
+const buttonRefreshes = new WeakMap();
 
 // Account login/status is the authority for subscription model discovery. Keep
 // one small signature of the confirmed account facts so a newly settled login
@@ -194,6 +195,7 @@ export async function refreshModelCatalog({ button } = {}) {
     const statusEl = document.getElementById('settings-model-catalog-status');
     setCatalogStatus(statusEl, 'Refreshing model catalog...', 'muted');
     if (button) {
+        buttonRefreshes.set(button, refreshSeq);
         button.disabled = true;
         button.setAttribute('aria-busy', 'true');
     }
@@ -241,7 +243,9 @@ export async function refreshModelCatalog({ button } = {}) {
         return { items: [], errors: [{ provider_id: 'catalog', error: String(message) }] };
     } finally {
         clearTimeout(timeoutId);
-        if (button && refreshSeq === catalogRefreshSeq) {
+        // Global freshness governs data, not a particular button's busy lease.
+        if (button && buttonRefreshes.get(button) === refreshSeq) {
+            buttonRefreshes.delete(button);
             button.disabled = false;
             button.removeAttribute('aria-busy');
         }
diff --git a/web/tests/settings_action_row.test.js b/web/tests/settings_action_row.test.js
index 01a1418a6..563acf425 100644
--- a/web/tests/settings_action_row.test.js
+++ b/web/tests/settings_action_row.test.js
@@ -38,5 +38,5 @@ test('async actions expose the same busy and status semantics', () => {
     assert.match(catalogJs, /import \{ setInlineStatus \} from '\.\/ui_helpers\.js'/);
     assert.match(catalogJs, /setInlineStatus\(statusEl, text, tone\)/);
     assert.match(catalogJs, /refreshModelCatalog\(\{ button \} = \{\}\)/);
-    assert.match(catalogJs, /refreshSeq === catalogRefreshSeq/);
+    assert.match(catalogJs, /buttonRefreshes\.get\(button\) === refreshSeq/);
 });
diff --git a/web/tests/settings_catalog.test.js b/web/tests/settings_catalog.test.js
index d7eecf856..21c7feed6 100644
--- a/web/tests/settings_catalog.test.js
+++ b/web/tests/settings_catalog.test.js
@@ -136,6 +136,34 @@ test('an older Refresh completion cannot replace newer success or its read facts
     assert.deepEqual(events[0].items, first.items);
 });
 
+test('background refresh cannot strand a superseded manual button busy', async (t) => {
+    const previousDocument = globalThis.document;
+    const previousFetch = globalThis.fetch;
+    t.after(() => { globalThis.document = previousDocument; globalThis.fetch = previousFetch; });
+    const document = new EventTarget();
+    document.getElementById = () => null;
+    globalThis.document = document;
+    const button = { disabled: false, setAttribute() {}, removeAttribute() {} };
+    const pending = [];
+    globalThis.fetch = () => new Promise((resolve) => pending.push(resolve));
+    const manual = refreshModelCatalog({ button });
+    const background = refreshModelCatalog();
+    pending[1]({ ok: true, json: async () => first });
+    await background;
+    assert.equal(button.disabled, true, 'manual request still owns its busy state');
+    pending[0]({ ok: true, json: async () => first });
+    assert.equal((await manual).stale, true);
+    assert.equal(button.disabled, false);
+    const old = refreshModelCatalog({ button });
+    const latest = refreshModelCatalog({ button });
+    pending[2]({ ok: true, json: async () => first });
+    await old;
+    assert.equal(button.disabled, true, 'older request cannot release a newer button owner');
+    pending[3]({ ok: true, json: async () => first });
+    await latest;
+    assert.equal(button.disabled, false);
+});
+
 test('read errors drop the httpx documentation pointer and rows get the compact form', () => {
     const data = {
         items: [{ value: 'openai/gpt-x' }],