diff --git a/.github/scripts/qwen-triage-workflow.test.mjs b/.github/scripts/qwen-triage-workflow.test.mjs
index b9bd292dd4a..2a1f7220ca2 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/qwen-triage-workflow.test.mjs
+++ b/.github/scripts/qwen-triage-workflow.test.mjs
@@ -122,6 +122,52 @@ describe('qwen-triage: git exec-vector cleanup', () => {
     );
   });
 
+  // Steady-state regression: on a reused runner this step has already
+  // sanitized the config, so the next run's grep matches nothing and exits 1.
+  // Under the Actions default `bash -e` shell plus the script's own
+  // `set -o pipefail`, an unguarded grep killed the whole step exactly when
+  // there was nothing to clean (run 30095456731). The allowlist test below
+  // can't catch this: it re-assembles the pipeline without the shell flags
+  // and always plants non-allowlisted keys. So run the *actual* step script
+  // under the actual flags against the nothing-to-clean state.
+  describe('steady state: nothing to clean (real step script, bash -e)', () => {
+    // The stage-draft cleanup touches a literal /tmp glob; neuter that one
+    // line so the test never deletes files outside its scratch dir.
+    const hermetic = cleanStep.run.replace(/^rm -f \/tmp\/stage-[^\n]*$/m, ':');
+    let dir;
+
+    before(() => {
+      assert.notEqual(hermetic, cleanStep.run, 'stage-draft rm line not found');
+      dir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'triage-steady-'));
+      spawnSync('git', ['-C', dir, 'init', '-q']);
+    });
+
+    after(() => dir && rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true }));
+
+    const runStep = (script) =>
+      spawnSync('bash', ['-e', '-c', script], {
+        cwd: dir,
+        encoding: 'utf8',
+        env: { ...process.env, RUNNER_TEMP: join(dir, 'rt') },
+      });
+
+    it('succeeds when every config key is already allowlisted', () => {
+      const res = runStep(hermetic);
+      assert.equal(res.status, 0, res.stderr || res.stdout);
+      assert.match(res.stdout, /stale agent state cleaned/);
+    });
+
+    it('negative control: without the grep guard the same state kills the step', () => {
+      const unguarded = hermetic.replace(' || true; }', '; }');
+      assert.notEqual(
+        unguarded,
+        hermetic,
+        'grep guard (`|| true`) not found in clean step',
+      );
+      assert.notEqual(runStep(unguarded).status, 0);
+    });
+  });
+
   // Behavioral test: run the workflow's *actual* allowlist pattern (extracted
   // from the step) against a scratch repo. Proves the regex both unsets exec
   // vectors and preserves the plumbing actions/checkout needs — a broken
diff --git a/.github/workflows/qwen-triage.yml b/.github/workflows/qwen-triage.yml
index 6b07aca516e..7db42e9c1ff 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/qwen-triage.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/qwen-triage.yml
@@ -264,8 +264,12 @@ jobs:
           # overwrites remote.origin.url, so a planted `ext::` transport URL kept
           # here is replaced before any fetch. --unset-all handles resolved
           # includeIf subsections that --remove-section cannot target.
+          # `|| true` on the grep: no non-allowlisted keys (the steady state
+          # on a reused runner this step already sanitized) means grep exits
+          # 1, and with the default `bash -e` plus pipefail above that would
+          # kill the whole step exactly when there is nothing to clean.
           git config --local --name-only --list 2>/dev/null \
-            | grep -ivE '^(core\.(repositoryformatversion|bare|filemode|symlinks|ignorecase|precomposeunicode|logallrefupdates|worktree|hidedotfiles|protecthfs|protectntfs)|remote\.|branch\.|extensions\.|gc\.|pack\.|fetch\.|index\.|safe\.|submodule\.[^.]+\.(url|active|branch))' \
+            | { grep -ivE '^(core\.(repositoryformatversion|bare|filemode|symlinks|ignorecase|precomposeunicode|logallrefupdates|worktree|hidedotfiles|protecthfs|protectntfs)|remote\.|branch\.|extensions\.|gc\.|pack\.|fetch\.|index\.|safe\.|submodule\.[^.]+\.(url|active|branch))' || true; } \
             | while IFS= read -r key; do git config --local --unset-all "$key" 2>/dev/null || true; done
           HOOKS_DIR="$(git rev-parse --git-path hooks 2>/dev/null || echo .git/hooks)"
           # Match -type f OR -type l: a symlinked hook (e.g. post-checkout ->