Read AGENTS.md and follow it exactly.

Task:
Investigate and fix the specific issue I describe below with the smallest safe change possible.

Requirements:

- Stay within scope.
- Use the repo-local venv only.
- Do not use bare pip.
- Do not refactor unrelated code.
- Do not remove features.
- After changes, run the smallest relevant validation commands and report exact results.

Issue:
[paste the bug here]