ai-slop: bare-invocation scan silently drops tracked markdown with non-ASCII filenames (quotePath fix missing on the no-args path)

[kyle-sexton]

Context

The core.quotePath fix from #3332 reached only the directory-expansion path of plugins/ai-slop/skills/audit/scripts/detect.sh. expand_dir_target lists with git -C "$dir" -c core.quotePath=false ls-files '*.md' (line 488) and reports listing failures on stderr (line 491). The no-args default path, the bare-invocation whole-repo mode SKILL.md documents, still lists with:

done < <(git -C "$REPO_ROOT" ls-files '*.md' 2>/dev/null)   # line 421

Without core.quotePath=false, git C-quotes any path holding a non-ASCII byte (the file's own comment at lines 434-439 explains this for the dir path). The C-quoted string then fails [[ -f "$file" ]] || continue at line 648 and the file is silently dropped: no finding, no declined-files row, no stderr. The same line's 2>/dev/null also suppresses the listing-failure diagnostic the dir path was explicitly fixed to report. The regression test at detect.test.sh:807-815 covers only the dir-target path.

Net effect: in default whole-repo mode, a tracked café.md (or any name with a non-ASCII byte) is invisible to the audit while the run reports success.

Verified against the code on 2026-08-27.

Proposed work

• Apply the same listing discipline to the no-args path: -c core.quotePath=false, and surface a listing failure instead of 2>/dev/null.
• Extend the suite with a bare-invocation case over a repo containing a tracked non-ASCII-named markdown file, asserting it is scanned (or declined visibly), plus a case asserting a listing failure is reported.
• Consider the related deepening candidate (filed separately): target resolution lives at six sites in this script, which is why this fix landed at one site and missed this one.

Acceptance criteria

• Bare invocation scans a tracked markdown file whose name holds a non-ASCII byte (asserted by a new test).
• A failed listing in no-args mode produces a visible diagnostic instead of an empty silent scan.
• The dir-target behavior fixed in ai-slop detect.sh: three defects survive the directory-expansion fix, including tests that do not pin the invariant they name #3332 is unchanged.

References

• plugins/ai-slop/skills/audit/scripts/detect.sh:421 (unfixed listing), :434-439 (the file's own quotePath rationale), :488-491 (the fixed dir path), :648 (the silent drop)
• plugins/ai-slop/skills/audit/scripts/detect.test.sh:807-815 (dir-path-only regression test)
• ai-slop audit: directory targets silently fall back to an untracked-inclusive filesystem walk when git and shell path spellings differ #3266, ai-slop detector: config arrays parse with a trailing carriage return under the Windows build of jq, so exclusions silently stop applying #3343 (prior fixes in the same target-resolution concern), ai-slop detect.sh: three defects survive the directory-expansion fix, including tests that do not pin the invariant they name #3332
• Found by the /architecture:improve deepening scan (2026-08-27); claim reproduced against the code before filing.