diff --git a/plugins/repo-hygiene/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/plugins/repo-hygiene/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index 2ead9dbf1..f1c4aa7de 100644
--- a/plugins/repo-hygiene/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
+++ b/plugins/repo-hygiene/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/claude-code-plugin-manifest.json",
   "name": "repo-hygiene",
-  "version": "0.4.1",
+  "version": "0.4.2",
   "description": "Repo hygiene action-router: /repo-hygiene:clean sweeps reclaimable caches, build artifacts, and stale git metadata, and can realign the working tree to a fresh-pull state — dry-run-first, with destructive tiers gated behind explicit confirmation and a session-scoped destructive-command guard. Ecosystem targets are detected at runtime; secrets, runtime dependencies, and skill data are preserved by default.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Melodic Software",
diff --git a/plugins/repo-hygiene/CHANGELOG.md b/plugins/repo-hygiene/CHANGELOG.md
index 5638985d1..824d235f5 100644
--- a/plugins/repo-hygiene/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/plugins/repo-hygiene/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,20 @@
 All notable changes to the `repo-hygiene` plugin are documented here. Format follows
 [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/); this plugin uses semantic versioning.
 
+## [0.4.2]
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **`git-tree-reset` context doc — surfaces the `reset --hard` non-atomicity
+  caveat on the exit-5 gate.** The exit-5 bullet in
+  `skills/clean/context/git-tree-reset.md` accurately described the gating
+  contract (a failed `reset --hard` skips `clean` and the restore guard, so the
+  tree is never left cleaned-but-not-reset) but omitted that `reset --hard` is
+  not atomic and may have partially modified tracked files before it failed —
+  a caveat the runtime exit-5 stderr message already surfaces. The bullet now
+  carries that parenthetical, so the doc is consistent with the script's stderr
+  output. (#485)
+
 ## [0.4.1]
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/plugins/repo-hygiene/skills/clean/context/git-tree-reset.md b/plugins/repo-hygiene/skills/clean/context/git-tree-reset.md
index 5c553afbf..e2dd8d8ae 100644
--- a/plugins/repo-hygiene/skills/clean/context/git-tree-reset.md
+++ b/plugins/repo-hygiene/skills/clean/context/git-tree-reset.md
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Skill data (`.claude/skills/*/data/`) is preserved unconditionally — no flag r
 - Upstream tracking branch required (`@{u}`); a configured-but-unresolvable upstream — remote-tracking ref absent (e.g. a squash-merged branch whose remote was deleted and pruned), where `@{u}` degrades to the literal token — is a first-class gate: skip the repo with `Blocked: upstream-unresolved (<remote>/<branch>)` before any destructive op, so a literal `@{u}` can never reach `reset --hard` (exit 6).
 - Blocks on default branch (`main`/`master`/resolved default) unless `--force-default-branch` (exit 3).
 - Aborts when HEAD is ahead of upstream unless `--allow-unpushed` (exit 4) — prevents silent loss of unpushed commits.
-- Aborts the apply if `reset --hard` fails (exit 5) — `clean` and the restore guard never run, so a failed reset can never leave the tree cleaned but not reset.
+- Aborts the apply if `reset --hard` fails (exit 5) — `clean` and the restore guard never run, so a failed reset can never leave the tree cleaned but not reset (the reset itself may have partially modified tracked files, since `reset --hard` is not atomic).
 - Aborts the apply if `git clean -fdx` genuinely fails (exit 7) — a non-zero clean exit whose cause is NOT locked/in-use files. The reset succeeded (its `AppliedReset:` line is still emitted); `clean` prints `AppliedClean: failed` instead of a success line, so the report can never claim a clean that errored. Locked/in-use files are the expected non-fatal case (see `Unremovable:` below) and are not a failure.
 - Post-clean restore guard: any tracked file deleted via reparse-point traversal is restored from the index (`RestoredTracked:` count; safe because `reset --hard` ran first).
 - Locked / in-use files git could not delete are reported (`Unremovable:`), not silently left.