diff --git a/app/schemas/triage.ts b/app/schemas/triage.ts
index 706be6f..8c9c65b 100644
--- a/app/schemas/triage.ts
+++ b/app/schemas/triage.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ export const TriageDecision = z
 		questions: z.array(z.string().min(1).max(1000)).max(5).describe('Questions for the maintainer. Non-empty exactly when decision is "ask".'),
 		rationale: z.string().min(1).max(4000).describe("Why you decided this. Shown to the maintainer when you decline."),
 		findings: z.string().max(8000).describe("What you learned from the repository, kept for the spec writer and later rounds."),
-		relevantPaths: z.array(z.string().min(1)).max(50).describe("Repository-relative paths that matter for the change."),
+		relevantPaths: z.array(z.string().min(1)).max(50).default([]).describe("Repository-relative paths that matter for the change, when any."),
 	})
 	.superRefine((value, ctx) => {
 		if (value.decision === "ask" && value.questions.length === 0) {
diff --git a/tests/sandbox-scripts.test.ts b/tests/sandbox-scripts.test.ts
index a92db0a..f8d33b0 100644
--- a/tests/sandbox-scripts.test.ts
+++ b/tests/sandbox-scripts.test.ts
@@ -50,10 +50,15 @@ let scratch: string;
 let commit: string;
 
 function run(cmd: string, args: string[], opts: { cwd?: string; env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv; input?: string } = {}) {
-	return new Promise<{ code: number; stdout: string; stderr: string }>((resolve) => {
+	return new Promise<{ code: number; stdout: string; stderr: string }>((resolve, reject) => {
 		const child = execFile(cmd, args, { cwd: opts.cwd, env: { ...env, ...opts.env } }, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
 			resolve({ code: err ? (typeof err.code === "number" ? err.code : 1) : 0, stdout, stderr });
 		});
+		child.stdin?.on("error", (error: NodeJS.ErrnoException) => {
+			// Some failure cases exit before reading stdin. The process callback
+			// carries the result; a closed pipe is not a separate test failure.
+			if (error.code !== "EPIPE") reject(error);
+		});
 		child.stdin?.end(opts.input ?? "");
 	});
 }
diff --git a/tests/schemas.test.ts b/tests/schemas.test.ts
index d1e542d..22f53f8 100644
--- a/tests/schemas.test.ts
+++ b/tests/schemas.test.ts
@@ -43,9 +43,12 @@ describe("TriageDecision", () => {
 	it("rejects a misspelled field by name, so the agent can fix it", () => {
 		const { relevantPaths, ...rest } = base;
 		const misspelled = { ...rest, decision: "draft", questions: [], relevant_paths: relevantPaths };
-		expect(issues(TriageDecision.safeParse(misspelled))).toEqual(
-			expect.arrayContaining(["relevantPaths: Invalid input: expected array, received undefined", ': Unrecognized key: "relevant_paths"']),
-		);
+		expect(issues(TriageDecision.safeParse(misspelled))).toEqual([': Unrecognized key: "relevant_paths"']);
+	});
+
+	it("defaults advisory relevant paths when the model omits them", () => {
+		const { relevantPaths: _relevantPaths, ...withoutPaths } = base;
+		expect(TriageDecision.parse({ ...withoutPaths, decision: "draft", questions: [] }).relevantPaths).toEqual([]);
 	});
 });