diff --git a/plugins/tend-ci-runner/skills/running-in-ci/SKILL.md b/plugins/tend-ci-runner/skills/running-in-ci/SKILL.md
index 68beb9a8..65945ec0 100644
--- a/plugins/tend-ci-runner/skills/running-in-ci/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/tend-ci-runner/skills/running-in-ci/SKILL.md
@@ -588,10 +588,24 @@ If you can't find source evidence for a specific detail, say so ("I'm not sure o
 Intermittent or inconsistent behavior — the same query returning different results within seconds, an API silently returning empty when records demonstrably exist, a CLI flag working sometimes — points more strongly at an active upstream incident than at a CLI or skill bug. Reproducing the flake confirms the symptom but not the cause; the cause is often a current incident on the upstream service, in which case the right disposition is to wait for resolution rather than commit a code workaround that outlives the incident. Before designing a workaround, check upstream status. For GitHub-side symptoms:
 
 ```bash
-curl -s 'https://www.githubstatus.com/api/v2/incidents/unresolved.json' \
-  | jq '.incidents[] | {created_at, name, impact, components: [.components[].name]}'
+# Fetch first, parse second. The endpoint sits behind an edge that sometimes
+# answers a CI runner with an HTML challenge page instead of JSON; piping that
+# straight into jq gives a parse error on stderr and an empty stdout, which
+# reads exactly like "no open incidents". `-f` catches a challenge served as a
+# non-200 and the `jq -e` probe catches one served as 200; capturing the body
+# means the status is curl's or jq's, not a pipeline's (a bare
+# `curl … | jq … || …` exits 0 on the challenge page).
+if ! INCIDENTS=$(curl -fsS 'https://www.githubstatus.com/api/v2/incidents/unresolved.json') \
+   || ! echo "$INCIDENTS" | jq -e . >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo 'STATUS PROBE FAILED — upstream state unknown, not clear'
+else
+  echo "$INCIDENTS" \
+    | jq '.incidents[] | {created_at, name, impact, components: [.components[].name]}'
+fi
 ```
 
+**A failed probe is `unknown`, never `clear`.** Empty output from a successful query means no open incident; a probe that errored means you didn't check. Both resolve the same way — record the symptom in the evidence log and skip the workaround PR — so an unreachable status endpoint is not a reason to file one.
+
 If the response is non-empty and the components/timing match the symptom (e.g. Issues / Pull Requests / Actions during a search-degradation incident), record the symptom in the run's evidence log and exit without a PR. Sibling matrix legs that hit different surface symptoms of the same incident otherwise each open their own near-duplicate workaround PR — title and file dedup don't catch them because each leg picks a different command to mitigate.
 
 <example>