diff --git a/laptop/adopt-project-config.sh b/laptop/adopt-project-config.sh
index 65aec6c..1ab607d 100755
--- a/laptop/adopt-project-config.sh
+++ b/laptop/adopt-project-config.sh
@@ -72,6 +72,25 @@ adopt() {
 
   [[ -e "$src" ]] || die "$src does not exist — nothing to adopt for $name"
   [[ -d "$src" ]] || die "$src is not a directory"
+
+  # A project that tracks its own .claude has already solved this problem: the
+  # configuration is versioned with the code and reaches both machines by the
+  # same pull that brings everything else. Replacing the directory with a
+  # symlink does not centralise it, it breaks it — git will not follow a symlink
+  # to reach a tracked path, so every file under it reports as deleted on both
+  # machines, and committing that would remove them from the project.
+  #
+  # The premise of this whole scheme is a .claude that is NOT reliably
+  # committed. Where the premise does not hold, neither does the scheme.
+  if git -C "$project" rev-parse --git-dir >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    local tracked
+    tracked=$(git -C "$project" ls-files -- .claude | head -3)
+    [[ -n "$tracked" ]] && die "$name tracks its own .claude in its repository:
+$tracked
+That configuration already reaches both machines through the project's own git
+history, and linking it away would report every tracked file as deleted. Leave
+this project alone."
+  fi
   # Refuse rather than merge. Two directories of the same name are two different
   # configurations, and picking one silently loses the other (§1 criterion 8).
   [[ -e "$dest" ]] && die "$dest already exists; move or remove it before adopting $name"
diff --git a/server/lib/22-claude-config.sh b/server/lib/22-claude-config.sh
index c911c14..19b1280 100755
--- a/server/lib/22-claude-config.sh
+++ b/server/lib/22-claude-config.sh
@@ -235,6 +235,19 @@ for cfg in "$DST"/project-config/*/; do
     continue
   fi
 
+  # Same refusal as laptop/adopt-project-config.sh, asserted again here because
+  # this side links from the delivered payload and would otherwise relink a
+  # project whose repository tracks its own .claude. git will not follow a
+  # symlink to reach a tracked path, so the link makes every file under it
+  # report as deleted, and an agent working in that project sees its
+  # configuration vanish from git while still being read.
+  if [[ -d "$proj/.git" ]] && [[ -n "$(git -C "$proj" ls-files -- .claude 2>/dev/null | head -1)" ]]; then
+    defer "$link" \
+      "$pname tracks its own .claude in its repository, so it reaches both machines by git already; linking it away would report every tracked file as deleted" \
+      "rm -rf '$DST/project-config/$pname' on the laptop's ~/.claude repository, and commit"
+    continue
+  fi
+
   if [[ -d "$link" ]]; then
     # What blocks the replacement is divergence, not mere presence. A project
     # pushed from the laptop already has copies of everything the payload
diff --git a/sync-design.md b/sync-design.md
index 483166a..0a3223f 100644
--- a/sync-design.md
+++ b/sync-design.md
@@ -93,7 +93,18 @@ than a guess.
 box, seven hold nothing in `.claude/` but `settings.local.json` and lock files,
 which are per-machine by design and stay out of the repository either way.
 Linking those would centralise nothing while adding a link that can break, so
-`untense`, `hezo` and `peek` are adopted and the rest are left alone.
+they are left alone. `hezo` and `peek` are adopted.
+
+**A project that tracks its own `.claude` is refused.** The premise here is a
+project configuration that is *not* reliably committed; where a project versions
+it with the code, it already reaches both machines by the same pull, and the
+symlink does not centralise it but breaks it — git does not follow a symlink to
+reach a tracked path, so every file under it reports as deleted on both machines
+and committing that removes them from the project. `untense` was adopted before
+this was understood, and an agent working on the box stopped rather than commit
+a tree that had lost two skills. Both `laptop/adopt-project-config.sh` and
+`server/lib/22-claude-config.sh` now refuse such a project, and the refusal is
+asserted on both sides because either can create the link.
 
 ## The two pieces of work