diff --git a/deploy/vm101/n8n-pi-wrap b/deploy/vm101/n8n-pi-wrap
index 7fc5484..3baa288 100755
--- a/deploy/vm101/n8n-pi-wrap
+++ b/deploy/vm101/n8n-pi-wrap
@@ -72,9 +72,23 @@ case "$cmd" in
    set -a; . "${HOME}/.config/knowledge-genome.env"; set +a
    cd "${GENOMES_ROOT}/${genome}" 2>/dev/null || { echo '{"status":"error","reason":"unknown genome"}'; exit 1; }
    git fetch -q origin
-   # changed/added raw files (exclude deletions: nothing to ingest), only under raw/, skip Syncthing infra
-   files="$(git diff --name-only --diff-filter=d "${before}" "${after}" -- raw/ 2>/dev/null \
-            | grep -vE '(^|/)\.st(folder|ignore)' || true)"
+   # Resolve the diff base robustly:
+   #   - before all-zero (brand-new branch) or unreachable (force-push) -> fall back to after~1
+   #   - if even after~1 is missing (root commit) -> list all raw files in `after`
+   base="$before"
+   case "$before" in *[!0]*) : ;; *) base="" ;; esac          # all-zero -> empty
+   if [ -n "$base" ] && ! git cat-file -e "${base}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then base=""; fi
+   if [ -z "$base" ]; then
+     if git cat-file -e "${after}~1^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then base="${after}~1"; else base=""; fi
+   fi
+   if [ -n "$base" ]; then
+     files="$(git diff --name-only --diff-filter=d "${base}" "${after}" -- raw/ 2>/dev/null \
+              | grep -vE '(^|/)\.st(folder|ignore)' || true)"
+   else
+     # no usable base: enumerate raw files present at `after`
+     files="$(git ls-tree -r --name-only "${after}" -- raw/ 2>/dev/null \
+              | grep -vE '(^|/)\.st(folder|ignore)' || true)"
+   fi
    # emit a JSON array via jq (safe escaping)
    printf '%s\n' "$files" | grep -c . >/dev/null 2>&1 || files=""
    if [ -z "$files" ]; then