diff --git a/src/hook.mjs b/src/hook.mjs
index 68d4eb9..3e3d24e 100644
--- a/src/hook.mjs
+++ b/src/hook.mjs
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import { resolvePolicy } from './policy-resolver.mjs';
 import { engineForPolicy, resolveStagedPolicy } from './scan-target.mjs';
 import { scanEntries } from './scan-session.mjs';
 import {
+    GIT_POLICY_INPUT_COMMANDS,
     GIT_POLICY_TRANSITION_COMMANDS,
     GIT_REF_MUTATION_COMMANDS,
     SAFE_NON_COMMIT_GIT,
@@ -271,6 +272,17 @@ function hookPreToolUse(input) {
                     'aimhooman cannot determine the policy that will apply after dynamic execution; run the Git commit separately.'
                 );
             }
+            // Some ref-mutation verbs have read-only listing forms that move no
+            // ref and so cannot bypass the reference-transaction guard. Reading
+            // a repository (`git branch | grep`, `git remote -v | grep origin`,
+            // `git stash list | head`) is everyday work; refusing it behind a
+            // pipeline forced developers out of their normal workflow. A real
+            // mutation still carries a mutating flag or positional and stays
+            // subject to every check below. This sits above the transition veto
+            // because a command that reads cannot be made unsafe by whatever ran
+            // before it; it stays below the checks above, which are about not
+            // being able to see the repository at all.
+            if (gitReadOnlyRefCommand(gitCommand.verb, gitCommand.args || [])) continue;
             if (gitCommand.policyTransitionRisk) {
                 return emitDecision(
                     'deny',
@@ -279,14 +291,6 @@ function hookPreToolUse(input) {
             }
             targetRepo = openRepo(gitCommand.cwd);
             const targetProfile = enforcementPolicy(targetRepo).profile;
-            // Some ref-mutation verbs have read-only listing forms that move no
-            // ref and so cannot bypass the reference-transaction guard. Reading
-            // a repository (`git branch | grep`, `git remote -v | grep origin`,
-            // `git stash list | head`) is everyday work; refusing it behind a
-            // pipeline forced developers out of their normal workflow. A real
-            // mutation still carries a mutating flag or positional and stays
-            // subject to every check below.
-            if (gitReadOnlyRefCommand(gitCommand.verb, gitCommand.args || [])) continue;
             // An unresolved subcommand/alias may itself move a ref. When its
             // hook path or execution context is altered, there is no safe
             // content snapshot to fall back to, so treat it like a direct ref
@@ -791,9 +795,12 @@ function resolveGitAliases(parsed) {
         } : resolved;
         commands.push(effective);
         if (effective.verb === 'add') aliasAddPaths.push(...effective.addPaths);
+        // The same narrowing the parser applies. Without it every commit-like
+        // candidate is re-stamped here after parseGit has run, and the veto
+        // below fires again on lines where nothing moved a policy input.
         aliasPolicyTransitionRisk ||= effective.verb === 'unknown'
-            || GIT_POLICY_TRANSITION_COMMANDS.has(effective.verb)
-            || GIT_REF_MUTATION_COMMANDS.has(effective.verb);
+            || (GIT_POLICY_INPUT_COMMANDS.has(effective.verb)
+                && !gitReadOnlyRefCommand(effective.verb, effective.args || []));
         aliasIndexMutationRisk ||= effective.verb === 'unknown'
             || effective.indexMutationRisk
             || gitIndexMutationRisk(effective.verb, effective.args);
diff --git a/src/shell-parse.mjs b/src/shell-parse.mjs
index a342390..b4dce40 100644
--- a/src/shell-parse.mjs
+++ b/src/shell-parse.mjs
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ export function parseGit(cmd, initialCwd = process.cwd()) {
                 targetUncertain: commandTargetUncertain,
                 pathDialectUncertain: commandPathDialectUncertain,
             });
-            policyTransitionRisk = true;
+            policyTransitionRisk ||= raisesPolicyTransitionRisk(verb, verbArgs);
         }
         else if (verb === 'add') {
             const paths = toks.slice(i + 1).filter((t) => !t.startsWith('-'));
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ export function parseGit(cmd, initialCwd = process.cwd()) {
                 pathDialectUncertain: commandPathDialectUncertain,
                 classification: 'unknown',
             });
-            policyTransitionRisk ||= GIT_POLICY_TRANSITION_COMMANDS.has(verb);
+            policyTransitionRisk ||= raisesPolicyTransitionRisk(verb, verbArgs);
         } else if (GIT_POLICY_TRANSITION_COMMANDS.has(verb)
             || GIT_REF_MUTATION_COMMANDS.has(verb)) {
             commands.push({
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ export function parseGit(cmd, initialCwd = process.cwd()) {
                 pathDialectUncertain: commandPathDialectUncertain,
                 classification: 'mutation',
             });
-            policyTransitionRisk = true;
+            policyTransitionRisk ||= raisesPolicyTransitionRisk(verb, verbArgs);
         }
     }
     const indirectCommits = [
@@ -666,6 +666,26 @@ export const GIT_POLICY_TRANSITION_COMMANDS = new Set([
     'update-ref',
 ]);
 
+// Verbs whose effect a later command's policy resolution reads: they move HEAD,
+// the index, or the worktree that `.aimhooman.json` is resolved from. Only these
+// raise the transition flag that refuses a later Git command on the same line.
+//
+// Deliberately a third set rather than a narrowing of the two around it. Those
+// two also decide whether a verb becomes a modelled candidate at all, so
+// dropping `push` from ref mutation would take the installed-guard check for
+// `git push` with it. `commit` is absent on purpose: the state it moves is state
+// this tool just supervised through pre-commit, commit-msg and the ref guard,
+// unlike `symbolic-ref` or `stash pop`, which move it unwatched.
+export const GIT_POLICY_INPUT_COMMANDS = new Set([
+    'am', 'branch', 'checkout', 'cherry-pick', 'merge', 'pull', 'read-tree', 'rebase',
+    'replace', 'reset', 'restore', 'revert', 'rm', 'stash', 'switch', 'symbolic-ref',
+    'update-index', 'update-ref',
+]);
+
+function raisesPolicyTransitionRisk(verb, args = []) {
+    return GIT_POLICY_INPUT_COMMANDS.has(verb) && !gitReadOnlyRefCommand(verb, args);
+}
+
 // These verbs can create a commit or move a branch/reference. Their final
 // safety boundary is the managed reference-transaction hook, so PreToolUse
 // must not let config/environment/prefix indirection disable that boundary.
@@ -755,7 +775,7 @@ const GIT_TAG_MUTATING_FLAGS = new Set([
 
 const GIT_BRANCH_READONLY_FLAGS = new Set([
     '-a', '--all', '-r', '--remotes', '-l', '--list', '-v', '--verbose', '-vv',
-    '-q', '--quiet', '--no-color', '--color',
+    '-q', '--quiet', '--no-color', '--color', '--show-current',
     '--sort', '--format', '--contains', '--no-contains', '--merged', '--no-merged',
     '--points-at',
 ]);
diff --git a/tests/hook.test.mjs b/tests/hook.test.mjs
index fee923f..ab087ca 100644
--- a/tests/hook.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/hook.test.mjs
@@ -3144,3 +3144,75 @@ test('an unwritable .git/info produces the same verdict as a writable one', asyn
         }
     }
 });
+
+// One running flag was raised after every commit and every ref-affecting verb,
+// then stamped onto every later command on the same line. So the second Git
+// command was refused whatever it was, and told to "run the Git commit
+// separately" even on lines with no commit in them. What actually matters is
+// whether the earlier command moved something a later policy resolution reads:
+// HEAD, the index, or the worktree.
+test('a second Git command is allowed when the first moved no policy input', async () => {
+    const dir = makeHookRepo('clean', 'aim-hook-second-command-');
+    try {
+        for (const command of [
+            'git commit -m x && git push',
+            'git fetch && git rebase origin/main',
+            'git remote -v && git push',
+            'git tag -l && git push --tags',
+            'git stash list && git commit -m x',
+            'git branch --show-current && git commit -m x',
+        ]) {
+            assert.equal(
+                await invokePreToolUse(dir, { tool_name: 'Bash', tool_input: { command } }),
+                null,
+                command,
+            );
+        }
+    } finally {
+        rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+});
+
+// The other half of the same decision. These four move HEAD or the index
+// outside any guarded path, so a commit after them is resolved against state
+// the tool never saw. They stay denied.
+test('a second Git command is denied when the first moved a policy input', async () => {
+    const dir = makeHookRepo('clean', 'aim-hook-policy-input-');
+    try {
+        for (const command of [
+            'git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/other && git commit -m x',
+            'git update-ref refs/heads/main HEAD && git commit -m x',
+            'git rm --cached .aimhooman.json && git commit -m x',
+            'git stash pop && git commit -m x',
+            'git checkout other-branch && git commit -m x',
+        ]) {
+            const out = await invokePreToolUse(dir, { tool_name: 'Bash', tool_input: { command } });
+            assert.equal(out?.permissionDecision, 'deny', command);
+        }
+    } finally {
+        rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+});
+
+// The listing carve-out was only ever exercised on clean, which is why a change
+// that turned it off under strict could ship green.
+test('read-only Git ref-command listings are allowed under strict too', async () => {
+    const dir = makeHookRepo('strict', 'aim-hook-readonly-strict-');
+    try {
+        for (const command of [
+            'git branch | grep feat',
+            'git branch -a | head',
+            'git remote -v | grep origin',
+            'git stash list | head',
+            'git notes list | head',
+        ]) {
+            assert.equal(
+                await invokePreToolUse(dir, { tool_name: 'Bash', tool_input: { command } }),
+                null,
+                command,
+            );
+        }
+    } finally {
+        rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+});