diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
index 4beb2664a5..e04f50bea7 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
@@ -1268,6 +1268,18 @@ impl Tenant {
     /// This is used to create the initial 'main' timeline during bootstrapping,
     /// or when importing a new base backup. The caller is expected to load an
     /// initial image of the datadir to the new timeline after this.
+    ///
+    /// Until that happens, the on-disk state is invalid (disk_consistent_lsn=Lsn(0))
+    /// and the timeline will fail to load at a restart.
+    ///
+    /// That's why we add an uninit mark file, and wrap it together witht the Timeline
+    /// in-memory object into UninitializedTimeline.
+    /// Once the caller is done setting up the timeline, they should call
+    /// `UninitializedTimeline::initialize_with_lock` to remove the uninit mark.
+    ///
+    /// For tests, use `DatadirModification::init_empty` + `commit` to setup the
+    /// minimum amount of keys required to get a working timeline.
+    /// (Without it, `put` might fail due to `repartition` failing.)
     pub fn create_empty_timeline(
         &self,
         new_timeline_id: TimelineId,
@@ -1316,7 +1328,19 @@ impl Tenant {
         ctx: &RequestContext,
     ) -> anyhow::Result<Arc<Timeline>> {
         let uninit_tl = self.create_empty_timeline(new_timeline_id, initdb_lsn, pg_version, ctx)?;
+
+        // Setup minimum keys required for the timeline to be usable.
+        let mut modification = uninit_tl
+            .raw_timeline()
+            .expect("we just created it")
+            .begin_modification(initdb_lsn);
+        modification.init_empty().context("init_empty")?;
+        modification
+            .commit()
+            .context("commit init_empty modification")?;
+
         let mut timelines = self.timelines.lock().unwrap();
+        // Call with `load_layers=true` to get next_open_layer set up.
         let tl = uninit_tl.initialize_with_lock(ctx, &mut timelines, true)?;
         // The non-test code would call tl.activate() here.
         tl.set_state(TimelineState::Active);
@@ -4353,6 +4377,28 @@ mod tests {
         }
         Ok(())
     }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn test_empty_test_timeline_is_usable() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        let (tenant, ctx) = TenantHarness::create("test_empty_test_timeline_is_usable")?
+            .load()
+            .await;
+        let tline =
+            tenant.create_test_timeline(TIMELINE_ID, Lsn(0x20), DEFAULT_PG_VERSION, &ctx)?;
+
+        // Make sure the timeline has the minimum set of required keys for operation.
+        // The only operation you can do on an empty timeline is to write new data.
+        // Repartition is the only code on the write path that requires other keys to be present.
+        // Make sure it works.
+        let cache = tline.partitioning.lock().unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(cache.1, Lsn(0), "must not have repartitioned yet, otherwise the repartition call below might just use the cache");
+        drop(cache);
+        tline
+            .repartition(Lsn(0x20), tline.get_compaction_target_size(), &ctx)
+            .await?;
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
 }
 
 #[cfg(not(debug_assertions))]
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index 71f83bf127..680702580c 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ pub struct Timeline {
     pub initdb_lsn: Lsn,
 
     /// When did we last calculate the partitioning?
-    partitioning: Mutex<(KeyPartitioning, Lsn)>,
+    pub(super) partitioning: Mutex<(KeyPartitioning, Lsn)>,
 
     /// Configuration: how often should the partitioning be recalculated.
     repartition_threshold: u64,
@@ -1306,7 +1306,7 @@ impl Timeline {
             .unwrap_or(self.conf.default_tenant_conf.checkpoint_timeout)
     }
 
-    fn get_compaction_target_size(&self) -> u64 {
+    pub(super) fn get_compaction_target_size(&self) -> u64 {
         let tenant_conf = self.tenant_conf.read().unwrap();
         tenant_conf
             .compaction_target_size
@@ -2386,8 +2386,11 @@ impl Timeline {
                 ValueReconstructResult::Missing => {
                     return Err(layer_traversal_error(
                         format!(
-                            "could not find data for key {} at LSN {}, for request at LSN {}",
-                            key, cont_lsn, request_lsn
+                            "could not find data for key {} at LSN {}, for request at LSN {}\n{}",
+                            key,
+                            cont_lsn,
+                            request_lsn,
+                            std::backtrace::Backtrace::force_capture(),
                         ),
                         traversal_path,
                     ));
@@ -3000,7 +3003,7 @@ impl Timeline {
         Ok((new_delta_filename, LayerFileMetadata::new(sz)))
     }
 
-    async fn repartition(
+    pub(super) async fn repartition(
         &self,
         lsn: Lsn,
         partition_size: u64,