diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 565a0287996..68936114729 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -12,3 +12,6 @@
 /src/cli/bundled-skill-guides.ts text eol=lf
 # Bundled plugin trees are byte-hashed; CRLF checkout would break the pinned hash.
 /resources/plugins/** text eol=lf
+# LF-only batch files hit the Windows parser's 512-byte boundary bug; -text keeps
+# the stored bytes CRLF so no checkout or blob reader can see them as LF-only.
+/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/*.cmd -text whitespace=cr-at-eol
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-cut.yml b/.github/workflows/release-cut.yml
index 7febc90fa88..d1eebcf4097 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-cut.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-cut.yml
@@ -784,6 +784,7 @@ jobs:
             echo "## Release E2E Signal"
             echo ""
             echo "- Platform golden E2E is release-blocking: terminal rendering, restrictive-umask profile writes, and agent TUI launch on Linux/macOS, plus fresh startup on Windows."
+            echo "- Exception: every golden except terminal rendering runs with \`--if-present\`, so it is skipped (not failed) on older tags that predate its script."
             echo "- Full E2E runs separately after publication and cannot change the release result."
             echo "- Terminal rendering release evidence is diagnostic/non-blocking."
             echo ""
diff --git a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/codex.cmd b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/codex.cmd
index 894a9216aa2..430f2982bef 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/codex.cmd
+++ b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/codex.cmd
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-@echo off
-call "%~dp0golden-stub-agent.cmd" %*
+@echo off
+call "%~dp0golden-stub-agent.cmd" %*
diff --git a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.cmd b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.cmd
index ccf5ced005e..77ef2f9a04d 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.cmd
+++ b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.cmd
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-@echo off
-node "%~dp0golden-stub-agent.js" %*
+@echo off
+node "%~dp0golden-stub-agent.js" %*
diff --git a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.js b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.js
index 95e8d109559..642229649af 100755
--- a/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.js
+++ b/tests/e2e/fixtures/golden-stub-agent/golden-stub-agent.js
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ function consumeInput() {
     pendingInput = pendingInput.slice(1)
     if (char === '\r' || char === '\n') {
       submit()
-    } else if (char === '\x04') {
+    } else if (char === '\x04' || char === '\x03') {
+      // Raw mode delivers Ctrl+C as \x03 instead of raising SIGINT.
       exitCleanly()
     } else if (char === '\x7f' || char === '\b') {
       composer = composer.slice(0, -1)