diff --git a/src/agent/utils.ts b/src/agent/utils.ts
index 016a6ac1..ee52d2c8 100644
--- a/src/agent/utils.ts
+++ b/src/agent/utils.ts
@@ -521,8 +521,16 @@ function formatGitSection(command: string, output: string): string {
   );
 }
 
+/**
+ * Matches the two-character status field `git status --short` puts in front of
+ * each path. The field is only one character wide on the first line of a
+ * trimmed run, because `runGit` strips the leading space of an unstaged-only
+ * status such as " M openwiki/.last-update.json".
+ */
+const GIT_STATUS_LINE_PATTERN = /^[ !?ACDMRTU]{1,2} (.+)$/u;
+
 function isUpdateMetadataStatusLine(line: string): boolean {
-  const statusPath = line.length > 3 ? line.slice(3).trim() : line.trim();
+  const statusPath = (GIT_STATUS_LINE_PATTERN.exec(line)?.[1] ?? line).trim();
   const normalizedPath = statusPath.replace(/\\/gu, "/");
 
   return (
diff --git a/test/update-noop.test.ts b/test/update-noop.test.ts
index 632cd4d0..ca556854 100644
--- a/test/update-noop.test.ts
+++ b/test/update-noop.test.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,21 @@ describe("getUpdateNoopStatus", () => {
     expect(status.shouldSkip).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  test("detects a no-op when only the committed run metadata is dirty", async () => {
+    // A committed wiki leaves openwiki/.last-update.json tracked, so the next
+    // run sees it as an unstaged modification: " M openwiki/.last-update.json".
+    const repo = await createRepoWithOpenWiki();
+    await writeLastUpdate(repo, "0".repeat(40));
+    await git(repo, ["add", "openwiki/.last-update.json"]);
+    await git(repo, ["commit", "-m", "record update"]);
+    const head = await git(repo, ["rev-parse", "HEAD"]);
+    await writeLastUpdate(repo, head);
+
+    const status = await getUpdateNoopStatus(repo);
+
+    expect(status.shouldSkip).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   test("does not skip update when the worktree has uncommitted changes", async () => {
     const repo = await createRepoWithOpenWiki();
     const head = await git(repo, ["rev-parse", "HEAD"]);