diff --git a/src-tauri/android/verify-icon.sh b/src-tauri/android/verify-icon.sh
index 19ca06d..47aab5a 100644
--- a/src-tauri/android/verify-icon.sh
+++ b/src-tauri/android/verify-icon.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,15 @@
 # If anyone ever sets isCrunchPngs = true on the debug build type, the debug
 # path fails on byte-equality with the file named; --crunched is the answer.
 set -uo pipefail
+# Every membership test below reads its haystack from a HERESTRING, never from
+# `echo "$VAR" | grep -q`. Measured 2026-09-15: that pipeline plus the
+# `pipefail` above is a race. `grep -q` exits the instant it matches, `echo` is
+# still pushing 70 KB of `unzip -l` down a closed pipe, takes SIGPIPE and exits
+# 141 — and pipefail promotes the dead writer's status to the whole pipeline,
+# so a check that FOUND what it wanted reports failure. Whether it fires
+# depends on where the match falls in the stream, so three runs against one
+# unchanged APK gave fail / pass / fail. A herestring has no writer process and
+# nothing to kill.
 APK="${1:-}"
 test -n "$APK" || { echo "usage: verify-icon.sh <apk> [--crunched]"; exit 2; }
 # resolved before the cd, so a relative path typed by hand still means what it
@@ -102,6 +111,14 @@ SDKU=""
 [ -n "${ANDROID_HOME:-}" ] && SDKU="$(cygpath -u "$ANDROID_HOME" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
 [ -z "$SDKU" ] && [ -n "${LOCALAPPDATA:-}" ] && SDKU="$(cygpath -u "$LOCALAPPDATA" 2>/dev/null || echo "")/Android/Sdk"
 A2="$(ls -1 "$SDKU"/build-tools/*/aapt2.exe 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1 || true)"
+# aapt2 is a WINDOWS binary and $APK is an MSYS path. Normally MSYS rewrites
+# one into the other on the way across, but deploy.sh exports
+# MSYS_NO_PATHCONV=1 for the adb calls, and that switch is global — so inside
+# a deploy the path arrives as /f/Coding/... and aapt2 answers "failed opening
+# zip: I/O error", which reads exactly like a corrupt APK. Hand aapt2 the
+# Windows form explicitly and keep $APK for unzip and cmp, which want the
+# MSYS one. (Checked standalone this never fires; it only bites under deploy.)
+APKW="$(cygpath -w "$APK" 2>/dev/null || echo "$APK")"
 
 # 2. the ground, in BOTH build types. Not "is the file in the APK" — the
 #    adaptive icon's <background> is a REFERENCE, so what matters is what it
@@ -113,7 +130,7 @@ A2="$(ls -1 "$SDKU"/build-tools/*/aapt2.exe 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1 || t
 #    of a path: a release APK has had res/mipmap-anydpi-v26/ic_launcher.xml
 #    renamed to res/BW.xml, and the table is the only thing that still knows.
 TBL=""
-[ -n "$A2" ] && { TBL="$("$A2" dump resources "$APK" 2>/dev/null)" || bad "aapt2 could not read the resource table of $APK"; }
+[ -n "$A2" ] && { TBL="$("$A2" dump resources "$APKW" 2>/dev/null)" || bad "aapt2 could not read the resource table of $APK"; }
 # name [config] -> the file that resource points at. The config is not
 # optional detail: mipmap/ic_launcher has SIX entries — the anydpi adaptive
 # XML and five legacy PNGs — so a name-only lookup hands back
@@ -130,12 +147,12 @@ name_of() { echo "$TBL" | awk -v id="$1" '$1 == "resource" && $2 == id { print $
 if [ -z "$TBL" ]; then
     echo "== ground: NOT CHECKED — no aapt2 under ${SDKU:-(no SDK path)}/build-tools."
     echo "   What <background> points at is a resource id; only the table reads it."
-elif echo "$TBL" | grep -q "0_resource_name_obfuscated"; then
+elif grep -q "0_resource_name_obfuscated" <<< "$TBL"; then
     echo "== ground: NOT CHECKED — this APK's resource names are collapsed."
 else
     ADAPT="$(path_of mipmap/ic_launcher anydpi)"
     test -n "$ADAPT" || bad "mipmap/ic_launcher has no anydpi entry in this APK — the adaptive icon is not in it, so $RES never reached src-tauri/gen/android/app/src/main/res"
-    BGID="$("$A2" dump xmltree "$APK" --file "$ADAPT" 2>/dev/null \
+    BGID="$("$A2" dump xmltree "$APKW" --file "$ADAPT" 2>/dev/null \
         | awk '/E: background/ { f = 1 } f && /android:drawable\(/ { sub(/.*=@?/, ""); print; exit }')"
     test -n "$BGID" || bad "the adaptive icon in this APK ($ADAPT) declares no <background>"
     BGNAME="$(name_of "$BGID")"
@@ -147,7 +164,7 @@ else
     # the $name__N filenames aapt2 happens to give them this version.
     GPATH="$(path_of drawable/ic_launcher_ground)"
     test -n "$GPATH" || bad "drawable/ic_launcher_ground resolves to no file in this APK"
-    GTREE="$("$A2" dump xmltree "$APK" --file "$GPATH" 2>/dev/null)" || bad "aapt2 cannot read $GPATH out of this APK"
+    GTREE="$("$A2" dump xmltree "$APKW" --file "$GPATH" 2>/dev/null)" || bad "aapt2 cannot read $GPATH out of this APK"
     IDS="$(echo "$GTREE" | grep -oE 'fillColor\(0x[0-9a-f]+\)=@0x[0-9a-f]+' | grep -oE '0x[0-9a-f]+$')"
     NFILL="$(echo "$IDS" | grep -c . || true)"
     [ "$NFILL" = 2 ] || bad "the ground in this APK has $NFILL gradient fills, not 2 — concept 04 is a surface and the glow over it"
@@ -155,10 +172,10 @@ else
     for id in $IDS; do
         g="$(path_of "$(name_of "$id")")"
         test -n "$g" || bad "the ground's gradient $id has no file in the resource table"
-        STOPS="$STOPS $("$A2" dump xmltree "$APK" --file "$g" | grep -oE 'color\(0x[0-9a-f]+\)=#[0-9a-f]{8}' | grep -oE '[0-9a-f]{8}$' | tr '\n' ' ')"
+        STOPS="$STOPS $("$A2" dump xmltree "$APKW" --file "$g" | grep -oE 'color\(0x[0-9a-f]+\)=#[0-9a-f]{8}' | grep -oE '[0-9a-f]{8}$' | tr '\n' ' ')"
     done
     for c in ff0a2330 ff07141f ff040a10 2e31c0cb 0d1f8fc9 0007141f; do
-        echo "$STOPS" | grep -qw "$c" || bad "the ground in this APK has lost concept 04's stop #$c"
+        grep -qw "$c" <<< "$STOPS" || bad "the ground in this APK has lost concept 04's stop #$c"
     done
     echo "== ground: <background> = $BGNAME, concept 04's six stops, read back out of the APK"
 fi
@@ -172,16 +189,16 @@ if [ "$CRUNCH" = 0 ]; then
     #    Nothing but the overlay makes a mipmap-anydpi-v26 file, so its absence
     #    is exactly the failure this script exists for.
     for x in ic_launcher ic_launcher_round; do
-        echo "$LIST" | grep -q " res/mipmap-anydpi-v26/$x\.xml$" \
+        grep -q " res/mipmap-anydpi-v26/$x\.xml$" <<< "$LIST" \
             || bad "res/mipmap-anydpi-v26/$x.xml is not in the APK — $RES never reached src-tauri/gen/android/app/src/main/res"
     done
     #    and the ground by name as well. In release the paths are shortened
     #    away and only the table above can find it; here it is still a file.
-    echo "$LIST" | grep -q " res/drawable/ic_launcher_ground\.xml$" \
+    grep -q " res/drawable/ic_launcher_ground\.xml$" <<< "$LIST" \
         || bad "res/drawable/ic_launcher_ground.xml is not in the APK — the adaptive background never reached src-tauri/gen/android/app/src/main/res"
     for d in $DPI; do for n in $NAMES; do
         got="res/mipmap-$d-v4/$n.png"
-        echo "$LIST" | grep -q " $got$" || bad "$got is not in the APK"
+        grep -q " $got$" <<< "$LIST" || bad "$got is not in the APK"
         unzip -p "$APK" "$got" | cmp -s - "$RES/mipmap-$d/$n.png" \
             || bad "$got in the APK is not $RES/mipmap-$d/$n.png — a stale res in gen/, the overlay lost a file, or this build crunched its PNGs (then: --crunched)"
     done; done
@@ -207,7 +224,7 @@ MAP="$(echo "$TBL" | awk '
 # the other half of the same optimization pass: with resource shrinking on,
 # aapt2 also collapses the NAMES, and then even the table cannot say which
 # entry is the launcher icon
-if echo "$MAP" | grep -q "0_resource_name_obfuscated"; then
+if grep -q "0_resource_name_obfuscated" <<< "$MAP"; then
     echo "== icon: NOT CHECKED — this APK's resource names are collapsed"
     echo "   (aapt2 optimize --collapse-resource-names, which comes with resource"
     echo "   shrinking). Nothing left to match on. Unverified here, not missing."