diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 572081e..77bf98f 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -399,6 +399,33 @@ install for code that can never run — and on API 37 the full APK does not fit
   mode, committed by the wave that found it.** All of it is fixed; the standing item is **#250**,
   because #226 proved D4's premise and never drove its delete arm.
 
+- **Nothing is committed or pushed until the local gate is green, at every supported API level.**
+  Source work (`app/src/main`) needs the unit tests **and** the instrumented tests passing on every
+  level; test work (`app/src/test`, `app/src/androidTest`) needs the whole suite passing on every
+  level. `tools/git-hooks/local-gate.sh` enforces it as `pre-commit` and `pre-push`; wire it up once
+  with `git config core.hooksPath tools/git-hooks`.
+
+  33-36 run the whole suite on emulators. **API 37 cannot be run on an emulator on this host at
+  all** — not "is red", *cannot run*: measured 2026-09-06, the image logs `3 new surfaceflinger
+  aborts in 45 s (want 0)` and then the APK install itself fails with `Can't find service:
+  package`, because the framework is gone before Gradle installs anything. `Starting 0 tests`. So
+  the hook runs API 37 on the **attached Pixel 10 Pro XL** when it is there, and says plainly that
+  the level is uncovered when it is not — CI's gating leg being what answers for it then. It never
+  claims five levels having run four.
+
+  The sweep is cached under the hash of the **`app/src` subtree**, not the whole repo tree. Keying
+  it on the whole tree was the first cut and it was wrong: editing a comment in `CLAUDE.md` threw
+  away a sweep of byte-identical application code and re-ran forty minutes of emulators to prove
+  nothing, which is how a gate teaches people to resent it. Any change under `app/src` still
+  invalidates it, and the JVM gate runs unconditionally. **There is deliberately no skip
+  variable**, and `--no-verify` needs the repo owner's say-so each time rather than being reached
+  for when the gate is inconvenient.
+
+  Why it is worth tens of minutes a commit: the alternative was measured on 2026-09-06, when one PR
+  spent several gating legs learning one leg at a time what a sweep answers in one pass — and the
+  failing leg **moved** between runs (API 35 red then green, API 34 green then red). One leg at a
+  time that reads as someone else's flake; as a sweep it is one signal.
+
 - **Testable code is not done until it is tested.** If a piece is unit testable, it gets unit
   tests before it counts as done. If it is e2e testable, it gets e2e tests. Both clauses apply —
   a change that is both needs both.
diff --git a/app/src/androidTest/java/org/libremediaconverter/saf/SafPickerRoundTripTest.kt b/app/src/androidTest/java/org/libremediaconverter/saf/SafPickerRoundTripTest.kt
index f5af8d2..7121e33 100644
--- a/app/src/androidTest/java/org/libremediaconverter/saf/SafPickerRoundTripTest.kt
+++ b/app/src/androidTest/java/org/libremediaconverter/saf/SafPickerRoundTripTest.kt
@@ -1198,9 +1198,35 @@ class SafPickerRoundTripTest {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Waits for [tag], treating "the app has no composition right now" as *not yet* rather than
+     * as a failure.
+     *
+     * `fetchSemanticsNodes` **throws** `IllegalStateException: No compose hierarchies found in the
+     * app` when nothing is attached at that instant, and `waitUntil` propagates it on the first
+     * poll instead of waiting out the deadline. This class spends much of its time with another
+     * app in front — the picker, the create-document dialog, the permission dialog — so there is
+     * always a window where the app is coming back and has no composition yet. Before this, that
+     * window was a hard failure: measured on the API 34 leg of run 34057196628, where **both** SAF
+     * tests died that way while the same commit passed API 33, 35, 36 and 37, and the previous
+     * commit passed API 34 and failed 35. A failing leg that moves between runs is #190's
+     * emulator flake, and this is the one place in the class that turned it into a red test.
+     *
+     * **The cost is honest and bounded**: an app that is genuinely gone now fails at the deadline
+     * rather than immediately, so the last composition error is carried into the message to keep
+     * that case diagnosable.
+     */
     private fun awaitNode(tag: String, timeoutMs: Long = APP_TIMEOUT_MS) {
-        composeRule.waitUntil("a node tagged $tag exists", timeoutMs) {
-            composeRule.onAllNodesWithTag(tag).fetchSemanticsNodes().isNotEmpty()
+        var lastError: Throwable? = null
+        try {
+            composeRule.waitUntil("a node tagged $tag exists", timeoutMs) {
+                runCatching { composeRule.onAllNodesWithTag(tag).fetchSemanticsNodes().isNotEmpty() }
+                    .onFailure { lastError = it }
+                    .getOrDefault(false)
+            }
+        } catch (timeout: ComposeTimeoutException) {
+            val note = lastError?.let { "; last composition error: ${it.message}" } ?: ""
+            throw AssertionError("waited ${timeoutMs}ms for a node tagged $tag$note", timeout)
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/tools/git-hooks/local-gate.sh b/tools/git-hooks/local-gate.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..fcb1afd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/git-hooks/local-gate.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# The local gate: what has to be green before a commit is made or a branch is pushed.
+#
+# THE RULE THIS ENFORCES (2026-09-06). Source changes must have the unit tests AND the
+# instrumented tests passing at every supported API level before they are committed or
+# pushed; test changes must have the whole suite passing at every API level. CI is not the
+# place to find out. Four legs of this repo's history were spent discovering on CI what a
+# local sweep would have said in twenty minutes -- and worse, the failing leg MOVED between
+# runs (API 35 red then green, API 34 green then red), which is exactly the signal that gets
+# misread as "someone else's flake" when it is read one leg at a time.
+#
+# WHY BOTH HOOKS RUN THE SAME GATE. A pre-commit-only gate is bypassed by amending; a
+# pre-push-only gate lets a broken commit exist locally and get rebased into something else.
+# Running both is not redundant in practice because of the cache below.
+#
+# THE CACHE IS KEYED ON CONTENT, NOT ON TIME, AND ON THE RIGHT CONTENT. The sweep is recorded
+# under the hash of the `app/src` SUBTREE it verified, not the whole repo tree. Keying it on the
+# whole tree was the first cut and it was wrong in a way that would have trained people to hate
+# this hook: editing a comment in CLAUDE.md, or in this script, invalidated a sweep of identical
+# application code and re-ran forty minutes of emulators to prove nothing. What the sweep is
+# evidence about is `app/src`; that is what it is filed under. Any change to a single byte under
+# `app/src` still invalidates it. The JVM gate is cheap and runs unconditionally.
+#
+# WHAT COUNTS AS "EVERY SUPPORTED API LEVEL", AND WHY 37 IS NOT AN EMULATOR HERE. 33, 34, 35
+# and 36 run the whole suite on emulators. **API 37 cannot be run on an emulator on this host at
+# all** -- not "is red", cannot run: measured 2026-09-06, the image logs
+# `3 new surfaceflinger aborts in 45 s (want 0)` and then the APK install itself fails with
+# `Can't find service: package`, because the framework is already gone before Gradle gets to
+# install anything. `Starting 0 tests`. That is the same gralloc abort docs/api-37-emulator-crash.md
+# measures, hit earlier in the sequence than the suite.
+#
+# So API 37 is covered here by the physical Pixel 10 Pro XL when it is attached, and by CI's
+# gating leg otherwise. The hook says loudly which of the two happened rather than quietly
+# claiming five levels when it ran four.
+#
+# THERE IS DELIBERATELY NO SKIP VARIABLE. An `LMC_SKIP_E2E=1` would be `--no-verify` wearing
+# a different hat, and `--no-verify` needs the repo owner's say-so each time. If this gate is
+# wrong, fix the gate.
+set -uo pipefail
+
+REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+cd "$REPO_ROOT" || exit 1
+
+MODE="$(basename "$0")"
+ZERO="0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
+CACHE_DIR=".git/lmc-verify"
+GRADLE_GATE=(:app:assembleDebug :app:testDebugUnitTest :app:compileDebugAndroidTestKotlin
+  :app:ktlintCheck :app:detekt :app:lintDebug)
+
+say() { printf '\n\033[1m[local-gate]\033[0m %s\n' "$*"; }
+die() {
+  printf '\n\033[1;31m[local-gate] BLOCKED\033[0m %s\n' "$*"
+  printf '  The rule: source work needs unit + e2e green at every API level before commit/push;\n'
+  printf '  test work needs the whole suite green at every level. Fix it, or ask before using\n'
+  printf '  --no-verify -- that flag is not yours to reach for unprompted.\n\n'
+  exit 1
+}
+
+# --- what changed, and what tree is being verified ---------------------------------------
+
+changed_files=""
+tree=""
+case "$MODE" in
+  pre-commit)
+    changed_files="$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR)"
+    tree="$(git rev-parse "$(git write-tree):app/src" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
+    ;;
+  pre-push)
+    # stdin is `<local ref> <local sha> <remote ref> <remote sha>`, one line per ref pushed.
+    while read -r _ local_sha _ remote_sha; do
+      [ "$local_sha" = "$ZERO" ] && continue          # branch deletion carries no content
+      base="$remote_sha"
+      if [ "$remote_sha" = "$ZERO" ]; then
+        # A new branch: compare against main rather than against every commit ever made.
+        base="$(git merge-base origin/main "$local_sha" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
+      fi
+      if [ -n "$base" ]; then
+        changed_files="$changed_files$(git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR "$base" "$local_sha")"$'\n'
+      else
+        changed_files="$changed_files$(git show --pretty=format: --name-only "$local_sha")"$'\n'
+      fi
+      tree="$(git rev-parse "$local_sha:app/src" 2>/dev/null || echo "")"
+    done
+    ;;
+  *)
+    say "unknown hook name '$MODE'; nothing to do"
+    exit 0
+    ;;
+esac
+
+if [ -z "${changed_files//[[:space:]]/}" ]; then
+  say "no added/modified files; nothing to verify"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+touches_source=0
+touches_tests=0
+while IFS= read -r f; do
+  case "$f" in
+    app/src/main/*) touches_source=1 ;;
+    app/src/test/*|app/src/androidTest/*) touches_tests=1 ;;
+  esac
+done <<< "$changed_files"
+
+# --- the cheap gate always runs -----------------------------------------------------------
+
+say "$MODE: running the JVM gate"
+if ! ./gradlew "${GRADLE_GATE[@]}" --continue; then
+  die "the JVM gate failed (assemble, unit tests, androidTest compile, ktlint, detekt, lint)."
+fi
+
+# --- the sweep, when code is involved ------------------------------------------------------
+
+if [ "$touches_source" -eq 0 ] && [ "$touches_tests" -eq 0 ]; then
+  say "no app/src changes; the instrumented sweep is not required for this one"
+  mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR" && [ -n "$tree" ] && : > "$CACHE_DIR/$tree"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ -n "$tree" ] && [ -f "$CACHE_DIR/$tree" ]; then
+  say "app/src ($tree) already swept and green; nothing under app/src has changed since"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+say "app/src changed -- sweeping API 33, 34, 35, 36 (this takes tens of minutes, by design)"
+if ! tools/local-emulator/run-e2e.sh 33 34 35 36; then
+  die "the instrumented suite is not green on 33-36."
+fi
+
+# API 37: the physical device if it is here, and an honest statement if it is not. run-e2e.sh is
+# emulator-only (and overwrites E2E_EXTRA_GRADLE_ARGS with --rerun, so extra args cannot be passed
+# through it), so this drives Gradle directly with the serial pinned -- the phone must never be
+# picked up by accident, which is the hazard run-e2e.sh's header calls out.
+export ANDROID_HOME="${ANDROID_HOME:-$HOME/Android/Sdk}"
+export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
+
+device=""
+while read -r serial state; do
+  [ "$state" = "device" ] || continue
+  case "$serial" in emulator-*) continue ;; esac
+  [ "$(adb -s "$serial" shell getprop ro.build.version.sdk 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\r')" = "37" ] || continue
+  device="$serial"
+  break
+done < <(adb devices 2>/dev/null | tail -n +2)
+
+if [ -n "$device" ]; then
+  say "API 37 on the attached device $device"
+  if ! ANDROID_SERIAL="$device" ./gradlew :app:connectedDebugAndroidTest -PabiFilters=arm64-v8a; then
+    die "the instrumented suite is not green on API 37 (device $device)."
+  fi
+else
+  say "NOT COVERED LOCALLY: API 37. No API 37 device is attached, and the API 37 emulator cannot
+  install the APK on this host (see this script's header). CI's gating leg is what answers for it;
+  attach the Pixel 10 Pro XL to have this hook cover it too."
+fi
+
+mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR" && [ -n "$tree" ] && : > "$CACHE_DIR/$tree"
+say "green at every supported API level; $MODE allowed"
+exit 0
diff --git a/tools/git-hooks/pre-commit b/tools/git-hooks/pre-commit
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..572573a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/git-hooks/pre-commit
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+local-gate.sh
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/git-hooks/pre-push b/tools/git-hooks/pre-push
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..572573a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/git-hooks/pre-push
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+local-gate.sh
\ No newline at end of file