diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 2389358..fdd30c0 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -599,7 +599,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "etr"
-version = "0.8.0"
+version = "0.8.1"
 dependencies = [
  "clap",
  "clap_complete",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4d8fab8..e637535 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "etr"
-version = "0.8.0"
+version = "0.8.1"
 edition = "2024"
 description = "A Rust implementation of Eternal Terminal (et)"
 license = "GPL-3.0-only"
diff --git a/NOTES.md b/NOTES.md
index ab90361..fd3d82c 100644
--- a/NOTES.md
+++ b/NOTES.md
@@ -9,6 +9,39 @@ the link drops.  This project uses **QUIC** (via the `quinn` crate) for the tran
 layer, which provides reliable, ordered, multiplexed streams with congestion control
 and TLS 1.3 built-in.
 
+## Current state: v0.8.1 — the completions helper could overwrite the binary it was asked to read
+
+Tooling only; no runtime change (145 tests, unchanged).
+`scripts/install_completions.py` → **template v3**.
+
+- **The defect, found in `rusticprofile` and propagated here because the file is vendored
+  byte-identically.** There it destroyed a working binary on a host taking hourly backups — a
+  3.6 MB executable replaced by a 21 KB bash completion script. etr's copy carried the same bug.
+- **The mechanism.** `binaries` are command *names*, and the output path is
+  `directory / pattern.format(bin=binary)` — but **`Path("/dest") / "/abs/path"` discards the left
+  operand**. An absolute argument therefore relocates every write out of the completion directory
+  and onto the path itself, which under `--from-path` is the installed binary.
+- **It fails in the worst available order.** `--from-path` runs `[binary]`, so an absolute path
+  *works for the read* and only breaks the write: generation succeeds and then destroys its own
+  input, exit 0, nothing printed. And the flag is **called `--from-path`**, which invites precisely
+  the argument that breaks it — so documenting it would not have prevented it.
+- **Fixed by making it unexpressible.** `reject_path_like()` refuses any argument containing a path
+  separator or resolving absolute, **before any file is written**, and names the correct form
+  (`install_completions.py etr --from-path`) in the error.
+- **Watched failing in both places it is enforced**: neutering the condition fails `--self-test`
+  (*"rejects an absolute path — expected True, got False"*) and fails `just standard-check`, which
+  `just check` depends on. Re-running the original accident against a stand-in file now leaves it
+  **byte-identical** instead of clobbered. A fourth self-test case pins the *property* — joining a
+  directory with an absolute string yields the absolute string — so the check survives a rewrite of
+  the guard.
+- **etr's own recipes were never at risk**: `install`, `install-tag` and `standard-check` pass
+  `{{BINS}}`, i.e. bare names. Checked rather than assumed. The exposure is anyone invoking the
+  helper directly, which is how it happened.
+- *Incidentally repaired:* the worktree copy of this file was **CRLF while the index was LF**
+  (`git ls-files --eol` → `i/lf w/crlf`), stale from before `.gitattributes` landed. Writing the
+  canonical LF file brings the two back into agreement, which is why this is a 50-line diff rather
+  than a whole-file rewrite.
+
 ## Current state: v0.8.0 — `-4`/`-6` address-family preference
 
 New in v0.8.0 (client + server feature; 112 → 145 tests, one new e2e recipe).
diff --git a/scripts/install_completions.py b/scripts/install_completions.py
index beb0312..1f1e094 100644
--- a/scripts/install_completions.py
+++ b/scripts/install_completions.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2026 l1a
 """Install shell completions for one or more binaries. Canonical across repos.
 
-TEMPLATE v2 — vendored verbatim in rusticprofile, retch and etr. Change it here,
+TEMPLATE v3 — vendored verbatim in rusticprofile, retch and etr. Change it here,
 bump TEMPLATE_VERSION, and propagate in each repo's own PR. `just standard-check`
 runs `--self-test` below, so the behavioural invariants are asserted rather than
 compared as text: three separate repositories cannot diff each other's files, but
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
-TEMPLATE_VERSION = 2
+TEMPLATE_VERSION = 3
 
 
 def completion_dirs(env, home):
@@ -102,6 +102,34 @@ def zsh_reads(directory):
     return str(directory) in res.stdout.splitlines()
 
 
+def reject_path_like(binary):
+    """Refuse a path where a command NAME belongs. Invariant 4.
+
+    `out = directory / pattern.format(bin=binary)` — and `Path("/dest") / "/abs/path"`
+    DISCARDS the left operand. So an absolute `binary` silently relocates the write out of
+    the completion directory and onto the path itself, which for `--from-path` is the
+    installed binary: the helper overwrites the very executable it was asked to read.
+
+    Measured 2026-08-24: `install_completions.py ~/.cargo/bin/rusticprofile --from-path`
+    replaced a 3.6 MB binary with a 21 KB bash completion script, on a host taking hourly
+    backups. It fails in the worst possible way — `--from-path` runs `[binary]`, so an
+    absolute path WORKS for the read and only breaks the write. Generation succeeds, then
+    destroys its own input, and the flag is *called* `--from-path`, which invites exactly
+    the argument that breaks it.
+
+    Made unexpressible rather than documented, on the precedent of refusing a snapshot-set
+    name beginning with `-`: a note in a docstring would not have stopped it, because the
+    person passing the path has already read the flag name and concluded it wants one.
+    """
+    if os.sep in binary or (os.altsep and os.altsep in binary) or Path(binary).is_absolute():
+        raise RuntimeError(
+            f"`{binary}` looks like a path; this takes a command NAME.\n"
+            f"  Use:  install_completions.py {Path(binary).name} --from-path\n"
+            "  (--from-path means 'run the binary as resolved on PATH', not "
+            "'here is a path to the binary'.)"
+        )
+
+
 def generate(binary, shell, out_path, repo_root, from_path=False):
     """Write one completion file, or raise. Invariant 3: a failure is not survivable.
 
@@ -173,6 +201,23 @@ def check(name, got, want):
     # All six shells present, so a silently dropped one cannot pass.
     check("shell count", len(unix), 6)
 
+    # Invariant 4: a path where a NAME belongs must be refused, because pathlib would
+    # otherwise discard the destination directory and write over the binary itself.
+    def refuses(arg):
+        try:
+            reject_path_like(arg)
+            return False
+        except RuntimeError:
+            return True
+
+    check("rejects an absolute path", refuses(str(Path.home() / ".cargo/bin/rusticprofile")), True)
+    check("rejects a relative path", refuses(f"bin{os.sep}rusticprofile"), True)
+    check("accepts a bare name", refuses("rusticprofile"), False)
+    # The failure it prevents, stated as the property rather than the mechanism: joining a
+    # directory with an absolute string must never be how an output path is chosen.
+    check("pathlib really does discard the left operand",
+          str(Path("/dest/dir") / "/abs/path"), str(Path("/abs/path")))
+
     if failures:
         print(f"self-test FAILED (template v{TEMPLATE_VERSION}):", file=sys.stderr)
         print("\n".join(failures), file=sys.stderr)
@@ -197,6 +242,9 @@ def main(argv):
     repo_root = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
     dirs = completion_dirs(os.environ, Path.home())
 
+    for binary in binaries:
+        reject_path_like(binary)  # invariant 4 — before ANY file is written
+
     for binary in binaries:
         for shell, (directory, pattern) in dirs.items():
             out = directory / pattern.format(bin=binary)