diff --git a/hive-c0re/assets/app.js b/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
index 664eb69..96d9414 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
+++ b/hive-c0re/assets/app.js
@@ -273,7 +273,9 @@
     for (const a of approvals) {
       if (seenApprovals.has(a.id)) continue;
       seenApprovals.add(a.id);
-      const verb = a.kind === 'spawn' ? 'spawn approval' : 'config commit';
+      const verb = a.kind === 'spawn' ? 'spawn approval'
+        : a.kind === 'init_config' ? 'config-init approval'
+        : 'config commit';
       NOTIF.show('◆ approval #' + a.id, `${verb} for ${a.agent}`,
         'hyperhive:approval:' + a.id);
     }
@@ -1227,6 +1229,7 @@
     const ul = el('ul', { class: 'approvals' });
     for (const a of pending) {
       const isApply = a.kind === 'apply_commit';
+      const isInit = a.kind === 'init_config';
       const li = el('li', { class: 'approval-card' });
 
       // ── identity header ──────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -1235,7 +1238,7 @@
         el('span', { class: 'id' }, '#' + a.id),
         el('span', { class: 'agent' }, a.agent),
         el('span', { class: 'kind' + (isApply ? '' : ' kind-spawn') },
-          isApply ? 'apply' : 'spawn'),
+          isApply ? 'apply' : isInit ? 'init' : 'spawn'),
       );
       if (isApply && a.sha_short) head.append(el('code', {}, a.sha_short));
       li.append(head);
@@ -1261,7 +1264,9 @@
         body.append(drill);
       } else {
         body.append(el('span', { class: 'meta' },
-          'new sub-agent — container will be created on approve'));
+          isInit
+            ? 'scaffold proposed config repo — manager customises agent.nix before spawn'
+            : 'new sub-agent — container will be created on approve'));
       }
       li.append(body);
 
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/approvals.rs b/hive-c0re/src/approvals.rs
index 9b696c5..815ecf7 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/approvals.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/approvals.rs
@@ -137,8 +137,7 @@ impl Approvals {
               LIMIT ?1",
         )?;
         let rows = stmt.query_map([limit], row_to_approval)?;
-        rows.collect::<rusqlite::Result<Vec<_>>>()
-            .map_err(Into::into)
+        Ok(collect_lenient(rows))
     }
 
     pub fn pending(&self) -> Result<Vec<Approval>> {
@@ -150,8 +149,7 @@ impl Approvals {
               ORDER BY id ASC",
         )?;
         let rows = stmt.query_map([], row_to_approval)?;
-        rows.collect::<rusqlite::Result<Vec<_>>>()
-            .map_err(Into::into)
+        Ok(collect_lenient(rows))
     }
 
     pub fn get(&self, id: i64) -> Result<Option<Approval>> {
@@ -261,12 +259,32 @@ impl Approvals {
     }
 }
 
+/// Collect approval rows, dropping (and logging) any that fail to
+/// deserialize. A single malformed / unknown-kind row must never blank
+/// the whole list: `collect::<Result<Vec>>()` is all-or-nothing, so one
+/// bad row used to make `pending()` / `recent_resolved()` error out
+/// wholesale — the dashboard then rendered an empty approvals queue
+/// (issue #160, an unhandled `init_config` kind poisoning every read).
+fn collect_lenient(
+    rows: impl Iterator<Item = rusqlite::Result<Approval>>,
+) -> Vec<Approval> {
+    rows.filter_map(|r| match r {
+        Ok(a) => Some(a),
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "skipping unparseable approval row");
+            None
+        }
+    })
+    .collect()
+}
+
 fn row_to_approval(row: &rusqlite::Row<'_>) -> rusqlite::Result<Approval> {
     // Column order: id, agent, kind, commit_ref, requested_at, status, resolved_at, note, fetched_sha, description.
     let kind: String = row.get(2)?;
     let kind = match kind.as_str() {
         "apply_commit" => ApprovalKind::ApplyCommit,
         "spawn" => ApprovalKind::Spawn,
+        "init_config" => ApprovalKind::InitConfig,
         other => {
             return Err(rusqlite::Error::FromSqlConversionFailure(
                 2,