diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/forge/mod.rs b/hive-c0re/src/forge/mod.rs
index dfcec6c9..89ca413d 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/forge/mod.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/forge/mod.rs
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ pub use pr_merge::{
 pub use reconcile::{reconcile_config_apply, reconcile_config_status};
 pub use repos::{
     clone_config_into_proposed, create_agent_repo, ensure_config_repo, ensure_knowledge_repo,
-    ensure_meta_remote, ensure_repo, ensure_shared_docs_repo, fetch_config_main_into_applied,
-    meta_read_access, push_config, push_meta, shared_docs_access,
+    ensure_meta_remote, ensure_repo, ensure_shared_docs_repo, fast_forward_applied_main,
+    fetch_config_main_into_applied, meta_read_access, push_config, push_meta, shared_docs_access,
 };
 pub use users::{core_token, ensure_user_for, provision_user_token};
 
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/forge/repos.rs b/hive-c0re/src/forge/repos.rs
index 74a7252e..8a00d8c4 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/forge/repos.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/forge/repos.rs
@@ -593,6 +593,66 @@ pub async fn fetch_config_main_into_applied(name: &str) -> bool {
     true
 }
 
+/// Fast-forward `applied/<name>/main` to the config repo's current live
+/// main. Unlike [`fetch_config_main_into_applied`] (reseed-only — bails
+/// if `applied` already has a `.git`), this is for an `applied` repo that
+/// already exists and just needs to catch up: force-sets the local ref to
+/// match live main rather than requiring a fast-forward or any review
+/// gate — there is no PR to review on this path, so nothing to check
+/// ancestry against. Contrast the approval-deploy flow's CAS'd,
+/// ancestry-gated advance for a reviewed PR merge, which this is not.
+///
+/// Best-effort, same shape as [`fetch_config_main_into_applied`]: returns
+/// `false` (not an error) when the forge is absent, the core token isn't
+/// minted, `applied` has no `.git` yet (nothing to fast-forward — reseed
+/// instead), or any git step fails.
+pub async fn fast_forward_applied_main(name: &str) -> bool {
+    if !is_present().await {
+        return false;
+    }
+    let Some(token) = core_token() else {
+        return false;
+    };
+    let applied = crate::paths::applied_dir(name);
+    if !applied.join(".git").exists() {
+        return false;
+    }
+    let url = forge_git_url(&format!("{CONFIG_ORG}/{name}"));
+    let auth = core_auth_header(&token);
+    let out = crate::lifecycle::git_command_authed(&auth)
+        .current_dir(&applied)
+        .args(["fetch", "--no-tags", &url, "refs/heads/main"])
+        .output()
+        .await;
+    match out {
+        Ok(o) if o.status.success() => {}
+        Ok(o) => {
+            tracing::warn!(
+                %name,
+                stderr = %String::from_utf8_lossy(&o.stderr).trim(),
+                "forge: applied fast-forward fetch failed"
+            );
+            return false;
+        }
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::warn!(%name, error = ?e, "forge: applied fast-forward fetch failed");
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+    if let Err(e) =
+        crate::lifecycle::git_update_ref(&applied, "refs/heads/main", "FETCH_HEAD").await
+    {
+        tracing::warn!(%name, error = ?e, "forge: applied fast-forward update-ref failed");
+        return false;
+    }
+    if let Err(e) = crate::lifecycle::git_read_tree_reset(&applied, "refs/heads/main").await {
+        tracing::warn!(%name, error = ?e, "forge: applied fast-forward read-tree failed");
+        return false;
+    }
+    tracing::info!(%name, "forge: fast-forwarded applied/main to agent-configs main");
+    true
+}
+
 /// Seed an agent's `proposed` repo from `agent-configs/<name>` on the forge.
 ///
 /// When the swarm creates an agent it writes that agent's config to the forge
diff --git a/hive-c0re/src/job_queue/exec.rs b/hive-c0re/src/job_queue/exec.rs
index 740b3c15..92bd448b 100644
--- a/hive-c0re/src/job_queue/exec.rs
+++ b/hive-c0re/src/job_queue/exec.rs
@@ -545,9 +545,42 @@ async fn run_meta_lock(
     // Lock file changed — meta-inputs panel re-renders.
     crate::dashboard::emit_meta_inputs_snapshot(coord);
     let cascade = match fanout {
-        Some(list) => list,
+        Some(list) => validate_agent_names(list),
         None => meta_update_cascade_agents(inputs).await,
     };
+    // Pull each cascade agent's own input too — an agent's config-repo main
+    // is trusted, so a meta-input bump is a reasonable place to also catch
+    // it up. Without this, a meta-input bump rebuilds every affected agent
+    // against whatever `applied/<name>` already happened to be locked to —
+    // normally current, but silently stale forever if a past deploy failed
+    // and nothing since retried it. Relocks against each agent's *declared*
+    // input (the forge URL, not the local `applied/<name>` mirror
+    // `prepare_deploy` uses for a reviewed deploy) — this path has no PR to
+    // review, so there's nothing to gate. One combined call, not per-agent:
+    // simpler, at the cost of one unreachable/broken agent repo failing the
+    // whole cascade relock rather than just that agent.
+    if !cascade.is_empty() {
+        let agent_inputs: Vec<String> =
+            cascade.iter().map(|name| format!("agent-{name}")).collect();
+        crate::meta::lock_update(&agent_inputs).await?;
+        // The relock above is a one-shot effect on *this* rebuild only —
+        // `applied/<name>` itself hasn't moved, so the next `relock = true`
+        // rebuild trigger (the boot sweep, most notably) re-locks against
+        // `applied/<name>` and reverts straight back to whatever it was
+        // stuck on. Fast-forward each cascade agent's own applied mirror
+        // too so a later rebuild through a different trigger doesn't undo
+        // this one. Best-effort per agent (unlike the relock above): one
+        // agent's forge repo being briefly unreachable here shouldn't be
+        // fatal to the cascade that already relocked its input above.
+        for name in &cascade {
+            if !crate::forge::fast_forward_applied_main(name).await {
+                tracing::warn!(
+                    %name,
+                    "meta-update cascade: applied/main fast-forward skipped or failed"
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
     // Grow one rebuild subgraph per affected agent into *this* meta-update
     // DAG (rooted on this `MetaLock`, so they build against the post-bump
     // lock), rather than fanning out child DAGs. `relock = false` — the
@@ -858,15 +891,20 @@ async fn run_deploy_tail(
 /// `inputs` or any input under `hyperhive` → every container;
 /// otherwise just the agents named by `agent-<name>` inputs.
 /// Topology-sorted so parents rebuild before their children.
+///
+/// `inputs` is the caller-supplied flake-input-name list
+/// (`RequestUpdateMetaInputs`'s `inputs` field, operator-approved but not
+/// otherwise validated) — the `agent-<name>` branch parses agent names
+/// straight out of it, so each is validated through [`hive_types::Ident`]
+/// before it ever reaches a filesystem path or a forge URL built from a
+/// cascade agent's name. The `touched_hyperhive` branch's names need no
+/// such filter: they come from `lifecycle::list()`, already real
+/// container names by construction, not parsed out of caller input.
 pub async fn meta_update_cascade_agents(inputs: &[String]) -> Vec<String> {
     let touched_hyperhive = inputs
         .iter()
         .any(|i| i == "hyperhive" || i.starts_with("hyperhive/"));
-    let touched_agents: Vec<String> = inputs
-        .iter()
-        .filter_map(|i| i.strip_prefix("agent-"))
-        .map(|rest| rest.split('/').next().unwrap_or(rest).to_owned())
-        .collect();
+    let touched_agents = parse_agent_input_names(inputs);
     let mut names = if touched_hyperhive || inputs.is_empty() {
         crate::lifecycle::list()
             .await
@@ -884,3 +922,86 @@ pub async fn meta_update_cascade_agents(inputs: &[String]) -> Vec<String> {
     crate::auto_update::topology_sort(&mut names, &topo);
     names
 }
+
+/// Parse `agent-<name>` input strings into validated agent names. Pure and
+/// synchronous (no `lifecycle::list()` call) so the validation — the part
+/// that actually matters for safety, since these names end up in
+/// filesystem paths and forge URLs — is unit-testable without touching
+/// live container state. Delegates the actual filtering to
+/// [`validate_agent_names`] after stripping the `agent-` prefix.
+fn parse_agent_input_names(inputs: &[String]) -> Vec<String> {
+    let candidates = inputs
+        .iter()
+        .filter_map(|i| i.strip_prefix("agent-"))
+        .map(|rest| rest.split('/').next().unwrap_or(rest).to_owned());
+    validate_agent_names(candidates)
+}
+
+/// Drop any name that isn't a well-formed [`hive_types::Ident`] — the same
+/// validating parser every other agent-name wire field in this codebase
+/// goes through, so a name that reaches
+/// [`fast_forward_applied_main`](crate::forge::fast_forward_applied_main) or
+/// a `git+http://.../agent-configs/<name>.git` URL built off it has already
+/// passed the same bar as one that arrived over a socket. Not just a
+/// helper for [`parse_agent_input_names`]: `run_meta_lock`'s `fanout`
+/// parameter carries pre-computed agent names too, and while today's only
+/// caller of that branch (the boot sweep, `sweep = true`) returns before
+/// ever reaching the filesystem/git code below, nothing in the type
+/// enforces that pairing — so this same filter also guards the
+/// `Some(list)` arm, closing the gap for good rather than relying on it
+/// staying incidental.
+fn validate_agent_names(names: impl IntoIterator<Item = String>) -> Vec<String> {
+    names
+        .into_iter()
+        .filter(|name| {
+            let valid = hive_types::Ident::parse(name).is_ok();
+            if !valid {
+                tracing::warn!(%name, "meta-update cascade: dropping malformed agent name");
+            }
+            valid
+        })
+        .collect()
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod cascade_agent_tests {
+    use super::{parse_agent_input_names, validate_agent_names};
+
+    #[test]
+    fn well_formed_agent_inputs_pass_through() {
+        let inputs = vec!["agent-iris".to_owned(), "agent-atlas".to_owned()];
+        assert_eq!(parse_agent_input_names(&inputs), vec!["iris", "atlas"]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn path_traversal_in_an_agent_input_is_dropped() {
+        let inputs = vec!["agent-../../etc".to_owned(), "agent-iris".to_owned()];
+        assert_eq!(parse_agent_input_names(&inputs), vec!["iris"]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn non_agent_inputs_are_ignored_not_misparsed() {
+        let inputs = vec!["hyperhive".to_owned(), "nixpkgs".to_owned()];
+        assert!(parse_agent_input_names(&inputs).is_empty());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn oversized_or_uppercase_names_are_dropped() {
+        let too_long = format!("agent-{}", "a".repeat(64));
+        let inputs = vec![too_long, "agent-Iris".to_owned(), "agent-iris".to_owned()];
+        assert_eq!(parse_agent_input_names(&inputs), vec!["iris"]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn fanout_supplied_names_are_validated_too() {
+        // `run_meta_lock`'s `Some(list)` arm feeds `fanout` straight into
+        // this filter — pin that a bogus name in that pre-computed list
+        // gets dropped exactly like a parsed `agent-<name>` input would.
+        let names = vec![
+            "iris".to_owned(),
+            "../../etc".to_owned(),
+            "atlas".to_owned(),
+        ];
+        assert_eq!(validate_agent_names(names), vec!["iris", "atlas"]);
+    }
+}