A merge whose only effect was an ADDED file was silently lost. `merge` wrote the incoming file to the working tree but never inserted it into `.zit-managed`, so the file was simultaneously on disk and untracked: `status` said "nothing to report", `extras` listed it as junk, and `commit` refused with "nothing to commit (no changes)" — dropping the merge parent that `merge` had recorded in `.zit-checkout`. The branch existed on exactly one disk and `undo` was the only escape.

No new state was needed. CheckoutState.merge_parent already carries the pending merge (src/checkout.zig), runMerge already records it, and commit already consumes it as a two-token P card and clears it. The gap was entirely in the managed set and in two refusals that did not know about it.

applyMerge now DERIVES the membership mutation from the same entry stream that drives the filesystem effects, rather than accepting a parallel list from the caller: a `.write` registers its path (insert is idempotent, so an ordinary edit-merge is unaffected) and a `.delete` deregisters it. One stream, one truth. Deriving it there rather than in computeAndApplyMerge also fixes the symmetric adjacent bug for free — a merge-deleted file used to stay managed and invent a phantom "missing" that commit then refused over — and covers cherrypick and backout, which share the same seam. The pre-merge set joins the in-process rollback images so a mid-apply failure restores membership along with the files and the checkout; the undo journal already snapshotted `.zit-managed`, so abort and undo deregistration fall out unchanged.

The set is read twice rather than rebuilt from `old.iterate()`: the on-disk record carries a pending `mv` rename beyond the bare membership, and rebuilding would have silently dropped it.

status now names a pending merge/cherrypick/backout in its header block. A merge whose file effects are already materialized was otherwise indistinguishable from a clean tree, with no way to see that a second parent was queued.

commit's no-op refusal no longer fires while a merge or special op is pending. A convergent-content merge — both sides making the same edit — composes to F cards identical to the parent's, so `unchanged` went true and the pending merge wedged with no commit path at all. The P/Q card is itself the change.

Test-expectation change: the new "zit add of a merge-added file is idempotent" case asserted the "already tracked" notice on stdout. That notice has always been a stderr diagnostic (three shipped e2e cases assert it there); the test had the stream wrong, not the product. The assertion's intent — add sees the merge-registered file as already tracked and does not re-add it — is unchanged.

No technique was borrowed here: the mechanism rides zit's existing applyMerge, ManagedSet and journal seams. Fossil's vmerge/vfile registration was consulted as an analog for the SHAPE of the problem only, and none of its code or algorithm is reproduced.

Verified in this worktree: fmt, build, zig build test, full zig build e2e (420 tests, all eight REGRESSION B5 cases green, contract-partner undo guard still green), and smoke S1-S6. The blocker repro was also driven by hand against the rebuilt binary: merge reports 1 file changed, status shows "pending merge with <hash>" and "added feat.txt", extras is empty, commit lands, and info tip shows both parents. closed check-in: de05152541 user: dmestas tags: blockers