diff --git a/tests/unit/removal-fixture.test.ts b/tests/unit/removal-fixture.test.ts
index 1366ef1..0be5ac3 100644
--- a/tests/unit/removal-fixture.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/removal-fixture.test.ts
@@ -103,13 +103,26 @@ describe("release evidence fixture copy", () => {
     const root = await mkdtemp(nodePath.join(tmpdir(), "release-evidence-"));
     await copyReleaseEvidenceTree(process.cwd(), root);
 
-    // Every artifact a candidate archive is assembled from has to survive; a
-    // fixture missing one of these cannot build a candidate at all, and every
-    // provider suite then fails while constructing its own fixture.
+    // Every release artifact that exists here has to survive the copy; a
+    // fixture missing one cannot build a candidate at all, and every provider
+    // suite then fails while constructing its own fixture.
+    //
+    // Which ones exist depends on what this checkout has generated — a product
+    // repository that has not run the release chain has fewer than the template
+    // does — so the subject is preservation, not the presence of a full chain.
+    // Requiring at least one keeps that from quietly asserting nothing.
+    let preserved = 0;
     for (const evidence of RELEASE_CANDIDATE_EVIDENCE_PATHS) {
       if (!evidence.startsWith("artifacts/")) continue;
+      try {
+        await access(evidence);
+      } catch {
+        continue;
+      }
       await expect(access(nodePath.join(root, evidence)), evidence).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+      preserved += 1;
     }
+    expect(preserved).toBeGreaterThan(0);
     // The regenerated trees are why this is a filter and not a plain copy: they
     // are tens of megabytes of traces and coverage HTML. They still exist,
     // because the repository inventory expects the directories.
diff --git a/vitest.config.ts b/vitest.config.ts
index 406932a..5358cb1 100644
--- a/vitest.config.ts
+++ b/vitest.config.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ export default defineConfig({
     exclude: [
       ...configDefaults.exclude,
       ".tmp/**",
+      // A git worktree inside the repository is a different checkout of a
+      // different branch. Running its tests against this checkout's config
+      // reports failures that belong to neither.
+      ".worktrees/**",
       "tests/fixtures/v8-coverage-counter-semantics/**",
     ],
     coverage: {