diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7a4a5d0..021ba3a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ GO_LDFLAGS := -X banger/internal/buildinfo.Version=$(VERSION) -X banger/internal
 
 .DEFAULT_GOAL := help
 
-.PHONY: help build banger bangerd test fmt tidy clean install uninstall lint lint-go lint-shell coverage coverage-html coverage-total smoke smoke-build smoke-coverage-html smoke-clean
+.PHONY: help build banger bangerd test fmt tidy clean install uninstall lint lint-go lint-shell coverage coverage-html coverage-total smoke smoke-build smoke-coverage-html smoke-clean smoke-fresh
 
 help:
 	@printf '%s\n' \
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ help:
 	  '  make tidy            Run go mod tidy' \
 	  '  make clean           Remove built Go binaries and coverage artefacts' \
 	  '  make smoke           Build instrumented binaries, run scripts/smoke.sh, report coverage (needs KVM + sudo)' \
+	  '  make smoke-fresh     smoke-clean + smoke — forces first-install paths (migrations, image pull) into the coverage stamp' \
 	  '  make smoke-coverage-html  HTML coverage report from the last smoke run' \
 	  '  make smoke-clean     Remove the smoke build tree'
 
@@ -147,6 +148,15 @@ smoke-coverage-html: smoke
 smoke-clean:
 	rm -rf "$(SMOKE_DIR)"
 
+# smoke-fresh wipes everything under $(SMOKE_DIR) (instrumented
+# binaries, coverage pods, persisted XDG state) and runs a full
+# smoke from scratch. Useful before a release tag: the regular
+# `make smoke` reuses the XDG state across runs to skip the ~290MB
+# image pull, which is fast but leaves migrations and image-upsert
+# paths cold on every run after the first. smoke-fresh pays the
+# time cost to stamp those paths into the coverage report too.
+smoke-fresh: smoke-clean smoke
+
 install: build
 	mkdir -p "$(DESTDIR)$(BINDIR)"
 	mkdir -p "$(DESTDIR)$(LIBDIR)/banger"
diff --git a/internal/daemon/workspace.go b/internal/daemon/workspace.go
index c17e622..9e0e97d 100644
--- a/internal/daemon/workspace.go
+++ b/internal/daemon/workspace.go
@@ -116,11 +116,21 @@ func (s *WorkspaceService) ExportVMWorkspace(ctx context.Context, params api.Wor
 // Mechanics: seed a temp index from diffRef's tree via git read-tree,
 // restage the working tree into that temp index with GIT_INDEX_FILE,
 // then emit the diff. The temp index is rm'd on exit via trap.
+//
+// The temp index must live on the same filesystem as the repo's
+// real .git directory. `git read-tree --index-output=PATH` uses a
+// lockfile + rename + hardlink sequence that fails with "unable to
+// write new index file" when PATH is on a different filesystem —
+// reliably reproducible on Debian bookworm guests where /tmp is
+// tmpfs and the workspace overlay is on a separate FS. mktemp'ing
+// inside `$(git rev-parse --git-dir)` keeps the temp index on the
+// same FS as .git/index without polluting the working tree.
 func exportScript(guestPath, diffRef, diffFlag string) string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf(
 		"set -euo pipefail\n"+
 			"cd %s\n"+
-			"tmp_idx=\"$(mktemp \"${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/banger-export.XXXXXX\")\"\n"+
+			"git_dir=\"$(git rev-parse --git-dir)\"\n"+
+			"tmp_idx=\"$(mktemp \"$git_dir/banger-export-idx.XXXXXX\")\"\n"+
 			"trap 'rm -f \"$tmp_idx\"' EXIT\n"+
 			"git read-tree %s --index-output=\"$tmp_idx\"\n"+
 			"GIT_INDEX_FILE=\"$tmp_idx\" git add -A\n"+
diff --git a/scripts/smoke.sh b/scripts/smoke.sh
index c0c2490..6ad7e58 100755
--- a/scripts/smoke.sh
+++ b/scripts/smoke.sh
@@ -141,6 +141,39 @@ grep -q 'untracked-marker' <<<"$inc_out" || die "--include-untracked didn't ship
 # Restore repo to tracked-only state for any later scenarios.
 rm -f "$repodir/smoke-untracked.txt"
 
+# --- workspace export round-trip --------------------------------------
+# Exercises ExportVMWorkspace: create a VM, prepare the workspace,
+# write a new file inside the guest, then export and assert the
+# emitted patch sees the guest-side change. If the export pipeline
+# (temp-index, git add -A, diff --binary) ever stops capturing
+# guest-side changes, this scenario catches it.
+log 'workspace export: create + prepare + guest edit + export + assert marker'
+export_vm='smoke-export'
+cleanup_export_vm() {
+  "$BANGER" vm delete "$export_vm" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+}
+# Chain the VM cleanup with the existing runtime_dir trap so a mid-
+# scenario failure still tears the VM down before the script exits.
+# shellcheck disable=SC2064
+trap "cleanup_export_vm; rm -rf '$runtime_dir'" EXIT
+
+"$BANGER" vm create --name "$export_vm" --image debian-bookworm >/dev/null \
+  || die "export: vm create exit $?"
+"$BANGER" vm workspace prepare "$export_vm" "$repodir" >/dev/null \
+  || die "export: workspace prepare exit $?"
+"$BANGER" vm ssh "$export_vm" -- sh -c 'echo guest-edit > /root/repo/new-guest-file.txt' \
+  || die "export: guest-side file write exit $?"
+export_patch="$runtime_dir/smoke-export.diff"
+"$BANGER" vm workspace export "$export_vm" --output "$export_patch" \
+  || die "export: workspace export exit $?"
+[[ -s "$export_patch" ]] || die "export: patch file empty at $export_patch"
+grep -q 'new-guest-file.txt' "$export_patch" \
+  || die "export: patch missing new-guest-file.txt marker (head: $(head -c 400 "$export_patch"))"
+
+cleanup_export_vm
+# shellcheck disable=SC2064
+trap "rm -rf '$runtime_dir'" EXIT
+
 # --- concurrent vm runs -----------------------------------------------
 # Stresses per-VM lock scoping, the tap pool warm-up path, and
 # createVMMu's narrow reservation window. Two `vm run --rm` invocations