diff --git a/.agents/skills/unidesk-cicd/references/branch-follower.md b/.agents/skills/unidesk-cicd/references/branch-follower.md
index 646b281d..5b14fd93 100644
--- a/.agents/skills/unidesk-cicd/references/branch-follower.md
+++ b/.agents/skills/unidesk-cicd/references/branch-follower.md
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ Stage timing must be queryable through normal CLI output, not only raw JSON. `st
 
 Do not backfill, infer, or migrate old branch-follower state when historical timing, stage timing, or other observability fields are missing or known to be unreliable. Compatibility starts with future state written by the current controller; old missing data must render as `-`/unknown in CLI output instead of being recovered from unrelated native objects.
 
+State writes must preserve same-source total timing at the target side. When a later native observation for the same follower and same observed source sha lacks `timings.totalSeconds` or `timings.startedAt`, the ConfigMap patch helper must read the existing follower state on the target node, keep the already-recorded total timing, and only replace stage rows/current gate details. This merge must happen in the target-side patch operation, not by host-side parsing or by a prior local read that can be overwritten by the next controller loop.
+
 Controller self-upgrade has a one-loop source boundary: the controller Deployment uses the stable tools image, syncs UniDesk source into the k8s git-mirror cache, then clones `/work/unidesk` each reconcile. A UniDesk source commit that changes branch-follower controller logic can still be triggered by the previous checkout if the loop observes that commit before cloning it for execution. Do not use that self-upgrade source change to validate new controller-state semantics, and do not backfill its missing total timing. First confirm the target Pod checkout contains the fix, then validate future timing/state behavior with a later source change or an explicit target-side `run-once` that starts from a stored state written by the fixed controller.
 
 If a deterministic Kubernetes Job or PipelineRun is reused and there is no already-stored `timings.startedAt`, the reused object's current wait/check duration is only a stage observation; it must not be promoted to `timings.totalSeconds`.