diff --git a/.context/LEARNINGS.md b/.context/LEARNINGS.md
index 18d2602af..b05104332 100644
--- a/.context/LEARNINGS.md
+++ b/.context/LEARNINGS.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ DO NOT UPDATE FOR:
 <!-- INDEX:START -->
 | Date | Learning |
 |----|--------|
+| 2026-06-10 | Stock macOS bash 3.2 treats empty-array expansion as unbound under set -u |
 | 2026-07-04 | Typed JSON round-trips silently drop user-owned keys |
 | 2026-07-03 | New Claude model families silently fall to the 200k default in ModelContextWindow |
 | 2026-06-07 | Pin an on-disk contract before splitting work across parallel agents |
@@ -109,6 +110,14 @@ DO NOT UPDATE FOR:
 
 ---
 
+## [2026-06-10-223128] Stock macOS bash 3.2 treats empty-array expansion as unbound under set -u
+
+**Context**: make audit aborted at hack/lint-drift.sh line 39 on a stock Mac (bash 3.2.57) with 'exclude_args[@]: unbound variable' while gating the #93 TOCTOU fix; the script works fine on Linux bash 4+
+
+**Lesson**: bash 3.2 (what every stock macOS ships, GPLv2 freeze) treats "${arr[@]}" on an empty array as an unbound-variable error under set -u; bash 4.4+ does not. Any 'set -u' script that expands a possibly-empty array breaks for every Mac contributor
+
+**Application**: Guard with ${arr[@]+"${arr[@]}"} (parameter-expansion alternate form) wherever a possibly-empty array is expanded in hack/ scripts; test hack/ scripts with /bin/bash, not just homebrew bash
+
 ## [2026-07-04-152957] Typed JSON round-trips silently drop user-owned keys
 
 **Context**: The init permissions merge read settings.local.json into a typed struct and re-marshaled it, so every key ctx does not model (env, a user's statusLine) vanished on re-init
@@ -1980,4 +1989,3 @@ contradicting stdlib knowledge: pause, verify against memory of the actual API
 before patching within the existing frame.
 
 ---
-
diff --git a/hack/lint-drift.sh b/hack/lint-drift.sh
index d01b85b5e..8a5d5e8de 100755
--- a/hack/lint-drift.sh
+++ b/hack/lint-drift.sh
@@ -36,7 +36,11 @@ drift_grep() {
   for ex in "$@"; do
     exclude_args+=(--exclude="$ex")
   done
-  grep -rn --include='*.go' --exclude='*_test.go' "${exclude_args[@]}" \
+  # ${arr[@]+...} guards the empty-array expansion: bash 3.2
+  # (stock macOS) treats "${arr[@]}" on an empty array as unbound
+  # under `set -u` and aborts the script.
+  grep -rn --include='*.go' --exclude='*_test.go' \
+    ${exclude_args[@]+"${exclude_args[@]}"} \
     -E "$pattern" internal/ 2>/dev/null || true
 }
 
diff --git a/specs/fix-lint-drift-bash32-empty-array.md b/specs/fix-lint-drift-bash32-empty-array.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f38a9ccc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/specs/fix-lint-drift-bash32-empty-array.md
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+# Fix lint-drift Empty-Array Expansion on Bash 3.2
+
+`hack/lint-drift.sh` aborted on stock macOS before running a
+single check, which silently broke `make audit` (and therefore
+the contributing guide's mandatory pre-PR gate) for every Mac
+contributor.
+
+## Problem
+
+The `drift_grep` helper builds its `--exclude` flags in an
+array and expands it unconditionally:
+
+```bash
+local exclude_args=()
+for ex in "$@"; do
+  exclude_args+=(--exclude="$ex")
+done
+grep -rn --include='*.go' --exclude='*_test.go' "${exclude_args[@]}" \
+  -E "$pattern" internal/ 2>/dev/null || true
+```
+
+The script runs under `set -euo pipefail`. On bash 4.4+ an
+empty `"${arr[@]}"` expands to zero words; on bash 3.2 — the
+newest bash Apple ships, frozen at the GPLv2 boundary — the
+same expansion is an **unbound variable** error under `set -u`:
+
+```
+./hack/lint-drift.sh: line 39: exclude_args[@]: unbound variable
+```
+
+Two `drift_grep` call sites pass no exclude globs (checks 2 and
+3). Check 8 (`strings.Join`) scans with a *direct* `grep`, not
+`drift_grep`, so it never touches the array and is unaffected.
+The script dies on the first no-exclude `drift_grep` call, so
+`make lint-style` → `make audit` fail before any drift check
+executes.
+
+## Solution
+
+Guard the expansion with the parameter-expansion alternate
+form, the canonical bash-3.2-safe idiom:
+
+```bash
+${exclude_args[@]+"${exclude_args[@]}"}
+```
+
+When the array is empty the outer expansion produces nothing;
+when populated it reproduces the original quoted expansion
+verbatim. Behavior on bash 4+ is unchanged. A comment at the
+call site documents why the guard exists so a future cleanup
+doesn't "simplify" it back.
+
+Verified: `bash hack/lint-drift.sh` reproduced the
+`line 39: exclude_args[@]: unbound variable` abort on stock
+macOS bash 3.2.57 before the guard, and exits 0
+(`lint-drift: clean`) after — so `make lint-style` → `make audit`
+again run end-to-end on a stock Mac.
+
+Note on automated coverage: no CI or `make` gate actually *lints*
+this file. `hack/lint-shellcheck.sh` explicitly excludes `hack/`
+scripts ("they run only on developer machines"), and CI runs
+`lint-shellcheck` but not `lint-drift`/`audit`, so a Linux/bash-5
+runner could not reproduce a 3.2-only bug anyway. The guarded
+`${arr[@]+"${arr[@]}"}` is the canonical shellcheck-clean idiom;
+a contributor with `shellcheck` installed can confirm with
+`shellcheck hack/lint-drift.sh`. The inline call-site comment
+plus the `LEARNINGS.md` entry are the durable guard against a
+future "simplification" reintroducing the bug.
+
+## Out of Scope
+
+- Hardening the other `hack/` scripts' array expansions. A
+  `grep -rn '\[@\]' hack/` sweep plus empirical bash 3.2
+  checks show the remaining sites are all safe today, though
+  for different reasons:
+  - `lint-shellcheck.sh` and `lint-powershell.sh` both exit on
+    a `${#TARGETS[@]} -eq 0` count guard (count expansion does
+    not trip `set -u` on 3.2) before reaching their
+    `"${TARGETS[@]}"` element expansion.
+  - `build-all.sh` expands a `TARGETS` array populated from a
+    hardcoded non-empty literal.
+  - `detect-ai-typography.sh` expands `"${EXTS[@]}"`, parsed
+    from `EXT`. `EXT` is *defaulted* (`EXT="${EXT:-md}"`), not
+    a literal, so even `--ext ""` collapses to `md` and the
+    array is never empty — safe, but via the default rather
+    than a count guard.
+  These are latent-only hazards (a future edit that lets an
+  array reach the expansion empty), not failures today, and
+  belong to a separate sweep if ever.
+- Requiring bash 4+ (e.g. a version check or `#!/usr/bin/env
+  bash4`). Contributors should not need a homebrew bash to run
+  the project's own audit gate.