diff --git a/harnesses/contexts/hugo-content-workspace/v1/finalize.sh b/harnesses/contexts/hugo-content-workspace/v1/finalize.sh
index 723361a..12b1767 100755
--- a/harnesses/contexts/hugo-content-workspace/v1/finalize.sh
+++ b/harnesses/contexts/hugo-content-workspace/v1/finalize.sh
@@ -30,6 +30,13 @@ commit_repo() {
     # Stage all changes
     git add -A
 
+    # Never commit the agentic runner's scratch: `.agent-output/` (task-complete.json,
+    # logs) is written into the CWD, which is the content repo checkout. Committing it
+    # produced a junk "AI content update" commit on every AI task — including read-only
+    # flows (draft, section-edit) where cms-proxy applies the real change via PATCH — and
+    # each junk commit to the content branch triggered a spurious content-CI site rebuild.
+    git reset -q -- .agent-output >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+
     # Double-check — after staging, is there anything to commit?
     if git diff --cached --quiet; then
         echo "${label}: nothing staged after add -A"