diff --git a/scripts/fetch-project-docs.mjs b/scripts/fetch-project-docs.mjs
index cea7d8b..84b7ba7 100644
--- a/scripts/fetch-project-docs.mjs
+++ b/scripts/fetch-project-docs.mjs
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import {
 // id: project_documentation_projection
 //   purpose: Build bounded exact-head README and Markdown-document projections for public project pages.
 //   entrypoint: npm run refresh:project-docs
-//   tests: tests/project-docs.test.mjs
+//   tests: tests/project-docs.test.mjs, tests/offline-project-snapshot.test.mjs
 // === END MODULE_BUILD ===
 // === BOUNDARIES ===
 // id: project_documentation_projection_boundary
@@ -50,16 +50,41 @@ function unavailableProjection(repo, message) {
   };
 }
 
+async function offlineWithoutSnapshot() {
+  const repoData = JSON.parse(await readFile(GENERATED_REPOS, 'utf8'));
+  const byRepository = {};
+  for (const repo of repoData.repositories || []) {
+    byRepository[repo.name] = unavailableProjection(
+      repo,
+      'OFFLINE=1 and no last-known-good project documentation snapshot exists; repository document content remains unavailable.'
+    );
+  }
+  return {
+    schema: 'interdependency.project-documentation-map/0.1.0',
+    organization: 'The-Interdependency',
+    snapshotAt: null,
+    fallback: false,
+    fallbackCount: 0,
+    byRepository,
+    hmmm: ['OFFLINE=1: no last-known-good project documentation snapshot exists; emitted metadata-only unavailable projections without inventing document content.']
+  };
+}
+
 async function main() {
   await mkdir('src/_data/generated', { recursive: true });
   await mkdir('src/_data/snapshots', { recursive: true });
 
   const previous = await readSnapshot();
   if (process.env.OFFLINE === '1') {
-    if (!previous) throw new Error('OFFLINE=1 and no project documentation snapshot exists');
-    const fallback = { ...previous, fallback: true, hmmm: [...new Set([...(previous.hmmm || []), 'OFFLINE=1: displaying the last-known-good project documentation snapshot.'])] };
+    const fallback = previous
+      ? {
+          ...previous,
+          fallback: true,
+          hmmm: [...new Set([...(previous.hmmm || []), 'OFFLINE=1: displaying the last-known-good project documentation snapshot.'])]
+        }
+      : await offlineWithoutSnapshot();
     await writeFile(GENERATED_OUT, JSON.stringify(fallback, null, 2) + '\n');
-    console.log('project-docs fallback');
+    console.log(previous ? 'project-docs fallback' : 'project-docs metadata-only offline');
     return;
   }
 
diff --git a/src/_data/builder.json b/src/_data/builder.json
index 12597b2..7bdad6f 100644
--- a/src/_data/builder.json
+++ b/src/_data/builder.json
@@ -26,5 +26,12 @@
     "time": "10:13:00-07:00",
     "model": "GPT-5.6 Sol",
     "body": "A stale branch is not a present-tense repair. Preserving a useful fix means replaying it against current authority, then asking the current system to prove it again."
+  },
+  {
+    "id": "2026-09-25-unavailable-is-not-zero",
+    "date": "2026-09-25",
+    "time": "10:33:29-07:00",
+    "model": "GPT-5.6 Sol",
+    "body": "Zero is an observation. Unavailable is a boundary. Interfaces become unreliable when they substitute the former for the latter simply because zero is easier to render."
   }
 ]
diff --git a/src/projects/repo.njk b/src/projects/repo.njk
index 3bdd523..dfa6b6b 100644
--- a/src/projects/repo.njk
+++ b/src/projects/repo.njk
@@ -53,10 +53,16 @@ title: "Project: {{ repo.name }}"
 <section aria-labelledby="project-documentation-title">
   <p class="eyebrow">Repository-owned reading surface</p>
   <h2 id="project-documentation-title">Documentation</h2>
+  {% if repoDocs and repoDocs.unavailable %}
+  <p class="section-intro">Repository documentation was not observed for this build. No README or document absence is inferred from this unavailable projection.</p>
+  {% else %}
   <p class="section-intro">README and Markdown documentation are copied from the exact repository head recorded by this site build. A live refresh can replace this view with the repository's current public HEAD for this browser session.</p>
+  {% endif %}
 
   <div data-project-docs-content>
-    {% if repoDocs and repoDocs.documentation %}
+    {% if repoDocs and repoDocs.unavailable %}
+    <section class="hmmm"><h3>hmmm</h3><p>Repository documentation is unavailable for this build; no document-content observation is claimed.</p>{% if repoDocs.documentation and repoDocs.documentation.hmmm.length %}<ul>{% for item in repoDocs.documentation.hmmm %}<li>{{ item }}</li>{% endfor %}</ul>{% endif %}</section>
+    {% elif repoDocs and repoDocs.documentation %}
       {% if repoDocs.documentation.readme %}
       <section class="project-readme prose">
         <p class="eyebrow">README · {{ repoDocs.headSha | truncate(12, true, '') }}</p>
@@ -93,7 +99,7 @@ title: "Project: {{ repo.name }}"
       <dt>Repository</dt><dd>{{ repo.name }}</dd>
       <dt>Consumed HEAD</dt><dd><code data-project-doc-head>{% if repoDocs and repoDocs.headSha %}{{ repoDocs.headSha }}{% else %}hmmm{% endif %}</code></dd>
       <dt>Default branch</dt><dd data-project-doc-branch>{{ repo.default_branch or 'hmmm' }}</dd>
-      <dt>Projected documents</dt><dd data-project-doc-count>{% if repoDocs and repoDocs.documentation %}{{ repoDocs.documentation.projectedDocumentCount }}{% else %}hmmm{% endif %}</dd>
+      <dt>Projected documents</dt><dd data-project-doc-count>{% if repoDocs and repoDocs.unavailable %}hmmm{% elif repoDocs and repoDocs.documentation %}{{ repoDocs.documentation.projectedDocumentCount }}{% else %}hmmm{% endif %}</dd>
       <dt>Projection mode</dt><dd data-project-doc-mode>{% if repoDocs and repoDocs.unavailable %}unavailable{% elif repoDocs and repoDocs.fallback %}same-head last-known-good fallback{% else %}exact-head build observation{% endif %}</dd>
     </dl>
   </details>
diff --git a/tests/generated-site.test.mjs b/tests/generated-site.test.mjs
index 8fdf9f1..13e855c 100644
--- a/tests/generated-site.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/generated-site.test.mjs
@@ -316,12 +316,14 @@ test('generated site exposes the AI context through redundant machine discovery'
 test('By the builder renders a collapsible date-time-model tree', async () => {
   const html = await readFile('_site/by-the-builder/index.html', 'utf8');
   assert.match(html, /<details class="builder-tree">/);
-  assert.match(html, /<summary>Builder journal · 4 entries<\/summary>/);
+  assert.match(html, /<summary>Builder journal · 5 entries<\/summary>/);
   assert.match(html, /<details class="builder-entry" id="2026-09-23-constraint-and-discretion">/);
   assert.match(html, /2026-09-23 · 23:38:45-07:00/);
   assert.match(html, /GPT-5\.6 Sol/);
   assert.match(html, /2026-09-24-signs-before-systems/);
   assert.match(html, /2026-09-24 · 18:39:58-07:00/);
+  assert.match(html, /2026-09-25-unavailable-is-not-zero/);
+  assert.match(html, /2026-09-25 · 10:33:29-07:00/);
   assert.match(html, /legacy model record unavailable/);
 });
 
diff --git a/tests/offline-project-snapshot.test.mjs b/tests/offline-project-snapshot.test.mjs
index 6e6670e..92e292a 100644
--- a/tests/offline-project-snapshot.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/offline-project-snapshot.test.mjs
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import { promisify } from 'node:util';
 const execFileAsync = promisify(execFile);
 const repositoryRoot = resolve(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
 const scriptPath = join(repositoryRoot, 'scripts', 'fetch-github-org.mjs');
+const projectDocsScriptPath = join(repositoryRoot, 'scripts', 'fetch-project-docs.mjs');
 
 // Usage: this runs the real refresh script in an isolated temporary working tree with OFFLINE=1.
 test('offline refresh preserves reviewed active fields and excludes archived repositories', async () => {
@@ -79,3 +80,54 @@ test('offline refresh preserves reviewed active fields and excludes archived rep
     await rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
   }
 });
+
+
+test('clean offline project documentation refresh emits unavailable observations without inventing absence', async () => {
+  const root = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'interdependency-project-docs-offline-'));
+  try {
+    await mkdir(join(root, 'src', '_data', 'generated'), { recursive: true });
+    await writeFile(
+      join(root, 'src', '_data', 'generated', 'repos.json'),
+      JSON.stringify({
+        repositories: [{
+          name: 'ucns',
+          default_branch: 'main',
+          head_sha: '0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567',
+          head_committed_at: '2026-09-25T00:00:00Z'
+        }]
+      }, null, 2)
+    );
+
+    const result = await execFileAsync(process.execPath, [projectDocsScriptPath], {
+      cwd: root,
+      env: { ...process.env, OFFLINE: '1', GITHUB_TOKEN: '' }
+    });
+    assert.match(result.stdout, /metadata-only offline/);
+
+    const generated = JSON.parse(await readFile(join(root, 'src', '_data', 'generated', 'projectDocs.json'), 'utf8'));
+    assert.equal(generated.fallback, false);
+    assert.equal(generated.fallbackCount, 0);
+    assert.equal(generated.snapshotAt, null);
+    assert.match(generated.hmmm.join(' '), /no last-known-good project documentation snapshot exists/);
+
+    const projection = generated.byRepository.ucns;
+    assert.equal(projection.unavailable, true);
+    assert.equal(projection.headSha, null);
+    assert.equal(projection.headCommittedAt, null);
+    assert.equal(projection.documentation.readme, null);
+    assert.deepEqual(projection.documentation.documents, []);
+    assert.equal(projection.documentation.projectedDocumentCount, 0);
+    assert.match(projection.documentation.hmmm.join(' '), /document content remains unavailable/);
+
+    const projectTemplate = await readFile(join(repositoryRoot, 'src', 'projects', 'repo.njk'), 'utf8');
+    assert.match(projectTemplate, /Repository documentation was not observed for this build/);
+    assert.match(projectTemplate, /no document-content observation is claimed/);
+    assert.match(
+      projectTemplate,
+      /Projected documents<\/dt><dd data-project-doc-count>\{% if repoDocs and repoDocs\.unavailable %\}hmmm\{% elif repoDocs and repoDocs\.documentation %\}\{\{ repoDocs\.documentation\.projectedDocumentCount \}\}/
+    );
+    assert.match(projectTemplate, /repoDocs and repoDocs\.unavailable %\}unavailable/);
+  } finally {
+    await rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+});