diff --git a/gitnexus-shared/src/integrations/understand-quickly.ts b/gitnexus-shared/src/integrations/understand-quickly.ts
index 7fd36b527..f30e7461b 100644
--- a/gitnexus-shared/src/integrations/understand-quickly.ts
+++ b/gitnexus-shared/src/integrations/understand-quickly.ts
@@ -65,13 +65,15 @@ export function buildUqDispatchPayload(id: string): UqDispatchPayload {
  * naming rules are looser, but we want to catch local paths
  * (`/Users/...`), bare slugs (`my-repo`), and accidental whitespace.
  *
- * Tightened (LOW 8) to match GitHub's published slug rules:
- *   owner: starts with alnum, then alnum/hyphen only — no underscore,
- *          no dot. Length cap 39.
+ * Matches GitHub's published slug rules:
+ *   owner: starts with alnum, then alnum/hyphen only, must end with
+ *          alnum (no trailing hyphen — GitHub rejects this at account
+ *          creation, so a `my-org-/repo` input would otherwise pass us
+ *          and 422 from GitHub). No underscore, no dot. Length cap 39.
  *   repo:  any of alnum/dot/hyphen/underscore. Length cap 100.
  */
 export function isValidOwnerRepo(id: string): boolean {
-  return /^[A-Za-z0-9](?:[A-Za-z0-9-]{0,38})\/[A-Za-z0-9._-]{1,100}$/.test(id);
+  return /^[A-Za-z0-9](?:[A-Za-z0-9-]{0,37}[A-Za-z0-9])?\/[A-Za-z0-9._-]{1,100}$/.test(id);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/publish.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/publish.ts
index d025ec45b..8aedc9c35 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/publish.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/publish.ts
@@ -134,7 +134,14 @@ export const publishCommand = async (
       signal: AbortSignal.timeout(DISPATCH_TIMEOUT_MS),
     });
   } catch (err) {
-    if (err instanceof Error && err.name === 'AbortError') {
+    // `AbortSignal.timeout()` throws a `DOMException` with `name ===
+    // 'TimeoutError'` on Node 18.14+ (and on browsers/Bun). It is NOT
+    // a plain `AbortError`. Match the pattern used in
+    // gitnexus/src/core/embeddings/http-client.ts so the user sees the
+    // targeted "timed out" message instead of a generic "operation
+    // was aborted".
+    const isTimeout = err instanceof DOMException && err.name === 'TimeoutError';
+    if (isTimeout) {
       cliError(
         `[understand-quickly] dispatch timed out after ${DISPATCH_TIMEOUT_MS}ms. ` +
           `Check network access to api.github.com and retry.`,
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-commands.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-commands.test.ts
index a059a37bc..a42afb25c 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-commands.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-commands.test.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ vi.mock('../../src/cli/mcp.js', () => ({
 vi.mock('../../src/cli/setup.js', () => ({
   setupCommand: vi.fn(),
 }));
+vi.mock('../../src/cli/publish.js', () => ({
+  publishCommand: vi.fn(),
+}));
 
 describe('CLI commands', () => {
   describe('version', () => {
@@ -84,4 +87,11 @@ describe('CLI commands', () => {
       expect(typeof setupCommand).toBe('function');
     });
   });
+
+  describe('publishCommand', () => {
+    it('is a function', async () => {
+      const { publishCommand } = await import('../../src/cli/publish.js');
+      expect(typeof publishCommand).toBe('function');
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-index-help.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-index-help.test.ts
index 59109c8d9..889a7473f 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-index-help.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/cli-index-help.test.ts
@@ -63,4 +63,17 @@ describe('CLI help surface', () => {
     expect(result.stdout).toContain('--model <model>');
     expect(result.stdout).toContain('--gist');
   });
+
+  it('publish help names the registry, the token env var, and the opt-out behaviour', () => {
+    const result = runHelp('publish');
+
+    expect(result.status).toBe(0);
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain('--id <owner/repo>');
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain('--skip-git');
+    // Discoverability contract: a contributor scanning `--help` must see
+    // (a) which registry this dispatches to, and (b) the env var that
+    // gates the opt-in. Both are part of the no-token contract.
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain('understand-quickly');
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain('UNDERSTAND_QUICKLY_TOKEN');
+  });
 });
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/publish.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/publish.test.ts
index 9dcef919b..2ba767594 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/publish.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/publish.test.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ describe('understand-quickly helpers (gitnexus-shared)', () => {
       // LOW 8 additions:
       ['some_org/repo', false], // underscore in owner — invalid
       ['-org/repo', false], // leading hyphen — invalid
-      ['org-/repo', true], // trailing hyphen — GitHub actually allows this
+      ['org-/repo', false], // trailing hyphen — GitHub rejects at account creation; we mirror that here
       ['org/repo_with_underscore', true],
       ['org/.dotfile', true], // repos may start with dot
     ])('returns %s for %j', (id, expected) => {
@@ -280,9 +280,13 @@ describe('publishCommand response branches (MEDIUM 5)', () => {
     expect(process.exitCode).toBe(1);
   });
 
-  it('AbortError (HIGH 4 — fetch timeout) → exit 1 with timed-out message', async () => {
-    const abort = new Error('aborted');
-    abort.name = 'AbortError';
+  it('TimeoutError (HIGH 4 — fetch timeout) → exit 1 with timed-out message', async () => {
+    // `AbortSignal.timeout()` throws a real `DOMException` with
+    // `name === 'TimeoutError'`. Faking it as `Error{name:'AbortError'}`
+    // (the previous shape of this test) hid a mismatch in publish.ts —
+    // the catch branch only matched 'AbortError' and the user-facing
+    // "timed out" message never fired in production.
+    const abort = new DOMException('The operation was aborted due to timeout', 'TimeoutError');
     fetchSpy.mockRejectedValueOnce(abort);
     const errSpy = vi.spyOn(process.stderr, 'write').mockImplementation(() => true);
     const { publishCommand } = await import('../../src/cli/publish.js');