diff --git a/dist/index.js b/dist/index.js
index b034fa09..f71cb11d 100644
--- a/dist/index.js
+++ b/dist/index.js
@@ -42350,7 +42350,12 @@ function baseBranchTip(octokit, context, branch) {
 
 function getErrorDetails(error) {
     if (typeof error === 'object' && error !== null) {
+        // @octokit/request wraps every rejection the bundle can see in a RequestError, which always carries a
+        // numeric status and a string message; the status-less and message-less arms are reached only by
+        // hand-built objects, so each statement is ignored as a whole (an arm-level hint leaves the && branch)
+        /* v8 ignore next -- status-less object arm unreachable from dist/index.js; auth.test.ts drives it */
         const status = 'status' in error ? error.status : 'unknown';
+        /* v8 ignore next -- message-less object arm unreachable from dist/index.js; auth.test.ts drives it */
         const message = 'message' in error && typeof error.message === 'string'
             ? error.message
             : String(error);
diff --git a/docs/contributing.md b/docs/contributing.md
index 075aa352..5f1ccc83 100644
--- a/docs/contributing.md
+++ b/docs/contributing.md
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ check then proves that the bundle the harness just exercised matches `src/`.
 ### Phantom "uncovered" branches after an `await`
 
 The unit run lists four branches as uncovered that every test run in fact
-drives: `close.ts:39`, `reopen.ts:36`, `approve.ts:504` and `auth.ts:220`
+drives: `close.ts:39`, `reopen.ts:36`, `approve.ts:504` and `auth.ts:225`
 (it reports 1652/1656 branches because of them; the e2e run repeats the last
 two). Each is an `if` with no `else` whose condition was assigned from an
 expression in which an `await` is only sometimes reached (`a || (await b())`,
diff --git a/src/utils/auth.ts b/src/utils/auth.ts
index f5d5d1f9..63afe923 100644
--- a/src/utils/auth.ts
+++ b/src/utils/auth.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ import { loadPullRequestOwners } from './pullRequestOwners'
 
 function getErrorDetails(error: unknown): { status: unknown, message: string } {
   if (typeof error === 'object' && error !== null) {
+    // @octokit/request wraps every rejection the bundle can see in a RequestError, which always carries a
+    // numeric status and a string message; the status-less and message-less arms are reached only by
+    // hand-built objects, so each statement is ignored as a whole (an arm-level hint leaves the && branch)
+    /* v8 ignore next -- status-less object arm unreachable from dist/index.js; auth.test.ts drives it */
     const status = 'status' in error ? error.status : 'unknown'
+    /* v8 ignore next -- message-less object arm unreachable from dist/index.js; auth.test.ts drives it */
     const message
       = 'message' in error && typeof error.message === 'string'
         ? error.message