diff --git a/.agent/workflows/troubleshooting.md b/.agent/workflows/troubleshooting.md
index 014192c..0cecefe 100644
--- a/.agent/workflows/troubleshooting.md
+++ b/.agent/workflows/troubleshooting.md
@@ -17,8 +17,19 @@
 2. Verify Temporary File filtering: Ensure the workspace `.watcher` and Server `.mirror` are actively ignoring files ending with `.cortex_tmp` and `.cortex_lock` to prevent recursion loops (Sync Echo).
 3. Validate "Empty Workspace" Initialization: When creating `source="empty"` workspaces, verify that the AI Hub actually sends a `START_WATCHING` gRPC signal to the target nodes. Without this signal, nodes will create the empty directory but the `watchdog` daemon will not attach to it, resulting in zero outbound file syncs.
 4. Ensure target node is properly receiving "on_closed" events for larger files. Writing a 10MB file via `dd` triggers 60+ `on_modified` events, which can occasionally choke the stream. Implementing an `on_closed` forced-sync is more reliable.
+## 2. macOS Ghost Deletion Loop (Infinite Synchronized File Removals)
+**Symptoms**:
+- A file created natively on a macOS node (via `echo`, UI, or `cp`) syncs upward perfectly, but deletes itself globally a few seconds later.
+- Reading the agent logs shows non-stop back-to-back entries mapping: `[📁⚠️] Watcher EMITTING DELETE to SERVER` and `[📁🗑️] Delete Fragment`. 
+- Atomic network uploads repeatedly cycle identically over and over indefinitely.
 
-## 2. Server Root File Ownership (Jerxie Prod)
+**Troubleshooting Steps & Checklist**:
+1. Validate Zero-byte payload support: macOS frequently produces two immediate events (Creation: 0 bytes and Modification: 100 bytes). If the watcher chunk reader prematurely breaks on `if not chunk` without validating `index > 0`, the Hub never learns about the file initially, causing an aggressively executed `handle_manifest` remote deletion broadcast to scrub the new file.
+2. Validate `FSEvents` `os.replace` behavior: macOS's native kernel watcher queues file deletion events structurally from `os.remove`, but occasionally delivers them hundreds of milliseconds *after* a new network write has arrived utilizing the exact same path!
+3. Because `FSEvents` are delayed, when the `on_deleted` event is evaluated against the `last_sync` cache, it finds the newly calculated hash block instead of the suppressed `__DELETED__` lock natively, thereby assuming the user actively erased the file by hand again.
+4. Ensure `watcher.py` validates absolute disk existence explicitly before broadcasting deletions: `if os.path.exists(real_src) or os.path.lexists(event.src_path): return`. This decisively breaks the macOS recursive network loop.
+
+## 3. Server Root File Ownership (Jerxie Prod)
 **Symptoms**:
 - Agent nodes sync files to the Hub mirror directory successfully.
 - The host user (`UID 1000`) is unable to manipulate or delete these files directly from the host machine because the container writes them as `root`.
@@ -27,7 +38,7 @@
 1. Use Python's `os.chown` in the Mirror: During the atomic swap phase on the AI Hub (`os.replace()`), forcefully capture the `os.stat()` of the parent directory.
 2. Apply `os.chown(tmp_path, parent_stat.st_uid, parent_stat.st_gid)` to the `.cortex_tmp` file immediately before the final swap. This ensures the host user retains ownership of all synced data on NFS/Mounted volumes.
 
-## 3. Ghost Nodes Attaching to New Sessions
+## 4. Ghost Nodes Attaching to New Sessions
 **Symptoms**:
 - An old or offline node (e.g., `synology-nas`) keeps automatically attaching itself to newly created sessions.
 - Removing it from the UI or closing previous sessions does not resolve the issue.
@@ -91,7 +102,7 @@
 echo 'your-password' | sudo -S ls -la /var/lib/docker/volumes/cortex-hub_ai_hub_data/_data/mirrors/session-YOUR_SESSION
 ```
 
-## 4. Unresponsive Terminal (Zombie PTY Processes on Local Nodes)
+## 5. Unresponsive Terminal (Zombie PTY Processes on Local Nodes)
 **Symptoms**:
 - Agent node shows tasks being received in its logs.
 - Executing bash commands via the AI mesh terminal hangs indefinitely or outputs nothing.
@@ -119,7 +130,7 @@
 tail -n 100 ~/.cortex/agent.err.log
 ```
 
-## 5. Mac Mini Specific Agent Debugging
+## 6. Mac Mini Specific Agent Debugging
 **Symptoms**:
 - Terminal hangs immediately after a large file sync (e.g., 10MB test file).
 - Commands like `ls` or `cd` work once, then the PTY bridge deadlocks.
@@ -143,7 +154,7 @@
 /opt/anaconda3/bin/python3 -c "import os; print(os.path.realpath('/tmp/cortex-sync'))"
 ```
 
-## 6. Production Health & Log Monitoring (Jerxie Prod)
+## 7. Production Health & Log Monitoring (Jerxie Prod)
 A set of automation scripts are available in `.agent/utils/` to monitor the production environment at `ai.jerxie.com`.
 
 **Prerequisites**: