diff --git a/scripts/test-free-shards.ts b/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
index 386b25a29..4ac9c69cc 100755
--- a/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
+++ b/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
@@ -355,6 +355,8 @@ export const TREE_MUTATING: Record<string, string> = {
   'test/skill-validation.test.ts': 'regenerates .agents/ (codex host) artifacts in place (3 sites)',
   'test/gbrain-detection-override.test.ts':
     'regenerates SKILL.md in place with --respect-detection (gbrain variant), then git-restores — readers see inflated skeletons mid-window',
+  'test/host-config.test.ts':
+    'golden tests read .agents/.factory artifacts produced by gen-skill-docs.test.ts, and its beforeAll generates them when missing (#2532) — must not race the parallel readers or run before the mutators window',
   // Ratchet readers (measure the tree; need it quiet):
   'test/parity-suite.test.ts': 'RATCHET READER — parity caps measure live SKILL.md/section bytes',
   'test/skill-size-budget.test.ts': 'RATCHET READER — per-skill and corpus size budgets measure the live tree',
diff --git a/test/host-config.test.ts b/test/host-config.test.ts
index ffdf5353a..b685bb89d 100644
--- a/test/host-config.test.ts
+++ b/test/host-config.test.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
  * host-config-export.ts, and golden-file regression checks.
  */
 
-import { describe, test, expect } from 'bun:test';
+import { describe, test, expect, beforeAll } from 'bun:test';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { validateHostConfig, validateAllConfigs, type HostConfig } from '../scripts/host-config';
@@ -421,6 +421,33 @@ describe('host-config-export.ts CLI', () => {
 describe('golden-file regression', () => {
   const GOLDEN_DIR = path.join(ROOT, 'test', 'fixtures', 'golden');
 
+  // #2532: the codex/factory goldens read gitignored .agents/ and .factory/
+  // artifacts that only gen-skill-docs.test.ts (a serial tree-mutating file)
+  // produces. On a clean clone — or when this file runs in isolation — those
+  // dirs don't exist and the goldens fail with ENOENT, an order dependency,
+  // not a regression. Self-provision: generate a host's artifacts iff its
+  // ship SKILL.md is missing. Existing artifacts are never overwritten here,
+  // so a genuinely stale artifact still fails the golden (that is the test's
+  // job; freshness enforcement lives in gen-skill-docs.test.ts).
+  beforeAll(() => {
+    const hostArtifacts: Array<[string, string]> = [
+      ['codex', path.join(ROOT, '.agents', 'skills', 'gstack-ship', 'SKILL.md')],
+      ['factory', path.join(ROOT, '.factory', 'skills', 'gstack-ship', 'SKILL.md')],
+    ];
+    for (const [host, artifact] of hostArtifacts) {
+      if (fs.existsSync(artifact)) continue;
+      const result = Bun.spawnSync(['bun', 'run', 'scripts/gen-skill-docs.ts', '--host', host], {
+        cwd: ROOT,
+      });
+      if (result.exitCode !== 0) {
+        throw new Error(
+          `golden-file beforeAll: gen-skill-docs --host ${host} failed (exit ${result.exitCode}):\n`
+          + result.stderr.toString(),
+        );
+      }
+    }
+  });
+
   test('Claude ship skill matches golden baseline', () => {
     const golden = fs.readFileSync(path.join(GOLDEN_DIR, 'claude-ship-SKILL.md'), 'utf-8');
     const current = fs.readFileSync(path.join(ROOT, 'ship', 'SKILL.md'), 'utf-8');