diff --git a/actions/labels-reconcile/labels-reconcile.sh b/actions/labels-reconcile/labels-reconcile.sh
index 252b885..04c84ef 100755
--- a/actions/labels-reconcile/labels-reconcile.sh
+++ b/actions/labels-reconcile/labels-reconcile.sh
@@ -711,7 +711,10 @@ reconcile_pr() { # $1 = PR number; relies on the globals set from its fetch
     {
       jq -r '.created_at' <<<"$PR_JSON"
       jq -r '.[].submitted_at // empty' <<<"$REVIEWS_JSON"
-      forge_pr_activity "$n" 2>/dev/null || true
+      # Non-fatal degrade (pre-#188 same edge), but do NOT swallow stderr —
+      # forge_api names failures loudly, and hiding them re-opens this issue's
+      # silent-green class (#4879 / #101 D5).
+      forge_pr_activity "$n" || true
     } | sort | tail -n1
   )"
   last_activity_epoch="$(date -d "$last_activity" +%s)"
diff --git a/test/forge-backends.test.sh b/test/forge-backends.test.sh
index 7bbbfc1..e41b120 100644
--- a/test/forge-backends.test.sh
+++ b/test/forge-backends.test.sh
@@ -386,6 +386,72 @@ check "...and never routes through issue edit --add-label" 1 "" \
   grep -q 'issue edit' "$gh_calls"
 check "github request_reviewer posts the reviewer" 0 "" \
   grep -q 'api repos/o/r/pulls/9/requested_reviewers -f reviewers\[\]=danmt' "$gh_calls"
+
+# --- term-5 pins for the batch verbs (codex 1566) -------------------------
+# The forgejo twins have hermetic coverage below; these pin that the github
+# twins stay 1:1 extractions of the pre-port endpoints, not silent rewrites.
+: >"$gh_calls"
+# shellcheck disable=SC2317 # invoked indirectly, by the github verbs
+gh() {
+  printf '%s\n' "$*" >>"$gh_calls"
+  if [ "$1" = api ]; then
+    shift
+    local jqexpr="" endpoint=""
+    while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+      case "$1" in
+        --jq) jqexpr="$2"; shift ;;
+        --paginate) ;;
+        -*) ;;
+        *) [ -n "$endpoint" ] || endpoint="$1" ;;
+      esac
+      shift
+    done
+    local body='[]'
+    case "$endpoint" in
+      *'/issues/'*'/timeline'*)
+        body='[{"event":"labeled","actor":{"login":"alice"},"label":{"name":"ready"},"created_at":"2026-08-01T09:00:00Z"}]'
+        ;;
+      *'/issues/'*'/comments'*)
+        body='[{"created_at":"2026-08-01T10:00:00Z"}]'
+        ;;
+      *'/pulls/'*'/comments'*)
+        body='[{"created_at":"2026-08-01T10:30:00Z"}]'
+        ;;
+      *'/pulls/'*'/commits'*)
+        body='[{"commit":{"committer":{"date":"2026-08-01T11:00:00Z"}}}]'
+        ;;
+    esac
+    if [ -n "$jqexpr" ]; then jq -r "$jqexpr" <<<"$body"; else printf '%s\n' "$body"; fi
+    return 0
+  fi
+  return 0
+}
+gh_tl="$(
+  forge_select github
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2030 # scoping REPO to this subshell is the point
+  REPO=o/r
+  forge_timeline 42
+)"
+check "github forge_timeline paginates the issue timeline endpoint" 0 "" \
+  grep -qE 'api --paginate repos/o/r/issues/42/timeline|api repos/o/r/issues/42/timeline' "$gh_calls"
+check "github forge_timeline is a pass-through of the GitHub event shape" 0 "" \
+  jq -e '.[0].event == "labeled" and .[0].actor.login == "alice"' <<<"$gh_tl" >/dev/null
+: >"$gh_calls"
+gh_act="$(
+  forge_select github
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2030 # scoping REPO to this subshell is the point
+  REPO=o/r
+  forge_pr_activity 9 | sort
+)"
+check "github forge_pr_activity hits issue comments" 0 "" \
+  grep -q 'repos/o/r/issues/9/comments' "$gh_calls"
+check "github forge_pr_activity hits the flat /pulls/{n}/comments endpoint" 0 "" \
+  grep -q 'repos/o/r/pulls/9/comments' "$gh_calls"
+check "github forge_pr_activity hits commits" 0 "" \
+  grep -q 'repos/o/r/pulls/9/commits' "$gh_calls"
+check "github forge_pr_activity emits all three timestamp sources" 0 "" \
+  test "$(printf '%s\n' "$gh_act")" = "$(printf '%s\n' '2026-08-01T10:00:00Z' '2026-08-01T10:30:00Z' '2026-08-01T11:00:00Z')"
+
 unset -f gh
 . "$ROOT/lib/forge-forgejo.sh"