diff --git a/src/agent/curator-graph.test.ts b/src/agent/curator-graph.test.ts
index 2925862..3cadedd 100644
--- a/src/agent/curator-graph.test.ts
+++ b/src/agent/curator-graph.test.ts
@@ -91,6 +91,33 @@ test('well-formed JSON that fails the schema produces a distinguishably differen
   assert.doesNotMatch(result.error ?? '', /not valid JSON/)
 })
 
+const emptyCuratorOutput = JSON.stringify({ repos: [] })
+
+test('treats an empty curation as a failure, not a quiet day', async () => {
+  const fakeCurate = async () => emptyCuratorOutput
+
+  const result = await runCuratorGraph(sampleRepos, fakeCurate)
+
+  assert.equal(result.curated, null, 'an empty result must not be reported as success')
+  assert.match(result.error ?? '', /none of the 1 repos/)
+})
+
+test('retries an empty curation and tells the model which name to echo', async () => {
+  let calls = 0
+  const feedback: (string | undefined)[] = []
+  const fakeCurate = async (_repos: TrendingRepo[], fb?: string) => {
+    calls++
+    feedback.push(fb)
+    return calls === 1 ? emptyCuratorOutput : validCuratorOutput
+  }
+
+  const result = await runCuratorGraph(sampleRepos, fakeCurate)
+
+  assert.equal(calls, 2, 'an empty curation should be retried')
+  assert.equal(result.curated?.[0].repo_name, 'foo/bar')
+  assert.match(feedback[1] ?? '', /foo\/bar/, 'the retry should name the repo the model failed to match')
+})
+
 test('an exception thrown by curate() is caught and recorded instead of crashing the graph', async () => {
   const fakeCurate = async () => {
     throw new Error('rate limited')
diff --git a/src/agent/curator.graph.ts b/src/agent/curator.graph.ts
index eb164f1..74a285b 100644
--- a/src/agent/curator.graph.ts
+++ b/src/agent/curator.graph.ts
@@ -43,9 +43,18 @@ async function curateNode(state: { repos: TrendingRepo[]; error: string | null;
   }
 
   const parsed = CuratedRepoOutputSchema.safeParse(json)
-  if (parsed.success) return { curated: parsed.data.repos, error: null }
+  if (!parsed.success) {
+    return { error: `curator output did not match the expected schema: ${parsed.error.message}`, attempts: state.attempts + 1 }
+  }
+
+  if (!parsed.data.repos.length) {
+    return {
+      error: `curator returned summaries for none of the ${state.repos.length} repos it was given — repo_name must match exactly, e.g. "${state.repos[0]?.name}"`,
+      attempts: state.attempts + 1,
+    }
+  }
 
-  return { error: `curator output did not match the expected schema: ${parsed.error.message}`, attempts: state.attempts + 1 }
+  return { curated: parsed.data.repos, error: null }
 }
 
 export async function runCuratorGraph(repos: TrendingRepo[], curate: CurateFn): Promise<CuratorResult> {
diff --git a/src/agent/index.ts b/src/agent/index.ts
index 53d8a4d..b7f06fa 100644
--- a/src/agent/index.ts
+++ b/src/agent/index.ts
@@ -328,8 +328,7 @@ export class WorkCoordinator {
     return WorkCoordinator.rankByGrowth(allRepos)
   }
 
-  // Step 3 with its failure handling: null means stop, and the alert has already
-  // been sent. An empty result is a skip, not a failure — nothing to alert on.
+  // Step 3 with its failure handling: null means stop, and the alert has already been sent.
   private static async curateOrNotify(topRepos: TrendingRepo[]): Promise<CuratedRepo[] | null> {
     const { curated, error } = await runCuratorGraph(topRepos, WorkCoordinator.curateRepos)
 
@@ -341,11 +340,6 @@ export class WorkCoordinator {
       return null
     }
 
-    if (!curated.length) {
-      logger.info('⏭️ No repos curated — skipping send and save.')
-      return null
-    }
-
     return curated
   }