diff --git a/PLAN.md b/PLAN.md
index ad17894..8560e29 100644
--- a/PLAN.md
+++ b/PLAN.md
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 - [ ] **State:** In progress — the package-native capped xtask entry point is reachable, rejects unknown packages, propagates mutest failure, and mutation-tests `hemx-axum`, `hemx-core`, `hemx-js`, and the full `hemx-test` package cleanly; full package closure remains.
 - **User value:** maintainers can run one bounded repository command and trust that meaningful Rust logic across every mutation-applicable library is either killed or explicitly justified.
 - **Build:** add a capped `hemx-xtask` mutation command that invokes `/opt/repositories/mutest`/`mutest` through package-native test targets rather than the broken workspace-wide example path; enumerate only current mutation-applicable library/proc-macro packages; finish adversarial tests or simplify code until every survivor is classified; keep equivalent, invariant-only, and infrastructure-inapplicable classifications inspectable and minimal; document the exact local release command in the existing readiness surface.
-- **Blocked by:** none; broad survivors currently remain in `hemx-build`, `hemx-derive`, and `hemx-lsp` outside already-clean focused contracts. The current `hemx-build` frontier now adversarially proves static convention diagnostics; public file/source diagnostics and context facts; and mutation-clean generated-artifact create, no-op, and stale-output refresh behavior through `AppBuilder::run`; remaining resource-extraction and internal diagnostic survivors remain. The complete 470-mutant `hemx-axum` package gate now passes with 262 caught and 208 unviable after public page/form/multipart/registry/response/runtime proofs and narrow classification of infallible header parsing and streamed multipart unwrap-equivalent mutants.
+- **Blocked by:** none; broad survivors currently remain in `hemx-build`, `hemx-derive`, and `hemx-lsp` outside already-clean focused contracts. The current `hemx-build` frontier now adversarially proves static convention diagnostics; public file/source diagnostics and context facts; mutation-clean generated-artifact create, no-op, and stale-output refresh behavior; and exact fail-closed invalid client-handler diagnostics through `AppBuilder::run`; remaining class/event/slot/atom/handle/form extraction and internal diagnostic survivors remain. The complete 470-mutant `hemx-axum` package gate now passes with 262 caught and 208 unviable after public page/form/multipart/registry/response/runtime proofs and narrow classification of infallible header parsing and streamed multipart unwrap-equivalent mutants.
 - **Proof:** the new xtask mutation command exits zero within its documented bound, covers each applicable package, emits no unexplained missed mutant, and a deliberate adjacent mutation makes it fail. `cargo run -p hemx-xtask -- test` remains green. req: test/020 req: test/021
 
 ## 3. Elect and enforce the release license policy
diff --git a/hemx-build/src/lib.rs b/hemx-build/src/lib.rs
index b639904..7134438 100644
--- a/hemx-build/src/lib.rs
+++ b/hemx-build/src/lib.rs
@@ -2512,7 +2512,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    fn app_builder_returns_output_errors_instead_of_panicking() {
+    fn app_builder_propagates_output_and_client_contract_errors_without_panicking() {
         let root = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!(
             "hemx-build-error-{}-{}",
             std::process::id(),
@@ -2552,8 +2552,29 @@ mod tests {
             result.unwrap().unwrap_err().to_string(),
             "client-local handlers require one data-hemx-client-module on a hemx root"
         );
+
+        let invalid_handler = templates.join("invalid_handler.heml");
+        std::fs::write(
+            &invalid_handler,
+            r#"<main data-hemx-root="app" data-hemx-client-module="/app.js"><button data-hemx-client="save-item">Save</button></main>"#,
+        )
+        .unwrap();
+        std::fs::remove_file(templates.join("client.heml")).unwrap();
+        let error = app()
+            .template_dir(&templates)
+            .out_dir(&invalid_out)
+            .run()
+            .unwrap_err();
+        assert_eq!(error.kind(), io::ErrorKind::InvalidData);
+        assert_eq!(
+            error.to_string(),
+            format!(
+                "{}: invalid data-hemx-client value `save-item`; expected a Rust handler identifier",
+                invalid_handler.display()
+            )
+        );
         let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(root);
-        // test req: build/004
+        // test req: build/004 req: client_local/011 req: diagnostics/004
     }
 
     #[test]