diff --git a/packages/polyfill/src/surface/use-shape-query.ts b/packages/polyfill/src/surface/use-shape-query.ts
index 1545b41..0188c45 100644
--- a/packages/polyfill/src/surface/use-shape-query.ts
+++ b/packages/polyfill/src/surface/use-shape-query.ts
@@ -186,6 +186,10 @@ const WHOLE_DATASET = "did:ng:i";
  * none, and so is anything that is not a NextGraph reference - an ordinary IRI names no
  * repo this library could hold a cap for, and the engine is left to match it or not.
  * Deduplicated, so a scope repeating a document opens it once.
+ *
+ * `""` is named beside the marker although `isNuri` would drop it anyway. It is the SDK's
+ * own alias for `did:ng:i`, and a reader should be able to see that here rather than have
+ * to work out that a guard two files away happens to exclude it.
  */
 function namedDocuments(scope: Scope): Nuri[] {
   const out: Nuri[] = [];
diff --git a/packages/polyfill/test/use-shape-query.test.ts b/packages/polyfill/test/use-shape-query.test.ts
index 7996775..0d96347 100644
--- a/packages/polyfill/test/use-shape-query.test.ts
+++ b/packages/polyfill/test/use-shape-query.test.ts
@@ -609,6 +609,54 @@ describe("useShapeQuery", () => {
     unsub();
   });
 
+  it("(p) the empty-string `graphs` is the whole dataset too, and is not guarded either", async () => {
+    const ng = makeFake();
+    const orm = makeOrm();
+    inject(ng, orm);
+    setCurrentUser("omar");
+    const mine = await createEntityDoc("omar", "protected");
+    seedEvent(orm, mine, `${mine}:q:one`, "Mine");
+    // Somebody else's, in the same local dataset: the filter is what keeps it out, and
+    // must stay the one that decides here - `""` names no document to refuse.
+    seedEvent(orm, "did:ng:o:not-omars", "did:ng:o:not-omars:q:one", "Theirs");
+
+    // `normalizeScope` maps `""` onto `did:ng:i` (`@ng-org/orm`'s `types.ts`), so the two
+    // spellings are one marker. A barrier that treated `""` as a document name would
+    // refuse the whole dataset for a reference nobody wrote.
+    const obs = useShapeQuery(EventShape, { graphs: "" });
+    const unsub = obs.subscribe(() => {});
+    await tick();
+    await tick();
+
+    const snap = obs.getSnapshot();
+    expect(snap.isError).toBe(false);
+    expect(snap.isSuccess).toBe(true);
+    expect(titles(snap.data)).toEqual(["Mine"]);
+    unsub();
+  });
+
+  it("(q) unsubscribing while the barrier is still crossing leaves no query open", async () => {
+    const ng = makeFake();
+    const orm = makeOrm();
+    inject(ng, orm);
+    setCurrentUser("pia");
+    const mine = await createEntityDoc("pia", "protected");
+    seedEvent(orm, mine, `${mine}:q:one`, "Mine");
+
+    // The barrier is asynchronous now, so there is a window in which the observable has
+    // subscribers, no query, and an open on its way. A teardown landing in that window
+    // must not be overtaken by the open it superseded - otherwise the shape query is
+    // created after the last listener left and nothing is ever going to close it.
+    const obs = useShapeQuery(EventShape, { graphs: [mine] });
+    const unsub = obs.subscribe(() => {});
+    unsub(); // synchronously, while `ensureRepoOpen` is still awaiting the first `State`
+    await tick();
+    await tick();
+    await tick();
+
+    expect(orm.openCount()).toBe(0);
+  });
+
   // -- teardown ------------------------------------------------------------
 
   it("(k) the last unsubscribe closes the shape query", async () => {