diff --git a/docs/explorations/2026-08-24-sw-version-question-timeout.md b/docs/explorations/2026-08-24-sw-version-question-timeout.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..79d06504
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/explorations/2026-08-24-sw-version-question-timeout.md
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# 一次白屏：修复 controllerchange 之后那次刷新，被 1 秒问答判死
+
+2026-08-24
+
+## 现场
+
+PR #202 合进 main 之后，main 的 CI 红了一次（PR 那次全绿），挂的是
+`sw-silent-update.spec.ts`——`@serial` 那批，本地 `pnpm run test:e2e` 用
+`--grep-invert @serial` 跑不到它。失败截图是**整页纯白**。
+
+从 trace 里读出的事实链：
+
+- console 里 `Creating new editor instance` 出现 3 次，`Document loaded` 只有 2 次；
+  第三次启动之后，12 条 `[OO] …` 守卫日志**一条都没有**——它死在 `onAppReady`
+  之前，也就是任何守卫装上之前。（这条同时说明与 #202 的授权改动无关：那批代码
+  连跑都没跑到，且没碰任何 SW 代码。）
+- 测试等 `vendorVersion === 'e2e-next'` 那一步**是过的**（挂在它后面一行的
+  `settleEditor`），所以 controller 确实换过去了。
+- 而 console 里再没有第四次启动——**controllerchange 之后那次 reload 从未发生**，
+  页面就一直白着，直到 90 秒超时。
+
+## 根因
+
+`shouldReloadOnControllerChange` 的四个条件里，把它拦下的是 `isNewBuild`。
+它来自 `isUnseenBuild()`，而后者第一句是：
+
+```ts
+const version = await askVersion(waiting); // 1000 ms
+if (!vendorVersion || !cacheStorage) return false; // cannot tell -- do nothing
+```
+
+worker 是在 message handler 里回答 `VERSION` 的，而它在**被问到的那一刻恰好最忙**：
+刚被激活、正在终止上一个 worker、页面正在重新取一整棵它还没缓存的 vendor 树。
+1 秒没答上来，沉默就被当成了答案，于是"这不是新构建"→ 不刷新 → 那半个被交接
+撕碎的页面永远留在白屏上。
+
+同一个 worker，测试自己用 **3 秒**问同样的问题，是问得到的。
+
+这个坑本身在文件里已有记载（"a worker under load does not answer within a
+timeout"），但当时的教训写在**要不要提升**那一侧，改成了用缓存名做证据；
+**controllerchange 这一侧仍在用 1 秒问答**，而这一侧的错误代价是不可恢复的白屏。
+
+## 改动
+
+新增 `askVersionPatiently()`：3 次 × 2 秒，`isUnseenBuild` 改用它。
+
+沉默最终仍然可以决定，只是不许它提前决定。选这个而不是别的方案的理由：
+
+- **不能改判据本身。** "有没有文档打开"早就被证明是错的判据（见
+  2026-08-23-promotion-without-reload-blank-editor.md），"有没有未保存改动"在这里
+  也不是原因——第三次启动是一次完整的页面重载，脏位是 false。
+- **不能靠缓存名兜底。** 页面被撕碎时可能一次 vendor 请求都没成功，新 worker
+  的 runtime cache 还没建出来，"出现了新缓存名"这条证据此刻并不存在。
+- **多等几秒没有成本。** 这条路上唯一在等的就是一个已经白了的页面。
+
+## 用例与反向验证
+
+`test/unit/sw-update.test.ts` 三条新用例（用假定时器，不占实际时间）：
+busy worker 漏答第一次仍被正确识别为新构建；连续不答到底仍然回落到"不动"；
+默认预算不少于 3 秒。原来那条 "does not answer" 用例也改用假定时器——放弃现在
+要 6 秒，会撞上 5 秒的默认用例超时。
+
+**反向验证**：把 `askVersionPatiently` 改回 `askVersion`，只有
+"keeps asking a worker that was too busy to answer the first time" 变红，其余 52 条
+照常绿；改回来 53 条全绿。E2E `sw-silent-update` + `sw-warm` 本地 3 条全过。
+
+## 遗留
+
+CI 上那次是抖动（重跑即过），所以这条改动没有一个能稳定复现的 E2E。真正想钉死
+它需要能在测试里让 worker 忙到答不出话，目前没有这样的钩子；单测那三条覆盖的是
+判定逻辑本身，白屏那一段仍然只有 `sw-silent-update` 这条端到端用例在守。
diff --git a/lib/sw-update.ts b/lib/sw-update.ts
index 9395f0d7..aa237429 100644
--- a/lib/sw-update.ts
+++ b/lib/sw-update.ts
@@ -262,6 +262,41 @@ export function askVersion(worker: SwLike | null, timeoutMs = 1000): Promise<Wor
   });
 }
 
+/**
+ * How patient `isUnseenBuild` is with a worker that has not answered yet.
+ * Three tries of two seconds, so a busy worker has six seconds to say which
+ * build it is before its silence is taken as an answer.
+ */
+export const ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS = 3;
+export const ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS = 2000;
+
+/**
+ * Ask, and keep asking for a few seconds before believing the silence.
+ *
+ * A worker answers `VERSION` from its message handler, which it cannot run
+ * while it is busy -- and it is busiest in exactly the moment this question is
+ * asked: it has just been activated, the outgoing worker is being terminated,
+ * and the page is refetching a vendor tree that is not in its cache. A single
+ * one-second question read that silence as "nothing to tell you", and the
+ * caller acts on that answer: the reload that repairs a page torn in half by
+ * the swap never happened, and the tab stayed blank. Seen once in CI on the
+ * silent-heal case -- where the test's own three-second question to the same
+ * worker was answered.
+ *
+ * Silence still decides, eventually. This only stops it deciding early.
+ */
+export async function askVersionPatiently(
+  worker: SwLike | null,
+  attempts = ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS,
+  timeoutMs = ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS,
+): Promise<WorkerVersion | null> {
+  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < attempts; attempt++) {
+    const answer = await askVersion(worker, timeoutMs);
+    if (answer) return answer;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
 /**
  * Is the waiting worker a build this browser has never run?
  *
@@ -278,12 +313,15 @@ export function askVersion(worker: SwLike | null, timeoutMs = 1000): Promise<Wor
  * was wrong in a way worth remembering: a worker under load does not answer
  * within a timeout, silence got read as "it is old", and tabs reloaded
  * themselves in the middle of a test run.
+ *
+ * The question it still asks -- which build is this? -- is asked patiently,
+ * for the same reason: see askVersionPatiently.
  */
 export async function isUnseenBuild(
   waiting: SwLike | null,
   cacheStorage: Pick<CacheStorage, 'keys'> | undefined = typeof caches === 'undefined' ? undefined : caches,
 ): Promise<boolean> {
-  const version = await askVersion(waiting);
+  const version = await askVersionPatiently(waiting);
   const vendorVersion = version?.vendorVersion;
   if (!vendorVersion || !cacheStorage) return false; // cannot tell -- do nothing
   const runtime = (await cacheStorage.keys()).filter((name) => name.startsWith(RUNTIME_CACHE_PREFIX));
diff --git a/test/unit/sw-update.test.ts b/test/unit/sw-update.test.ts
index 6807c612..ec0cc940 100644
--- a/test/unit/sw-update.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/sw-update.test.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ import {
   HEAL_STORAGE_KEY,
   healStaleController,
   isUnseenBuild,
+  askVersionPatiently,
+  ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS,
+  ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS,
   onWaitingWorker,
   documentIsExpected,
   promoteWaitingWorker,
@@ -626,6 +629,18 @@ describe('isUnseenBuild', () => {
         if (port && version) setTimeout(() => port.postMessage({ type: 'VERSION', ...version }), 0);
       },
     }) as unknown as SwLike;
+  /** A worker that drops the first `deaf` questions, then answers. */
+  const ignoringFirstAsks = (deaf: number, version: Record<string, string>) => {
+    let asked = 0;
+    return {
+      state: 'installed',
+      addEventListener: () => {},
+      postMessage: (_msg: unknown, transfer?: MessagePort[]) => {
+        const port = transfer?.[0];
+        if (port && asked++ >= deaf) setTimeout(() => port.postMessage({ type: 'VERSION', ...version }), 0);
+      },
+    } as unknown as SwLike;
+  };
   const cachesWith = (...names: string[]) => ({ keys: () => Promise.resolve(names) });
 
   it('is false when this browser already holds that build cache', async () => {
@@ -639,7 +654,16 @@ describe('isUnseenBuild', () => {
   });
 
   it('says nothing when the waiting worker does not answer', async () => {
-    await expect(isUnseenBuild(answering(null), cachesWith('document-editor-runtime-v1'))).resolves.toBe(false);
+    // Fake timers because giving up now takes seconds, not one: the wait is
+    // deliberate (see 'keeps asking a worker that was too busy...').
+    vi.useFakeTimers();
+    try {
+      const verdict = isUnseenBuild(answering(null), cachesWith('document-editor-runtime-v1'));
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS * ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS + 100);
+      await expect(verdict).resolves.toBe(false);
+    } finally {
+      vi.useRealTimers();
+    }
   });
 
   it('says nothing when there is no runtime cache to compare against', async () => {
@@ -647,6 +671,51 @@ describe('isUnseenBuild', () => {
       false,
     );
   });
+
+  /**
+   * The silence this reads as an answer has to be real silence.
+   *
+   * A worker is at its busiest in the moment this question gets asked: just
+   * activated, terminating the worker it replaced, with the page refetching a
+   * vendor tree it has not cached yet. One one-second question caught it
+   * mid-work, read "no answer" as "nothing new", and the caller skipped the
+   * reload that repairs a page the swap tore in half -- the tab stayed blank.
+   * That is a real CI failure, on the silent-heal case, whose own
+   * three-second question to the same worker was answered.
+   */
+  it('keeps asking a worker that was too busy to answer the first time', async () => {
+    vi.useFakeTimers();
+    try {
+      const busy = ignoringFirstAsks(1, { vendorVersion: 'v2' });
+      const verdict = isUnseenBuild(busy, cachesWith('document-editor-runtime-v1'));
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS * ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS + 100);
+      await expect(verdict).resolves.toBe(true);
+    } finally {
+      vi.useRealTimers();
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('gives up in the end, so silence still decides', async () => {
+    vi.useFakeTimers();
+    try {
+      const mute = ignoringFirstAsks(ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS, { vendorVersion: 'v2' });
+      const verdict = isUnseenBuild(mute, cachesWith('document-editor-runtime-v1'));
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS * ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS + 100);
+      await expect(verdict).resolves.toBe(false);
+    } finally {
+      vi.useRealTimers();
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('waits seconds rather than one, which is the whole point', () => {
+    expect(ASK_VERSION_ATTEMPTS * ASK_VERSION_TIMEOUT_MS).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(3000);
+  });
+
+  it('costs nothing when the worker answers: no retry, no wait', async () => {
+    await expect(askVersionPatiently(answering({ vendorVersion: 'v9' }))).resolves.toEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({ vendorVersion: 'v9' }),
+    );
+  });
 });
 
 /**