diff --git a/tests/catalog-positioning-regression.test.mjs b/tests/catalog-positioning-regression.test.mjs
index cd02b6f..e6266a6 100644
--- a/tests/catalog-positioning-regression.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/catalog-positioning-regression.test.mjs
@@ -51,7 +51,12 @@ test('privacy-policy recovery is constrained to 17 observed stale public routes'
   assert.match(script,/--dry-run/);
   assert.match(script,/--check-live/);
   assert.match(script,/--apply/);
-  assert.match(script,/rsync -avR --itemize-changes/);
+  // Production runner overrides flags for its low-privilege account. Require the
+  // safe default and actual rsync invocation instead of a hardcoded literal.
+  assert.ok(script.includes('rsync_flags="${APP_SITE_RSYNC_FLAGS:--avR --itemize-changes}"'));
+  assert.ok(script.includes('rsync $rsync_flags '));
+  assert.ok(script.includes('flags=(--dry-run)'));
+  assert.ok(script.includes('[[ "$mode" == \'--apply\' ]] && flags=()'));
   assert.match(script,/python3 - "\$file" "\$tmp"/);
   assert.doesNotMatch(script,/rsync[^\n]*--delete/);
   assert.doesNotMatch(script,/rsync[^\n]*-e\s+sh/);
diff --git a/tests/search-landing-growth.test.mjs b/tests/search-landing-growth.test.mjs
index 165c63d..6597dc3 100644
--- a/tests/search-landing-growth.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/search-landing-growth.test.mjs
@@ -58,7 +58,11 @@ test('public catalog icons are crawlable and explicit VPS release is non-destruc
  assert.match(pub,/support\/snaplingo\/index\.html/);
  assert.match(pub,/support\/face-reaction-battle\/index\.html/);
  assert.match(pub,/robots\.txt/);
- assert.match(pub,/rsync -avR --itemize-changes/);
+ assert.ok(pub.includes('rsync_flags="${APP_SITE_RSYNC_FLAGS:--avR --itemize-changes}"'));
+ assert.ok(pub.includes('rsync $rsync_flags '));
+ assert.ok(pub.includes('--dry-run) flags=(--dry-run)'));
+ assert.ok(pub.includes('--apply) flags=()'));
+ assert.doesNotMatch(pub,/^rsync[^\n]*--delete/m);
  const live=read('scripts/check_app_discovery_live.sh');
  assert.match(live,/data-position="hero"/);
  assert.match(live,/Allow: \/icons\/apps\//);