diff --git a/bin/fm-test-run.sh b/bin/fm-test-run.sh
index 5d958eab35..65b88545ab 100755
--- a/bin/fm-test-run.sh
+++ b/bin/fm-test-run.sh
@@ -131,7 +131,8 @@ family_for_basename() {
     fm-test-run.test.sh|fm-test-isolation-proof.test.sh)
       printf '%s\n' pure-contract-unit
       ;;
-    fm-daemon.test.sh|fm-guard-stale-banner.test.sh|fm-pi-watch-extension.test.sh|\
+    fm-daemon.test.sh|fm-guard-stale-banner.test.sh|fm-hash-pane.test.sh|\
+    fm-pi-watch-extension.test.sh|\
     fm-supervision-events.test.sh|fm-turnend-guard.test.sh|fm-wake-daemon-lifecycle-e2e.test.sh|\
     fm-wake-queue.test.sh|fm-watch-checkpoint.test.sh|fm-watch-triage.test.sh|\
     fm-watcher-lock.test.sh)
diff --git a/bin/fm-watch.sh b/bin/fm-watch.sh
index 766023008c..9947e261b5 100755
--- a/bin/fm-watch.sh
+++ b/bin/fm-watch.sh
@@ -174,14 +174,28 @@ _event_cap_fails=0
 afk_present() { [ -e "$STATE/.afk" ]; }
 
 hash_pane() {
+  local sbin_md5="${FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE:-/sbin/md5}"
+  # Only used for change-detection between polls, so any tool that reliably
+  # returns the checksum in its first whitespace-delimited field is
+  # interchangeable here. The chain degrades through progressively more
+  # universal tools rather than hard-erroring when a watcher's PATH is
+  # missing md5/md5sum (observed on a secondmate whose runtime PATH omitted
+  # both): openssl and cksum are near-universal fallbacks, and wc -c is a
+  # last-resort that cannot itself be absent.
   if command -v md5 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     md5 -q
-  elif [ -x /sbin/md5 ]; then
-    /sbin/md5 -q
+  elif [ -x "$sbin_md5" ]; then
+    "$sbin_md5" -q
   elif command -v md5sum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     md5sum | cut -d' ' -f1
-  else
+  elif command -v openssl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    openssl dgst -md5 -r | cut -d' ' -f1
+  elif command -v shasum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     shasum | cut -d' ' -f1
+  elif command -v cksum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    printf '%x\n' "$(cksum | cut -d' ' -f1)"
+  else
+    wc -c | tr -d ' '
   fi
 }
 
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index a5add630d8..4d10f7d7a2 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -439,6 +439,7 @@ FM_BOOTSTRAP_DETECT_ONLY=0   # internal/read-only session-start mode: skip boots
 FM_GUARD_READ_ONLY=0    # internal/read-only guard mode: keep alarms but suppress drain, supervision repair, and checkout repair commands
 FM_GUARD_CONTINUE_LINE='This is a supervision warning only; the guarded operation WILL still run.'   # banner continuation line; fm-send.sh overrides it to name the requested message specifically
 FM_POLL=15              # seconds between watcher poll cycles
+FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE=/sbin/md5   # override for hash_pane()'s hardcoded /sbin/md5 fallback tier, mainly for tests; hash_pane also falls back through md5sum, openssl, shasum, and cksum before a wc -c last resort that cannot itself be absent, so a watcher's poll-to-poll pane hashing never hard-errors when PATH lacks md5/md5sum
 FM_HEARTBEAT=600        # base seconds between heartbeat scans; no-change heartbeats are absorbed while idle
 FM_HEARTBEAT_MAX=7200   # heartbeat backoff cap
 FM_CHECK_INTERVAL=300   # seconds between slow checks (authenticated merge polls, custom checks, or X-mode dispatch)
diff --git a/tests/fm-hash-pane.test.sh b/tests/fm-hash-pane.test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..a12aedcdc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fm-hash-pane.test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# tests/fm-hash-pane.test.sh - bin/fm-watch.sh's hash_pane() tool-resolution
+# fallback chain. hash_pane() only feeds poll-to-poll change detection, so any
+# tool that yields a stable token is interchangeable; these tests confirm the
+# fallback chain never hard-errors when a watcher's PATH is missing md5 and
+# md5sum (observed on a secondmate whose runtime PATH omitted both, causing
+# repeated watcher FAILED cycles that needed manual restarts).
+#
+# Each case builds a minimal PATH from symlinks to individually resolved
+# binaries rather than trimming directories out of the ambient PATH: on at
+# least one dev machine md5, md5sum, and openssl are all symlinked from the
+# same homebrew bin directory, so removing "the directory containing md5"
+# would silently remove openssl too and defeat the tier being tested.
+set -u
+
+# shellcheck source=tests/lib.sh
+. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/lib.sh"
+
+TMP_ROOT=$(fm_test_tmproot fm-hash-pane)
+
+# Resolve real tool paths once, before any test narrows PATH.
+REAL_CUT=$(command -v cut) || fail "cut not found on the test host"
+REAL_TR=$(command -v tr) || fail "tr not found on the test host"
+REAL_WC=$(command -v wc) || fail "wc not found on the test host"
+REAL_SBIN_MD5=/sbin/md5
+[ -x "$REAL_SBIN_MD5" ] || REAL_SBIN_MD5=$(command -v md5 || true)
+REAL_OPENSSL=$(command -v openssl || true)
+REAL_SHASUM=$(command -v shasum || true)
+
+# make_fakebin <dir> [tool=path ...]: symlink each named tool from its
+# resolved absolute path into <dir>, plus cut/tr/wc always (hash_pane's
+# fallback tiers pipe through them). Echoes <dir>.
+make_fakebin() {
+  local dir=$1 spec tool src
+  shift
+  mkdir -p "$dir"
+  ln -sf "$REAL_CUT" "$dir/cut"
+  ln -sf "$REAL_TR" "$dir/tr"
+  ln -sf "$REAL_WC" "$dir/wc"
+  for spec in "$@"; do
+    tool=${spec%%=*}
+    src=${spec#*=}
+    [ -n "$src" ] || fail "make_fakebin: no resolved path for $tool on this host"
+    ln -sf "$src" "$dir/$tool"
+  done
+  printf '%s\n' "$dir"
+}
+
+# source_watch <home>: source fm-watch.sh's function definitions into the
+# current shell without running its main-entry watcher loop (fm-watch.sh
+# returns early when sourced; see its "Main entry" guard).
+source_watch() {
+  local home=$1
+  FM_HOME="$home"
+  FM_STATE_OVERRIDE="$home/state"
+  export FM_HOME FM_STATE_OVERRIDE
+  # shellcheck source=/dev/null
+  . "$ROOT/bin/fm-watch.sh"
+}
+
+test_hash_pane_stable_and_distinct_via_sbin_md5() (
+  local home fakebin out status
+  home="$TMP_ROOT/sbin-md5"
+  mkdir -p "$home"
+  source_watch "$home"
+  [ -n "$REAL_SBIN_MD5" ] || fail "no BSD-compatible md5 -q binary found on this host"
+  fakebin=$(make_fakebin "$home/fakebin")
+  status=0
+  out=$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$REAL_SBIN_MD5" hash_pane <<<"pane text a") || status=$?
+  expect_code 0 "$status" "hash_pane exit via the sbin md5 tier"
+  [ -n "$out" ] || fail "hash_pane produced empty output via the sbin md5 tier"
+  [ "$out" = "$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$REAL_SBIN_MD5" hash_pane <<<"pane text a")" ] \
+    || fail "hash_pane is not stable for identical input via the sbin md5 tier"
+  [ "$out" != "$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$REAL_SBIN_MD5" hash_pane <<<"pane text b")" ] \
+    || fail "hash_pane produced the same hash for different input via the sbin md5 tier"
+  pass "hash_pane returns a stable, input-sensitive hash via the sbin md5 tier"
+)
+
+test_hash_pane_falls_back_to_openssl_without_md5_or_md5sum() (
+  local home fakebin out expected status
+  home="$TMP_ROOT/no-md5-no-md5sum"
+  mkdir -p "$home"
+  source_watch "$home"
+  [ -n "$REAL_OPENSSL" ] || fail "openssl not available to exercise the fallback tier"
+  fakebin=$(make_fakebin "$home/fakebin" "openssl=$REAL_OPENSSL")
+  status=0
+  out=$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$home/no-such-md5" hash_pane <<<"pane text a") || status=$?
+  expect_code 0 "$status" "hash_pane exit with md5/md5sum absent from PATH"
+  [ -n "$out" ] || fail "hash_pane produced empty output with md5/md5sum absent from PATH"
+  expected=$(printf 'pane text a\n' | "$REAL_OPENSSL" dgst -md5 -r | "$REAL_CUT" -d' ' -f1)
+  [ "$out" = "$expected" ] \
+    || fail "hash_pane did not use the openssl fallback tier when md5/md5sum are unresolvable (got '$out', wanted '$expected')"
+  pass "hash_pane falls back to openssl and exits cleanly when md5 and md5sum are absent from PATH"
+)
+
+test_hash_pane_falls_back_past_openssl_to_shasum() (
+  local home fakebin out expected status
+  home="$TMP_ROOT/no-md5-no-openssl"
+  mkdir -p "$home"
+  source_watch "$home"
+  [ -n "$REAL_SHASUM" ] || fail "shasum not available to exercise the fallback tier"
+  fakebin=$(make_fakebin "$home/fakebin" "shasum=$REAL_SHASUM")
+  status=0
+  out=$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$home/no-such-md5" hash_pane <<<"pane text a") || status=$?
+  expect_code 0 "$status" "hash_pane exit with md5/md5sum/openssl absent from PATH"
+  [ -n "$out" ] || fail "hash_pane produced empty output with md5/md5sum/openssl absent from PATH"
+  expected=$(printf 'pane text a\n' | "$REAL_SHASUM" | "$REAL_CUT" -d' ' -f1)
+  [ "$out" = "$expected" ] \
+    || fail "hash_pane did not use the shasum fallback tier past openssl (got '$out', wanted '$expected')"
+  pass "hash_pane falls back past openssl to shasum and still exits cleanly"
+)
+
+test_hash_pane_never_hard_errors_with_no_hash_tool_at_all() (
+  local home fakebin out status
+  home="$TMP_ROOT/no-hash-tool"
+  mkdir -p "$home"
+  source_watch "$home"
+  fakebin=$(make_fakebin "$home/fakebin")
+  status=0
+  out=$(PATH=$fakebin FM_MD5_SBIN_OVERRIDE="$home/no-such-md5" hash_pane <<<"pane text a") || status=$?
+  expect_code 0 "$status" "hash_pane exit with no md5/md5sum/openssl/shasum/cksum on PATH"
+  [ -n "$out" ] || fail "hash_pane produced empty output with no hash tool at all on PATH"
+  pass "hash_pane never hard-errors even with no hashing tool at all on PATH"
+)
+
+test_hash_pane_stable_and_distinct_via_sbin_md5
+test_hash_pane_falls_back_to_openssl_without_md5_or_md5sum
+test_hash_pane_falls_back_past_openssl_to_shasum
+test_hash_pane_never_hard_errors_with_no_hash_tool_at_all