### What happened

Idle-lock succeeded (`secure=true`). Five seconds later a local plugin under `~/.config/omarchy/plugins/` was saved (a background agent was still writing files after the human had gone idle). The shell hot-reloaded, tore down `omarchy.lock`, and Quickshell aborted:

```
FATAL: Tried to show lockscreen surfaces without active lock
```

Signal: SIGABRT. PID 126247, `quickshell -n -p /usr/share/omarchy/shell`.

The compositor lock **held**. This is not a lock bypass. Hyprland's failsafe kept the session locked; a replacement shell came up and PAM unlock succeeded. The lock *UI* died, and for a few seconds there was no locker client attached to the existing session lock.

### Why this is lock-safety, not a vulnerability

- No privilege escalation. The writer already had the user's uid (agent in the same session).
- No observed unlock without the password.
- ext-session-lock behaved as documented: destroying the lock client without `locked=false` leaves the compositor locked.

The gap is that **idle lock does not freeze user-session agents**, and **plugin hot-reload does not treat a live locker as sacred**. `omarchy-restart-shell` already refuses to kill a live lock client for this reason. `reloadPlugins()` does not.

### Timeline (journal + coredump, 2026-08-31 CEST)

| Time | Event |
|------|--------|
| 20:50:18 | idle `lock-timeout`; `lock-requested` |
| 20:50:19 | `secure=true` |
| 20:50:23 | many `Local plugin changed, reloading: …` lines (file writes into an enabled local plugin) |
| 20:50:24 | new lock service: `lock-stranded: recovering` → `lock-requested` → `lock-pending: screen-stabilizing`. Never logged `secure=true` again |
| 20:53:28 | `There are no outputs - creating placeholder screen` |
| 20:53:29 | `Got removal for monitor "FALLBACK" which was not previously tracked` |
| 20:53:45 | `FATAL: Tried to show lockscreen surfaces without active lock` → SIGABRT |
| 20:53:46 | replacement instance started |
| 20:53:54 | password PAM succeeded |

`coredumpctl` recorded one dump this boot. Not OOM.

### Mechanism

`shell.qml` `reloadPlugins()` always calls `unloadPluginServices()`, which `destroy()`s every service including `omarchy.lock`:

```qml
function unloadPluginServices() {
  for (var existingId in _services) {
    var inst = _services[existingId]
    if (inst && typeof inst.destroy === "function") inst.destroy()
  }
  _services = ({})
}
```

The lock manifest sets `keepLoaded: true`, but that flag is only consulted for panel Loaders, not services.

Destroying `WlSessionLock` while Hyprland still holds `ext-session-lock` is the stranded-lock case `Service.qml` and `omarchy-restart-shell` already describe. Recovery does `sessionLock.locked = true`. In Quickshell 0.3.1, `WlSessionLock::realizeLockTarget` still does:

```cpp
if (!this->manager->lock()) this->lockTarget = false;
this->updateSurfaces(true, old);  // qFatal if manager is not locked
```

Stack (QML timer → property write → `qFatal` → `abort()`), matching `requestSessionLock()` writing `sessionLock.locked`.

### Expected

A live session lock client must survive plugin hot-reload, the same way `omarchy-restart-shell` refuses to restart while `.secure or .requested` is true.

### Steps to reproduce

1. Lock the session (idle timeout or `omarchy system lock`) and wait until the lock is `secure`.
2. Save/touch a file in an enabled plugin under `~/.config/omarchy/plugins/` (or let a background agent do so).
3. Watch the journal: `Local plugin changed, reloading` then `lock-stranded: recovering`.
4. Quickshell aborts with `Tried to show lockscreen surfaces without active lock`.

Outputs disappearing (DPMS / placeholder / Hyprland `FALLBACK`) after the stranded recovery is what this machine did next; the necessary condition is tearing down the lock client while the compositor lock is still held.

### System

- Omarchy 4.0.1-1 (channel stable; `/usr/share/omarchy/version` still says 4.0.0.alpha)
- Quickshell 0.3.1-1
- Hyprland 0.56.2-1
- Qt 6.11.2
- Kernel `6.19.8-arch1-3-surface`
- Surface Laptop Studio 2, Intel i7-13800H + NVIDIA RTX 4060 Max-Q (i915 + nvidia 610.57.04)

Diagnostics: `omarchy-debug --no-sudo --print` wrote `/tmp/omarchy-debug.log` on this machine.

Not a duplicate of #8547 (SIGSEGV in the workspaces Repeater) or #9418 (password-field focus race).

Filed by Grok 4.6 via Grok Build.