diff --git a/tests/features/step_definitions/gitops-update.steps.js b/tests/features/step_definitions/gitops-update.steps.js
index f466833..e690433 100644
--- a/tests/features/step_definitions/gitops-update.steps.js
+++ b/tests/features/step_definitions/gitops-update.steps.js
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
-const { execSync } = require('child_process');
-const { Before, When, Then } = require('@cucumber/cucumber');
+const { spawnSync, execSync } = require('child_process');
+const { Before, After, Given, When, Then } = require('@cucumber/cucumber');
 const path = require('path');
 
 const PROJECT_ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', '..', '..');
 const MOCK_SCRIPT = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'tests', 'helpers', 'mock-api.sh');
 const GITOPS_SCRIPT = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'scripts', 'gitops-update.sh');
 const MOCK_HELPERS = path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'tests', 'helpers');
+const REQ_FILE = '/tmp/gitops-mock-requests.log';
 
 const BASE_ENV = {
   INPUT_FILE: 'dev/Chart.yaml',
@@ -20,58 +21,75 @@ const BASE_ENV = {
 
 Before({ tags: '@mock' }, function () {
   process.env.PATH = `${MOCK_HELPERS}:${process.env.PATH}`;
+  try { execSync('rm -f /tmp/gitops-mock-requests.log', { stdio: 'ignore' }); } catch (_) {}
+  // Restart mock with known request file path
+  const result = spawnSync('bash', ['-c', `
+    source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}"
+    mock_stop 2>/dev/null
+    MOCK_REQUEST_FILE="${REQ_FILE}"
+    mock_start
+    sleep 0.5
+    curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 3 http://localhost:18080/api/v1/repos/health
+  `], {
+    cwd: PROJECT_ROOT, encoding: 'utf-8', stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe']
+  });
+  const code = result.stdout.trim();
+  if (!code.startsWith('2') && !code.startsWith('4')) {
+    throw new Error(`GitOps mock restart failed: ${result.stderr.substring(0,200)}`);
+  }
+});
+
+After({ tags: '@mock' }, function () {
+  spawnSync('bash', ['-c', `source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && mock_stop 2>/dev/null`], { stdio: 'ignore' });
+  try { execSync('rm -f /tmp/gitops-mock-requests.log', { stdio: 'ignore' }); } catch (_) {}
 });
 
 function bash(cmd) {
-  try {
-    const out = execSync(`bash -c '${cmd}'`, {
-      cwd: PROJECT_ROOT,
-      encoding: 'utf-8',
-      stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
-    });
-    return { status: 0, stdout: out, stderr: '' };
-  } catch (e) {
-    return { status: e.status, stdout: e.stdout || '', stderr: e.stderr || '' };
-  }
+  const result = spawnSync('bash', ['-c', cmd], {
+    cwd: PROJECT_ROOT,
+    encoding: 'utf-8',
+    stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
+  });
+  return { status: result.status, stdout: result.stdout || '', stderr: result.stderr || '' };
 }
 
 function getFirstBody() {
-  return bash(`source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && _get_request_file && mock_get_first_request_body`).stdout.trim();
+  return bash(`grep -A1 '^POST ' "${REQ_FILE}" 2>/dev/null | head -2 | tail -1 || echo ""`).stdout.trim();
 }
 
 function getFirstPath() {
-  return bash(`source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && _get_request_file && mock_get_first_request_path`).stdout.trim();
+  return bash(`grep '^POST ' "${REQ_FILE}" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | awk '{print $2}' || echo ""`).stdout.trim();
 }
 
 function getLastBody() {
-  return bash(`source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && _get_request_file && mock_get_request_body`).stdout.trim();
+  return bash(`grep -A1 '^POST ' "${REQ_FILE}" 2>/dev/null | grep -v '^POST ' | tail -1 || echo ""`).stdout.trim();
 }
 
 function getLastPath() {
-  return bash(`source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && _get_request_file && mock_get_request_path`).stdout.trim();
+  return bash(`grep '^POST ' "${REQ_FILE}" 2>/dev/null | tail -1 | awk '{print $2}' || echo ""`).stdout.trim();
 }
 
 function requestCount() {
-  const rf = bash(`source "${MOCK_SCRIPT}" && _get_request_file`).stdout.trim();
-  const count = bash(`grep -c '^POST ' "${rf}" 2>/dev/null || echo 0`).stdout.trim();
-  return parseInt(count, 10) || 0;
+  return parseInt(bash(`grep -c '^POST ' "${REQ_FILE}" 2>/dev/null || echo 0`).stdout.trim(), 10) || 0;
 }
 
 function runScript(envOverrides) {
   const env = { ...BASE_ENV, ...envOverrides };
-  const envStr = Object.entries(env)
-    .map(([k, v]) => {
-      const escaped = v.replace(/'/g, "'\\''");
-      return `${k}='${escaped}'`;
-    })
-    .join(' ');
-  return bash(`${envStr} bash "${GITOPS_SCRIPT}"`);
+  const scriptPath = `/tmp/gitops-run-${Date.now()}.sh`;
+  const exports = Object.entries(env)
+    .map(([k, v]) => `export ${k}="${v.replace(/"/g, '\\"')}"`)
+    .join('\n');
+  require('fs').writeFileSync(scriptPath, `${exports}\nexport PATH="${MOCK_HELPERS}:$PATH"\nset -euo pipefail\nbash "${GITOPS_SCRIPT}"\nsync\n`, 'utf8');
+  try {
+    return bash(`bash "${scriptPath}"`);
+  } finally {
+    require('fs').unlinkSync(scriptPath);
+  }
 }
 
 Given('insufficient environment variables are provided for the GitOps update', function () {
   this.missingVar = 'INPUT_FILE';
-  this.envOverrides = {};
-  this.envOverrides.INPUT_FILE = '';
+  this.envOverrides = { INPUT_FILE: '' };
 });
 
 Given('the GitOps repository clone will fail', function () {
@@ -110,11 +128,11 @@ Then('the caller commit shows a failure status', function () {
 });
 
 Then('the script exits with error', function () {
-  if (this.result.status === 0) throw new Error(`Expected non-zero exit, got 0. stderr: ${this.result.stderr}`);
+  if (this.result.status === 0) throw new Error(`Expected non-zero exit, got 0. stderr: ${this.result.stderr.substring(0,200)}`);
 });
 
 Then('the script exits successfully', function () {
-  if (this.result.status !== 0) throw new Error(`Expected exit 0, got ${this.result.status}: ${this.result.stderr}`);
+  if (this.result.status !== 0) throw new Error(`Expected exit 0, got ${this.result.status}: ${this.result.stderr.substring(0,200)}`);
 });
 
 Then('the caller commit shows a success status with a link to the GitOps commit', function () {
diff --git a/tests/helpers/git b/tests/helpers/git
index 3afe3ed..207c5a2 100755
--- a/tests/helpers/git
+++ b/tests/helpers/git
@@ -11,15 +11,8 @@ fi
 case "$1" in
   clone)
     TARGET_DIR="${@: -1}"
-    mkdir -p "$TARGET_DIR"
-    cd "$TARGET_DIR"
-    git init --initial-branch=main 2>/dev/null
-    git config user.email "mock@test.com"
-    git config user.name "Mock Test"
-    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$INPUT_FILE")"
-    echo 'version: 0.1.0' > "$INPUT_FILE"
-    git add -A 2>/dev/null
-    git commit -m "initial" 2>/dev/null
+    mkdir -p "${TARGET_DIR}/$(dirname "$INPUT_FILE")"
+    echo 'version: 0.1.0' > "${TARGET_DIR}/${INPUT_FILE}"
     echo "Cloning into '$TARGET_DIR'..."
     ;;
   add|commit|push|config|init)
diff --git a/tests/helpers/mock-api.sh b/tests/helpers/mock-api.sh
index e6ad4b5..826ccb1 100644
--- a/tests/helpers/mock-api.sh
+++ b/tests/helpers/mock-api.sh
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ mock_clear_sequence() {
 
 mock_start() {
   MOCK_RESPONSE_CODE="${MOCK_RESPONSE_CODE:-201}"
-  MOCK_REQUEST_FILE=$(mktemp)
+  MOCK_REQUEST_FILE="${MOCK_REQUEST_FILE:-$(mktemp)}"
   echo "$MOCK_REQUEST_FILE" > "$MOCK_STATE_FILE"
   MOCK_CONFIG_FILE=$(mktemp)