diff --git a/mcpsrv/browse.go b/mcpsrv/browse.go
index 702f0eff1ef4dde6e7f19942976ca193355adf09..632c184fc0a1d4f8b245fbfaf5dc4c78d5ed567f 100644
--- a/mcpsrv/browse.go
+++ b/mcpsrv/browse.go
@@ -524,11 +524,10 @@ 	}
 
 	commits, next, err := sess.Log(ctx, ref, from, limit)
 	if err != nil {
-		// browse classifies an unparseable from-hash as a fault of its own rather
-		// than as a miss (it has no sentinel for it), so a hand-written cursor
-		// takes the protocol arm here. A cursor comes from a previous page of this
-		// very tool, and teaching this package to parse a dolt hash would be a
-		// second reading of a format browse/ owns.
+		// A garbage or unknown cursor is an ordinary miss: browse wraps it in
+		// ErrRefNotFound the same as any other ref it cannot resolve, and refMiss
+		// reads that sentinel here. A genuine failure of the store still takes the
+		// protocol arm below.
 		return out, refMiss(err, tool, noSuchRef(in.databaseRef, ref))
 	}
 
diff --git a/mcpsrv/browse_test.go b/mcpsrv/browse_test.go
index a1c952832c4745bb181b98af57c4a1cbdf6f90cd..cdceb5053dfa12af3f611b215d77e5c714e3051b 100644
--- a/mcpsrv/browse_test.go
+++ b/mcpsrv/browse_test.go
@@ -487,6 +487,24 @@ 	assert.Contains(t, text, "~alice/notes")
 	assert.NotContains(t, text, "no database")
 }
 
+// A bad get_commit_log cursor — one that does not even parse as a hash, or one
+// that does but names no commit here — is the same ordinary miss an
+// unresolvable ref gets, never the protocol arm: browse.Log wraps both in
+// ErrRefNotFound and refMiss reads that sentinel. The fake cannot actually
+// tell the two shapes apart (it has no notion of "parses as a hash"), so both
+// cases below exercise the same lookup miss in fakeSession.Log — which is
+// faithful to browse.Log's own contract, where both collapse onto one
+// sentinel too.
+func TestGetCommitLogWithABadCursorIsAMiss(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, from := range []string{"not-a-hash", "deadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeef"} {
+		t.Run(from, func(t *testing.T) {
+			res := call(t, anonSession(t), "get_commit_log", args("notes", "from", from))
+			require.True(t, res.IsError, "a bad cursor is a tool result, not a protocol error")
+			assert.NotContains(t, errorText(res), "no database", "this is not the masked not-found")
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 // --- the visibility matrix --------------------------------------------------
 
 // browseTarget is one fixture database with arguments valid for it, so that the
diff --git a/mcpsrv/mcpsrv_test.go b/mcpsrv/mcpsrv_test.go
index 4a9568cf0294edf08f406230ee2e086d0080ca86..d6fde66467675d4abdf8adfa728057b320b1a291 100644
--- a/mcpsrv/mcpsrv_test.go
+++ b/mcpsrv/mcpsrv_test.go
@@ -501,10 +501,12 @@ 	}
 
 	start := -1
 	if fromHash != "" {
-		// browse has no sentinel for a cursor that does not parse, and neither has
-		// this: a hand-written cursor is not a miss it classifies.
+		// browse.Log wraps ErrRefNotFound around a from-hash that does not parse
+		// and one that parses but names no commit alike; this fake has no notion
+		// of "parses" at all, so both collapse onto the same lookup miss here,
+		// which is the same sentinel either way.
 		if start = s.indexOf(fromHash); start < 0 {
-			return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("fake: invalid from hash %q", fromHash)
+			return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", browse.ErrRefNotFound, fromHash)
 		}
 	} else {
 		start = s.indexOf(s.resolve(refStr))