diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7ddbb06..7fc6c50 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ arbiter serve [--port 8080]                # API + dashboard
 
 ```bash
 pip install ".[test]"
-PYTHONPATH=src python -m pytest tests/ -v    # 78 tests, <7 seconds
+PYTHONPATH=src python -m pytest tests/ -v
 ```
 
 ## Quality Gate
diff --git a/src/arbiter/__init__.py b/src/arbiter/__init__.py
index 52d057b..8acecfd 100644
--- a/src/arbiter/__init__.py
+++ b/src/arbiter/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Arbiter — Agent-aware code quality system."""
 
-__version__ = "0.1.0"
+__version__ = "0.6.0"
diff --git a/src/arbiter/__main__.py b/src/arbiter/__main__.py
index 7c78657..f731570 100644
--- a/src/arbiter/__main__.py
+++ b/src/arbiter/__main__.py
@@ -1427,7 +1427,7 @@ def _repo_dict(name: str, score: RepoScore, loc: int, density: float) -> dict:
         else:
             col_w = max(len(name_a), len(name_b), 15)
             print("\nArbiter Compare")
-            print("\u2550" * 50)
+            print("=" * 50)
             print(f"{'':24s}{name_a:<{col_w}s}  {name_b}")
 
             def _score_str(s: RepoScore) -> str:
diff --git a/src/arbiter/api.py b/src/arbiter/api.py
index daeab15..c490148 100644
--- a/src/arbiter/api.py
+++ b/src/arbiter/api.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 from typing import Any
 from urllib.parse import parse_qs, urlparse
 
+from arbiter import __version__
 from arbiter.store import Store
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@ def _handle_commit_detail(self, params: dict, commit_hash: str) -> None:
             self._send_json({"error": "Commit not found"}, status=404)
 
     def _handle_health(self, params: dict) -> None:
-        self._send_json({"status": "ok", "version": "0.2.0"})
+        self._send_json({"status": "ok", "version": __version__})
 
     def _serve_dashboard(self) -> None:
         index = _DASHBOARD_DIR / "index.html"
diff --git a/src/arbiter/git_historian.py b/src/arbiter/git_historian.py
index ae3cca4..980ce56 100644
--- a/src/arbiter/git_historian.py
+++ b/src/arbiter/git_historian.py
@@ -30,6 +30,21 @@ class CommitInfo:
 # Git log format: hash|author_name|author_email|timestamp|subject
 _LOG_FORMAT = "%H|%an|%ae|%aI|%s"
 _LOG_SEP = "|"
+_FALLBACK_EXCLUDED_DIRS = {
+    ".git",
+    ".hg",
+    ".svn",
+    "__pycache__",
+    ".mypy_cache",
+    ".pytest_cache",
+    ".ruff_cache",
+    ".tox",
+    ".venv",
+    "venv",
+    "build",
+    "dist",
+    "node_modules",
+}
 
 
 def walk_commits(
@@ -178,15 +193,37 @@ def get_diff_files(repo_path: str | Path, base_branch: str = "main") -> list[str
 def get_python_files(repo_path: str | Path) -> list[Path]:
     """List all tracked Python files in the repo."""
     repo = Path(repo_path)
-    result = subprocess.run(
-        ["git", "-C", str(repo), "ls-files", "*.py"],
-        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
-    )
+    try:
+        result = subprocess.run(
+            ["git", "-C", str(repo), "ls-files", "*.py"],
+            capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
+        )
+    except (FileNotFoundError, OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError):
+        return _fallback_python_files(repo)
     if result.returncode != 0:
-        return []
+        return _fallback_python_files(repo)
     return [repo / f for f in result.stdout.strip().split("\n") if f]
 
 
+def _fallback_python_files(repo: Path) -> list[Path]:
+    """Find Python files without git, used when git is unavailable."""
+    if not repo.exists():
+        return []
+    if repo.is_file():
+        return [repo] if repo.suffix == ".py" else []
+
+    files: list[Path] = []
+    for path in repo.rglob("*.py"):
+        try:
+            rel_parts = path.relative_to(repo).parts
+        except ValueError:
+            continue
+        if any(part in _FALLBACK_EXCLUDED_DIRS for part in rel_parts[:-1]):
+            continue
+        files.append(path)
+    return sorted(files)
+
+
 def count_loc(repo_path: str | Path) -> int:
     """Count total lines of Python code in the repo."""
     total = 0
diff --git a/tests/test_api.py b/tests/test_api.py
index e2c4baa..528e9cb 100644
--- a/tests/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/test_api.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import pytest
+from arbiter import __version__
 from arbiter.api import ArbiterHandler
 from arbiter.scoring import RepoScore
 from arbiter.store import Store
@@ -63,6 +64,7 @@ def test_health(self, server_url):
         status, data = _get(server_url, "/api/health")
         assert status == 200
         assert data["status"] == "ok"
+        assert data["version"] == __version__
 
     def test_score(self, server_url):
         status, data = _get(server_url, "/api/score")
diff --git a/tests/test_release_metadata.py b/tests/test_release_metadata.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..001236b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_release_metadata.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+"""Release metadata checks for the public package surface."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from pathlib import Path
+import tomllib
+
+import arbiter
+
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+
+
+def test_runtime_version_matches_pyproject() -> None:
+    metadata = tomllib.loads((ROOT / "pyproject.toml").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+
+    assert arbiter.__version__ == metadata["project"]["version"]
+
+
+def test_readme_uses_distribution_name() -> None:
+    readme = (ROOT / "README.md").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+
+    assert "pypi/v/arbiter-score" in readme
+    assert "https://pypi.org/project/arbiter-score/" in readme
+    assert "pip install arbiter-score" in readme
+    assert "pip install arbiter                  " not in readme
+    assert "pip install \"arbiter[analyzers]\"" not in readme