diff --git a/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json b/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
index f2ea3df..42201c4 100644
--- a/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
+++ b/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   },
   "metadata": {
     "description": "Pure-Rust Clean Architecture workflow. Six commands (start, fix, plan, ship, review, install-ci) for axum + sqlx + Dioxus 0.7+ + tokio. Always-latest deps, CI audit gate, anti-slop enforced.",
-    "version": "4.2.0"
+    "version": "4.2.1"
   },
   "plugins": [
     {
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 98b2739..d0ff123 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,16 @@
 
 All notable changes to the code-et plugin will be documented in this file.
 
+## [4.2.1] - 2026-05-12
+
+### Fixed — TaskCreated hook rejects valid metadata when harness stringifies it
+
+`scripts/task-created-tag-check.sh` extracted `user_story` / `layer` with `jq -r '.tool_input.metadata.user_story'`, which only works when `metadata` arrives as a JSON object. The Claude Code harness sometimes delivers `tool_input.metadata` as a JSON-encoded **string** instead — `jq` returns empty, and well-formed TaskCreate calls were rejected with "required metadata is missing or invalid" even though the caller passed `user_story: "US-1", layer: "domain"` correctly.
+
+**Fix.** Normalize before extracting: if `metadata` is a string, parse it via `fromjson?`; otherwise pass through. Both shapes route through the same downstream validation, so `US-<N>` / `AC-<N>.<M>` / `chore:<reason>` plus the Rust layer check work regardless of how the harness serialized the payload. Empty/invalid metadata still rejects.
+
+Verified against five payload shapes (object form, two string forms, empty, bogus tag).
+
 ## [4.2.0] - 2026-05-10
 
 ### Changed — per-task reviewer + review fix-pass moved to Opus 4.7
diff --git a/code-et-implementer/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/code-et-implementer/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index e0a9ede..885e78c 100644
--- a/code-et-implementer/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
+++ b/code-et-implementer/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "code",
-  "version": "4.2.0",
+  "version": "4.2.1",
   "description": "Pure-Rust Clean Architecture workflow. Six commands: start, fix, plan, ship, review, install-ci. Always-latest deps, CI audit gate, anti-slop enforced.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Kennet Kusk"
diff --git a/code-et-implementer/scripts/task-created-tag-check.sh b/code-et-implementer/scripts/task-created-tag-check.sh
index d984cc2..6403ecd 100755
--- a/code-et-implementer/scripts/task-created-tag-check.sh
+++ b/code-et-implementer/scripts/task-created-tag-check.sh
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@ payload="$(cat)"
 
 prd="$("$here/resolve-prd.sh" 2>/dev/null || true)"
 
-tag="$(printf '%s' "$payload" | jq -r '.tool_input.metadata.user_story // ""' 2>/dev/null || echo '')"
-layer="$(printf '%s' "$payload" | jq -r '.tool_input.metadata.layer // ""' 2>/dev/null || echo '')"
+# metadata may arrive as an object OR as a JSON-encoded string (harness quirk).
+md="$(printf '%s' "$payload" | jq -c '(.tool_input.metadata // {}) | if type=="string" then (fromjson? // {}) else . end' 2>/dev/null || echo '{}')"
+tag="$(printf '%s' "$md" | jq -r '.user_story // ""' 2>/dev/null || echo '')"
+layer="$(printf '%s' "$md" | jq -r '.layer // ""' 2>/dev/null || echo '')"
 
 if [ -z "$prd" ]; then
   # Bug lane — anything goes