diff --git a/src/commands.py b/src/commands.py
index 44fc5f06..6c4c4b55 100644
--- a/src/commands.py
+++ b/src/commands.py
@@ -241,6 +241,37 @@ def hide_all_panels(app: "App") -> None:
    app.show_windows[name] = False
 
 
+@registry.register
+def reset_layout(app: "App") -> None:
+ """Reset Layout — Restore the default window layout and clear the stale dock-state cache.
+
+ Useful when a previously-saved manualslop_layout.ini references
+ window names that no longer exist (e.g. after a refactor renames
+ windows) and the dock space appears empty / non-recoverable via
+ the Windows menu. Sets every show_windows entry to True and
+ deletes manualslop_layout.ini so hello_imgui regenerates a fresh
+ dock layout on the next frame (and the next process shutdown saves
+ the new layout in place of the stale one). The user will need to
+ restart sloppy.py for the dock layout to fully take effect; the
+ show_windows toggles take effect immediately.
+ """
+ if hasattr(app, "show_windows") and isinstance(app.show_windows, dict):
+  for name in app.show_windows.keys():
+   app.show_windows[name] = True
+ try:
+  import os
+  layout_paths = [
+   "manualslop_layout.ini",
+   os.path.join("tests", "artifacts", "live_gui_workspace", "manualslop_layout.ini"),
+  ]
+  for p in layout_paths:
+   if os.path.exists(p):
+    os.remove(p)
+    if hasattr(app, "ai_status"): app.ai_status = f"layout reset: removed {p}"
+ except Exception as e:
+  if hasattr(app, "ai_status"): app.ai_status = f"layout reset partial: {e}"
+
+
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Layout — Workspace Profiles
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/src/models.py b/src/models.py
index b64570c3..05e2f181 100644
--- a/src/models.py
+++ b/src/models.py
@@ -145,7 +145,14 @@ DEFAULT_TOOL_CATEGORIES: Dict[str, List[str]] = {
  "Beads": ["bd_create", "bd_update", "bd_list", "bd_ready"],
 }
 
-CONFIG_PATH = get_config_path()
+# CONFIG_PATH was a module-level constant. REMOVED: it cached the
+# repo-root config.toml at import time, so any test calling
+# save_config() or load_config() after import wrote/read the
+# user's actual config — corrupting the user's settings every test
+# run. The path is now re-resolved on every call, so the SLOP_CONFIG
+# env var (or a set_config_path() helper from test fixtures) can
+# redirect reads/writes to a temp_workspace without reimporting.
+# See tests/conftest.py:reset_paths for the test-side mechanism.
 
 #region: Config Utilities
 
@@ -160,7 +167,7 @@ def load_config() -> dict[str, Any]:
  """
   [C: src/multi_agent_conductor.py:ConductorEngine.__init__]
  """
- with open(CONFIG_PATH, "rb") as f:
+ with open(get_config_path(), "rb") as f:
   return tomllib.load(f)
 
 def save_config(config: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
@@ -172,11 +179,14 @@ def save_config(config: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
  config = _clean_nones(config)
  sys.stderr.write(f"[DEBUG] Saving config. Theme: {config.get('theme')}\n")
  sys.stderr.flush()
- with open(CONFIG_PATH, "wb") as f:
+ with open(get_config_path(), "wb") as f:
   tomli_w.dump(config, f)
 
 #region: History Utilities
 
+
+#region: History Utilities
+
 def parse_history_entries(history_strings: list[str], roles: list[str]) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
  import re
  from src import thinking_parser
diff --git a/tests/test_mma_step_mode_sim.py b/tests/test_mma_step_mode_sim.py
index e6f5617d..a7bc0798 100644
--- a/tests/test_mma_step_mode_sim.py
+++ b/tests/test_mma_step_mode_sim.py
@@ -21,7 +21,10 @@ def _poll_mma_status(client: api_hook_client.ApiHookClient, timeout: int, condit
 
 @pytest.mark.integration
 @pytest.mark.timeout(300)
-@pytest.mark.skip(reason="Pre-existing test: integration test that requires a real gemini_cli provider to reach 'Awaiting Approval' state. Skipped in the default suite; run live_gui tests against a working provider to exercise this path. Tracked as pre-existing.")
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+ not os.environ.get("RUN_MMA_INTEGRATION"),
+ reason="Integration test that requires a working gemini_cli provider AND the live MMA pipeline to reach 'Awaiting Approval' state. The current mock CLI path in this test does not kick the pipeline out of 'idle' (verified: mma=idle for 60s after btn_mma_plan_epic click). Set RUN_MMA_INTEGRATION=1 to run this test against a real provider.",
+)
 def test_mma_step_mode_approval_flow(live_gui) -> None:
  """