diff --git a/src/app_controller.py b/src/app_controller.py
index 6d6159ff..9d5b3218 100644
--- a/src/app_controller.py
+++ b/src/app_controller.py
@@ -790,7 +790,8 @@ class AppController:
   self._api_event_queue_lock:      threading.Lock = threading.Lock()
   self._rag_engine_lock:           threading.Lock = threading.Lock()
   self._project_switch_lock:       threading.Lock = threading.Lock()
-
+  self._project_switch_in_progress: bool = False
+  self._project_switch_pending_path:  Optional[str] = None
   # --- Shared background pool + proactive warmup (startup_speedup_20260606) ---
   self._io_pool = make_io_pool()
   _install_sigint_exit_handler(self)
@@ -2841,10 +2842,9 @@ class AppController:
  def is_project_stale(self) -> bool:
   """True when a project switch is queued or running; UI should tint
   to signal the controller state lags the user's last click."""
-  with self._project_switch_lock:
-   if self._project_switch_in_progress:
-    return True
-   pending = self._project_switch_pending_path
+  if getattr(self, "_project_switch_in_progress", False):
+   return True
+  pending = getattr(self, "_project_switch_pending_path", None)
   if pending and pending != self.active_project_path:
    return True
   return False
diff --git a/tests/test_gui_events_v2.py b/tests/test_gui_events_v2.py
index bc59510b..5503bdf0 100644
--- a/tests/test_gui_events_v2.py
+++ b/tests/test_gui_events_v2.py
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ def mock_gui() -> App:
   gui = App()
   return gui
 
-@pytest.mark.skip(reason="Pre-existing test bug: patches 'threading.Thread' but production code uses self._io_pool.submit_io() (see src/app_controller.py:_handle_generate_send). Test needs to patch the io_pool, not threading.Thread. Tracked as pre-existing.")
 def test_handle_generate_send_pushes_event(mock_gui: App) -> None:
  mock_gui.controller._do_generate = MagicMock(return_value=(
    "full_md", "path", [], "stable_md", "disc_text"
@@ -33,14 +32,16 @@ def test_handle_generate_send_pushes_event(mock_gui: App) -> None:
  mock_gui.controller.event_queue.put = MagicMock()
  
  # No need to mock asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe now, it's a standard thread
- with patch('threading.Thread') as mock_thread:
+ # Production code: self._io_pool.submit_io(worker) (see
+ # src/app_controller.py:_handle_generate_send). Patch submit_io
+ # to capture the worker function instead of the io_pool's
+ # background thread, so we can run the worker synchronously.
+ with patch.object(mock_gui.controller, 'submit_io') as mock_submit:
+  # Verify a job was submitted to the io_pool
   mock_gui.controller._handle_generate_send()
-  # Verify thread was started
-  assert mock_thread.called
-  # To test the worker logic inside, we'd need to invoke the target function
-  # But the controller logic itself now just starts a thread.
-  # Let's extract the worker and run it.
-  target_worker = mock_thread.call_args[1]['target']
+  mock_gui.controller._handle_generate_send()
+  print(f"[DBG] mock_submit.called: {mock_submit.called}", file=__import__('sys').stderr)
+  target_worker = mock_submit.call_args[0][0]
   target_worker()
   
   # Verify the call to event_queue.put occurred.