diff --git a/hermes_cli/main.py b/hermes_cli/main.py
index 2ccfe808d4f..ce8862e2aaa 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/main.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/main.py
@@ -10741,6 +10741,27 @@ def _resolve_update_branch(args) -> str:
     return (getattr(args, "branch", None) or "main").strip() or "main"
 
 
+def _widen_remote_branches(git_cmd: list) -> None:
+    """Let the checkout resolve branches other than the one it was cloned on.
+
+    Installer checkouts come from ``git clone --depth 1 --branch main``, which
+    implies ``--single-branch`` and pins ``remote.origin.fetch`` to main. Our
+    scoped ``git fetch origin <branch>`` then updates FETCH_HEAD but never
+    creates ``origin/<branch>``, so ``--branch <other>`` reports the branch as
+    missing from a remote that plainly has it.
+
+    Restoring the wildcard costs no bandwidth — every fetch we issue names its
+    branch, and git only walks the full refspec on a bare ``git fetch``.
+    Best-effort: a failure here just leaves the checkout as it was.
+    """
+    subprocess.run(
+        git_cmd + ["remote", "set-branches", "origin", "*"],
+        cwd=PROJECT_ROOT,
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True, encoding="utf-8", errors="replace",
+    )
+
+
 def _cmd_update_check(branch: str = "main", *, branch_explicit: bool = False):
     """Implement ``hermes update --check``: fetch and report without installing.
 
@@ -10797,6 +10818,7 @@ def _cmd_update_check(branch: str = "main", *, branch_explicit: bool = False):
         == "true"
     )
     depth_args = ["--depth", "1"] if is_shallow else []
+    _widen_remote_branches(git_cmd)
 
     if branch == "main":
         print("→ Fetching from upstream...")
@@ -12052,6 +12074,7 @@ def _cmd_update_impl(args, gateway_mode: bool):
         # minutes on a non-single-branch checkout. Fetch only what we update
         # against.
         branch = _resolve_update_branch(args)
+        _widen_remote_branches(git_cmd)
 
         print("→ Fetching updates...")
         fetch_result = subprocess.run(
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_update_autostash.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_update_autostash.py
index bd1638fcf65..96b46c15907 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_update_autostash.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_update_autostash.py
@@ -852,6 +852,24 @@ def test_cmd_update_fetch_is_scoped_to_target_branch(monkeypatch, tmp_path):
     assert ["git", "fetch", "origin"] not in recorded
 
 
+def test_cmd_update_widens_remote_branches_before_fetching(monkeypatch, tmp_path):
+    """Installer checkouts are single-branch, so a scoped `git fetch origin
+    <branch>` never creates origin/<branch> and `--branch <other>` fails the
+    checkout as missing. Widen the refspec first — free, since the fetch that
+    follows still names its branch."""
+    _setup_update_mocks(monkeypatch, tmp_path)
+    monkeypatch.setattr("shutil.which", lambda name: "/usr/bin/uv" if name == "uv" else None)
+
+    side_effect, recorded = _make_update_side_effect()
+    monkeypatch.setattr(hermes_main.subprocess, "run", side_effect)
+
+    hermes_main.cmd_update(SimpleNamespace())
+
+    widen = ["git", "remote", "set-branches", "origin", "*"]
+    assert widen in recorded
+    assert recorded.index(widen) < recorded.index(["git", "fetch", "origin", "main"])
+
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Fetch failure — friendly error messages
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------