diff --git a/tests/e2e/community-people-unknown-section.spec.js b/tests/e2e/community-people-unknown-section.spec.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..32eefa73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/e2e/community-people-unknown-section.spec.js
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+// End-to-end coverage for the roster fallback in CommunityPeople.
+//
+//   const people = peopleData.people[section] || [];
+//     src/components/CommunityPeople/index.js line 134
+//
+// The published site renders the component twice -- `section="tab"` from
+// docs/community/technical-advisory-board.md and `section="staff"` from
+// docs/community/index.md -- and both sections are guaranteed to exist and to
+// be non-empty: tests/community-people-data.test.mjs scans docs/ for
+// `<CommunityPeople section="..." />` and fails when the named section is
+// absent from data/community-people.json or carries no entries. So the right
+// operand is unreachable from published content by construction.
+//
+// A data overlay cannot reach it either. Deleting or emptying `people.tab`
+// would hand the component an array straight off the object; the `|| []` arm
+// only runs when the key is absent, and the overlay engine patches the data
+// the published pages name rather than inventing a section they do not.
+//
+// So the shape gets a page of its own, following the precedent set by
+// tests/e2e/fixtures/docs/cncf-project-card.mdx: docusaurus.config.js
+// registers a second docs instance over tests/e2e/fixtures/docs/** when
+// E2E_COVERAGE=1 and serves it under /e2e-coverage-fixtures/. The fixture is
+// compiled by the coverage build only -- `npm run build:production`, the
+// gating "End-to-end tests" job and the deployed site never see it -- which is
+// why this file is skipped outside the coverage run, where the route 404s.
+//
+// The grid is asserted from both ends. An empty grid on its own would also be
+// produced by a component that threw its markup away, or by a selector that
+// matched nothing, so the same selector is first shown to find a populated
+// grid on the published TAB page. The fixture page then has to produce the
+// container and nothing inside it: rendering zero cards is the behaviour, and
+// rendering no grid at all would be a different component.
+import { test, expect } from '../tools/e2e-coverage.cjs';
+
+const FIXTURE_ROUTE = '/e2e-coverage-fixtures/community-people';
+const PUBLISHED_ROUTE = '/community/technical-advisory-board';
+
+// CSS modules hash the class, so the prefix is the stable half. `peopleGrid`
+// is the only element src/components/CommunityPeople/index.js returns.
+const GRID = 'div[class^="peopleGrid_"]';
+const CARD = 'article[class^="personCard_"]';
+
+const describeCoverage =
+  process.env.E2E_COVERAGE === '1' ? test.describe : test.describe.skip;
+
+describeCoverage('CommunityPeople roster fallback', () => {
+  test('a published section renders a populated grid', async ({ page }) => {
+    const response = await page.goto(PUBLISHED_ROUTE);
+    expect(response?.status()).toBe(200);
+
+    const grid = page.locator(GRID);
+    await expect(grid).toHaveCount(1);
+    expect(await grid.locator(CARD).count()).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
+  test('a section the data does not define renders an empty grid', async ({
+    page,
+  }) => {
+    const response = await page.goto(FIXTURE_ROUTE);
+    expect(response?.status()).toBe(200);
+
+    // The page itself has to have rendered, or an empty grid would prove
+    // nothing about the component.
+    await expect(
+      page.getByRole('heading', { name: 'CommunityPeople coverage fixture' }),
+    ).toBeVisible();
+
+    const grid = page.locator(GRID);
+    await expect(grid).toHaveCount(1);
+    await expect(grid.locator(CARD)).toHaveCount(0);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/e2e/fixtures/docs/community-people.mdx b/tests/e2e/fixtures/docs/community-people.mdx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6bbcadf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/e2e/fixtures/docs/community-people.mdx
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+title: CommunityPeople coverage fixture
+description:
+  Renders <CommunityPeople> with a section name data/community-people.json does
+  not define.
+---
+
+import CommunityPeople from '@site/src/components/CommunityPeople';
+
+# CommunityPeople coverage fixture
+
+This page exists only in the end-to-end coverage build. `CommunityPeople`
+resolves its roster with `peopleData.people[section] || []`
+(`src/components/CommunityPeople/index.js` line 134), and the published pages
+render only `section="tab"` and `section="staff"` — both of which
+`data/community-people.json` always defines, because
+`tests/community-people-data.test.mjs` fails the build if a section rendered
+under `docs/` is missing or empty. The `|| []` arm is therefore unreachable from
+published content, and a data overlay cannot reach it either: emptying a section
+would give `[]` from the object rather than from the fallback.
+
+The section below is named so that no refresh of `data/community-people.json`
+can ever define it.
+
+<CommunityPeople section="coverage-fixture-no-such-section" />