fix: empty slices instead of nil return

test/e2e/annotations/pause_period_test.go

@@ -100,8 +100,9 @@ var _ = Describe("Pause Period Tests", func() {
 			Expect(paused).To(BeFalse(), "Deployment should NOT have paused-at annotation without pause-period")
 		})
 
-		// TODO: Reloader currently only reads pause-period from deployment metadata, not pod template.
-		// This test documents the expected behavior but needs Reloader code changes to pass.
+		// FUTURE: Reloader currently only reads pause-period from deployment metadata, not pod template.
+		// This test is pending (skipped) and documents the expected future behavior.
+		// Requires Reloader code changes to support reading pause-period from pod template annotations.
 		PIt("should pause Deployment when pause-period annotation is on pod template", func() {
 			By("Creating a ConfigMap")
 			_, err := utils.CreateConfigMap(ctx, kubeClient, testNamespace, configMapName,

test/e2e/utils/watch.go

@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ const (
 // ErrWatchTimeout is returned when a watch times out waiting for condition.
 var ErrWatchTimeout = errors.New("watch timeout waiting for condition")
 
+// ErrWatchError is returned when the watch receives an error event from the API server.
+var ErrWatchError = errors.New("watch received error event from API server")
+
 // ErrUnsupportedOperation is returned when an operation is not supported for a workload type.
 var ErrUnsupportedOperation = errors.New("operation not supported for this workload type")
 
@@ -109,7 +112,7 @@ func watchOnce[T runtime.Object](
 			case watch.Deleted:
 				continue
 			case watch.Error:
-				return zero, false, nil
+				return zero, false, ErrWatchError
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -172,7 +175,7 @@ func watchDeleteOnce(
 				return true, nil
 			}
 			if event.Type == watch.Error {
-				return false, nil
+				return false, ErrWatchError
 			}
 		}
 	}