diff --git a/scripts/check-workflow-staleness.sh b/scripts/check-workflow-staleness.sh
index 51faa3ea..3244cdb7 100755
--- a/scripts/check-workflow-staleness.sh
+++ b/scripts/check-workflow-staleness.sh
@@ -454,8 +454,16 @@ fi
 for wf in "$REPO_ROOT"/.github/workflows/*.yml "$REPO_ROOT"/.github/workflows/*.yaml; do
   [ -f "$wf" ] || continue
 
-  # Rule: no_scorecard_sarif_code_scanning (structural — independent of pins)
-  if grep -q "ossf/scorecard-action@" "$wf" && grep -q "github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@" "$wf"; then
+  # Rule: no_scorecard_sarif_code_scanning (structural — independent of pins).
+  # Exempt scorecard-reusable.yml when this IS the standards repo: that file
+  # is the canonical implementation of the pattern this rule detects, and no
+  # other repo ever carries these two lines locally (they call it via
+  # `uses: hyperpolymath/standards/.github/workflows/scorecard-reusable.yml@sha`
+  # instead). Without this guard the rule tripped on its own canonical source
+  # unconditionally, the same false-positive the sibling
+  # no_retired_scorecard_enforcer rule above already guards against.
+  if { [ "$IS_STANDARDS" = "false" ] || [ "$(basename "$wf")" != "scorecard-reusable.yml" ]; } \
+     && grep -q "ossf/scorecard-action@" "$wf" && grep -q "github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@" "$wf"; then
     echo "::error file=$wf::OSSF Scorecard must not upload SARIF to GitHub Code Scanning unless it runs for every PR head commit."
     FAILED=1
   fi
diff --git a/scripts/filter-sarif-by-baseline.sh b/scripts/filter-sarif-by-baseline.sh
index 98d61b2d..57f6fd9f 100755
Binary files a/scripts/filter-sarif-by-baseline.sh and b/scripts/filter-sarif-by-baseline.sh differ
diff --git a/tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh b/tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..205ce015
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/policy/check-language-policy.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Language-policy drift gate.
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS. The estate's language policy is duplicated into ~372 per-repo
+# `.claude/CLAUDE.md` files across 131 repos. On 2026-08-26 a census found 868 of them
+# still listed **Bun as BANNED** with Deno as its replacement - the exact inverse of the
+# standing ruling - and nothing had ever detected it. Correcting `standards` fixes one copy;
+# agents read the local one.
+#
+# WHY ASSERTIONS, NOT A DIFF. The copies are legitimately not identical: repos carry their
+# own exemption tables, architecture notes and carve-outs. A byte-for-byte generator would
+# be permanently red. So this gate asserts the INVARIANTS the policy must satisfy, whatever
+# the surrounding wording.
+#
+# Exit 0 = compliant. Exit 1 = drift. Every failure prints file:line.
+set -uo pipefail
+status=0
+files=$(git ls-files '*CLAUDE.md' 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules)
+[ -z "$files" ] && { echo "no CLAUDE.md tracked - nothing to check"; exit 0; }
+
+fail(){ printf '  \033[31mFAIL\033[0m %s\n        %s\n' "$1" "$2"; status=1; }
+
+for f in $files; do
+  echo "checking $f"
+
+  # --- must NOT appear -------------------------------------------------------
+  # 1. Bun banned. This is the inversion that went undetected across 868 files.
+  if grep -nF -- '| Bun | Deno |' "$f" >/dev/null; then
+    fail "$f:$(grep -nF -- '| Bun | Deno |' "$f" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)" \
+         'Bun is listed as BANNED with Deno as replacement - inverted. Bun is tier 1.'
+  fi
+  # 2. The rule that told repos not to declare dependencies at all. hyperpolymath/ubicity
+  # a phrase inside a blockquote or quotation marks is HISTORY, not policy
+  live(){ grep -vE '^[[:space:]]*>' "$1" | grep -vE '"[^"]*'"$2"'[^"]*"|“[^”]*'"$2"'[^”]*”'; }
+  #    imported zod and glob, shipped no manifest, and could not build under ANY toolchain.
+  if live "$f" 'No package.json for runtime deps' | grep -qF 'No package.json for runtime deps'; then
+    fail "$f:$(grep -nF 'No package.json for runtime deps' "$f" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)" \
+         'Forbids declaring dependencies. Bun is npm-compatible; a manifest is REQUIRED.'
+  fi
+  if live "$f" 'deno.json imports' | grep -qF 'deno.json imports'; then
+    fail "$f:$(grep -nF 'deno.json imports' "$f" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)" \
+         'Directs dependency declaration into deno.json. Use package.json + bun.lock.'
+  fi
+  # 3. No tool description may advertise TypeScript. Owner ruling 2026-08-27:
+  #    "no typescript ... that should not exist at all."
+  if grep -nE 'Executes .\.ts. directly|JS/TS runtime' "$f" >/dev/null; then
+    fail "$f:$(grep -nE 'Executes .\.ts. directly|JS/TS runtime' "$f" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)" \
+         'Advertises TypeScript execution. TypeScript is banned; do not describe tools as TS runtimes.'
+  fi
+  # 4. Blanking scars. A bulk purge substituted a token with an EMPTY STRING, which also
+  #    produced `rm -rf /lib` in wordpress-tools (the lethal shape is <token>/path -> /path).
+  if awk -F'|' 'NF>=4 && $2 ~ /^[[:space:]]*$/{exit 0} END{exit 1}' "$f"; then
+    fail "$f" 'Policy table row with an EMPTY first cell - blanking scar from a bulk substitution.'
+  fi
+  if grep -nF '| **** |' "$f" >/dev/null; then
+    fail "$f:$(grep -nF '| **** |' "$f" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)" \
+         'Empty bold cell (****) - the language name was blanked out.'
+  fi
+  if grep -nE '\*\*No new +files\*\*|Only where +cannot' "$f" >/dev/null; then
+    fail "$f" 'Enforcement rule with a blanked language name.'
+  fi
+  # 5. A rule may not ban the language it mandates.
+  if grep -nE '^\| AffineScript \| AffineScript \|' "$f" >/dev/null; then
+    fail "$f" 'BANNED table maps AffineScript to itself - it bans the mandated language.'
+  fi
+
+  # --- must appear, if the file carries a language-policy table ---------------
+  if grep -qE '^### (ALLOWED|BANNED)' "$f"; then
+    { grep -qE '^\|[[:space:]]*\*\*Bun\*\*[[:space:]]*\|' "$f" || grep -qiE '^[-*][[:space:]]+\*{0,2}Bun\*{0,2}\b' "$f"; } || \
+      fail "$f" 'No Bun row in ALLOWED. Bun is the tier-1 JS runtime and package manager.'
+    { grep -qE '^\|[[:space:]]*\*{0,2}Deno\*{0,2}[[:space:]]*\|[[:space:]]*\*{0,2}Bun\*{0,2}[[:space:]]*\|' "$f" || grep -qiE '^[-*][[:space:]]+Deno[[:space:]]*\(use Bun\)' "$f"; } || \
+      fail "$f" 'Deno is not listed in BANNED with Bun as its replacement (ruling 2026-08-26).'
+  fi
+done
+
+if [ $status -eq 0 ]; then echo "language policy OK"; else
+  echo
+  echo "Language-policy drift detected. Canonical source: hyperpolymath/standards .claude/CLAUDE.md"
+  echo "Fix the local copy; do not weaken this gate."
+fi
+exit $status
diff --git a/tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh b/tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..773a906b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/policy/check-workflows-parse.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Fail if any GitHub Actions workflow does not parse.
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS. Measured across the estate on 2026-08-27: **481 workflow files in
+# 134 repos do not parse at all**. A workflow that cannot be loaded produces NO check
+# run, so it is invisible to `?status=failure` sweeps and to `gh pr checks` — the gate
+# simply never runs, and its absence looks exactly like success.
+#
+# One was root-caused to a literal BACKSPACE byte (0x08) committed inside a regex.
+# The other 480 are structural YAML: 245 "mapping values are not allowed in this
+# context", 137 "could not find expected ':'", 73 block-mapping errors, 6 unterminated
+# quotes.
+#
+# Exit 0 = every workflow parses. Exit 1 = at least one does not.
+set -uo pipefail
+
+parser=""
+if command -v yq        >/dev/null 2>&1; then parser=yq
+elif command -v python3  >/dev/null 2>&1 && python3 -c 'import yaml' 2>/dev/null; then parser=python
+elif command -v ruby     >/dev/null 2>&1; then parser=ruby
+else
+  echo "::warning::no YAML parser available (yq, python3+pyyaml, or ruby) — cannot verify workflows"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+parse_ok() {
+  case "$parser" in
+    yq)     yq '.' "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 ;;
+    python) python3 -c 'import sys,yaml; yaml.safe_load(open(sys.argv[1]))' "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 ;;
+    ruby)   ruby -ryaml -e 'YAML.safe_load(File.read(ARGV[0]), aliases: true)' "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 ;;
+  esac
+}
+
+status=0; checked=0
+while IFS= read -r f; do
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+  checked=$((checked + 1))
+  if ! parse_ok "$f"; then
+    status=1
+    printf '::error file=%s::workflow does not parse — it produces NO check run, so this gate never executes\n' "$f"
+    case "$parser" in
+      yq)     yq '.' "$f" 2>&1 | head -2 | sed 's/^/    /' ;;
+      python) python3 -c 'import sys,yaml; yaml.safe_load(open(sys.argv[1]))' "$f" 2>&1 | tail -2 | sed 's/^/    /' ;;
+      ruby)   ruby -ryaml -e 'YAML.safe_load(File.read(ARGV[0]), aliases: true)' "$f" 2>&1 | head -2 | sed 's/^/    /' ;;
+    esac
+    # control characters are a common, easily-missed cause
+    if grep -qP '[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F]' "$f" 2>/dev/null; then
+      echo "    ⚠ contains CONTROL CHARACTERS — YAML forbids them; see empty-linter"
+      grep -nP '[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F]' "$f" | head -3 | cat -v | sed 's/^/      /'
+    fi
+  fi
+done < <(git ls-files '.github/workflows/*.yml' '.github/workflows/*.yaml' '**/.github/workflows/*.yml' '**/.github/workflows/*.yaml' 2>/dev/null | sort -u)
+
+if [ "$checked" -eq 0 ]; then echo "no workflows tracked — nothing to check"; exit 0; fi
+if [ "$status" -eq 0 ]; then echo "✅ all $checked workflow(s) parse"; else
+  echo
+  echo "A workflow that does not parse produces no check run. Its gate has never run,"
+  echo "and its silence is indistinguishable from success. Fix the YAML; do not delete"
+  echo "the check."
+fi
+exit $status