diff --git a/HARNESS.md b/HARNESS.md
index 6aece25..4151949 100644
--- a/HARNESS.md
+++ b/HARNESS.md
@@ -256,9 +256,15 @@ that describe it, in the same change.**
   say why. The hook also regenerates `harness/surface.md` and stages it, so a generated file is never
   something you have to remember — and it refuses a commit with unstaged `.go` changes, because what it
   generated describes the working tree rather than what you are committing. It carries **no file
-  extension**, so a repo-wide sweep filtered by `--include='*.sh'` walks straight past it: ADR-0082's
-  rename left it staging a path that no longer existed, and the failure surfaced as a `fatal:` from inside
-  a commit that otherwise succeeded. When renaming anything the gate names, grep without an include filter.
+  extension** because git locates a hook by exact name — the one exception to "shell scripts end in `.sh`"
+  (`conventions.md`), confirmed by renaming it in a throwaway repo and watching a commit succeed with the
+  hook silent. A `.sh` suffix there would leave a gate that looks present and does nothing.
+- **Paths inside `scripts/` are checked whether or not they are quoted.** The dangling-path gate had only
+  ever matched backticked citations, so `git add docs/surface.md` in the hook — an argument, not a
+  citation — survived ADR-0082's rename and surfaced as a `fatal:` inside a commit that otherwise
+  succeeded. Backslashes are stripped first, so a path written as a regex is compared as the file it
+  means. Prose is still checked only in backticks: a sentence saying "under `harness/`" is making a point
+  a filesystem cannot check, while a script naming a path either has it right or is broken.
 - `harness/decisions.md` registers every ADR number ever used, entries and withdrawals alike, so a citation
   can resolve to a decision or to a deferral but never to nothing.
 - `./scripts/verify.sh --list` names every gate that exists. A doc claiming enforcement is checkable
diff --git a/harness/conventions.md b/harness/conventions.md
index 9f4c8fc..f18f55d 100644
--- a/harness/conventions.md
+++ b/harness/conventions.md
@@ -43,6 +43,13 @@ wants splitting.
   because a forgotten expiry serves staleness silently.
 - Comments explain *why*, never *what*. Delete a comment narrating the next line. One stating a
   non-obvious invariant is worth ten describing control flow.
+- **Shell scripts end in `.sh`, with exactly one exception: `scripts/hooks/pre-commit`.** git locates a
+  hook by exact filename, so a `.sh` suffix makes it invisible and the gate stops running on every commit
+  while still appearing to exist — verified by renaming it in a throwaway repository and watching a commit
+  succeed with the hook silent. The name belongs to git, not to this convention. Consequence worth
+  remembering: a repo-wide sweep filtered by `--include='*.sh'` walks past that file, which is how a stale
+  path survived in it (ADR-0082), so `verify.sh` now checks the paths inside `scripts/` whether or not they
+  are quoted.
 
 ## Documentation
 
diff --git a/scripts/verify.sh b/scripts/verify.sh
index 61635d8..3f8f43a 100755
--- a/scripts/verify.sh
+++ b/scripts/verify.sh
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ if [ -d .git ] && command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     if [ -n "$harnesschanged" ] && ! echo "$changed" | grep -qx 'HARNESS.md'; then
       bad "the harness changed (CLAUDE.md, scripts/ or .claude/) but HARNESS.md did not — the guide to the machine is part of the machine"
     else
-      pass "harness/HARNESS.md coupling"
+      pass "harness and HARNESS.md move together"
     fi
   fi
 
@@ -142,8 +142,18 @@ if [ -d .git ] && command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   [ -d .scratch ] && scratchpat='|\.scratch'
   refs=$(grep -rhoE "\`(harness|scripts|ideas|reference|\.claude$scratchpat)/[A-Za-z0-9_./-]+\`" \
            harness CLAUDE.md HARNESS.md ideas reference .claude scripts 2>/dev/null | tr -d '`' | sort -u)
+  # Bare paths in the gate's own scripts, where a backtick is prose but the path is what actually runs.
+  # `git add harness/surface.md` in the pre-commit hook is not a citation, it is an argument — and the hook
+  # staged a deleted path for two commits because this check had only ever looked inside backticks. Only
+  # scripts/ is scanned bare: prose says "under harness/" for reasons a filesystem cannot check, while a
+  # shell script naming a path either has it right or is broken.
+  #
+  # Backslashes are stripped first, so a path written as a regex — `\.claude/settings\.json` — is compared
+  # as the file it means rather than flagged as the file it is not.
+  bare=$(sed 's/\\//g' $(find scripts -type f) 2>/dev/null |
+           grep -ohE '(harness|docs|scripts|ideas|reference)/[A-Za-z0-9_./-]+' | sed 's/[.]$//' | sort -u)
   dangling=""
-  for f in $refs; do [ -e "$f" ] || dangling="$dangling $f"; done
+  for f in $refs $bare; do [ -e "$f" ] || dangling="$dangling $f"; done
   [ -n "$dangling" ] && bad "reference to a path that does not exist:$dangling"
 
   adrs=$(grep -rhoE 'ADR-[0-9]{4}' harness CLAUDE.md HARNESS.md ideas reference .claude scripts cmd internal 2>/dev/null | sort -u)