diff --git a/ci/static.sh b/ci/static.sh
index cb46a2e..d81eda3 100755
--- a/ci/static.sh
+++ b/ci/static.sh
@@ -165,9 +165,32 @@ ci_step "no secrets in tracked files"
 # unpushed. It has to be rotated, and the window between the push and noticing
 # is the whole problem.
 #
-# Deliberately narrow. Broad entropy heuristics fire on minified assets, hashes
-# and base64 images, and a check that cries wolf gets commented out — which is
-# worse than not having it. These are prefixes that mean one thing only.
+# Two rules, at two different confidence levels.
+#
+# The first is content-anchored: prefixes that mean one thing only. Broad
+# ENTROPY heuristics are still refused here — they fire on minified assets,
+# hashes and base64 images, and a check that cries wolf gets commented out,
+# which is worse than not having it.
+#
+# The second is name-anchored, and closes a hole the first cannot see. A prefix
+# list matches the shape of a VALUE, so it is blind to any credential that does
+# not carry a vendor's marker: an api_key assigned twenty opaque characters
+# walks straight past it. This is not an entropy heuristic — it fires only
+# where the code itself names the value a secret, which is why it does not
+# touch a minified asset. Obvious placeholders are excluded so a settings
+# default does not cry wolf.
+#
+# ⚠️ It DOES fire on a documentation example, and there is no bypass marker on
+# purpose — an unexercised escape hatch is its own hollow check. The first
+# version of this comment spelled the example out in full and the rule flagged
+# its own explanation, which is the one false positive measured so far. Write
+# such an example in prose, or break the literal up.
+#
+# 🔴 A count cannot tell you a pattern is not INERT. Proven the hard way in a
+# sibling plugin: it planted an AWS key, the file count rose, and the scan
+# passed green — that prefix was simply missing from its list. So every shape
+# claimed below is planted and run through this whole script, not grepped in
+# isolation, and a lookalike control is checked not to fire.
 #
 # 🔴 And it says how many files it read. A pushed key is compromised even after
 # the commit is deleted, so this scan silently examining nothing is not a weak
@@ -178,14 +201,26 @@ ci_step "no secrets in tracked files"
 # partially wrong, so the only way it misreports is by coming out empty, and
 # any higher number would just be a guess about the plugin's size. The count on
 # the success line is what catches a list that shrank without emptying.
+secret_value_pat='(sk-ant-[A-Za-z0-9_-]{16,}|sk-[A-Za-z0-9]{32,}|ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]{30,}|gho_[A-Za-z0-9]{30,}|github_pat_[A-Za-z0-9_]{50,}|AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}|-----BEGIN [A-Z ]*PRIVATE KEY-----)'
+
+# The code calls it a secret and then hands it twenty-odd opaque characters.
+secret_name_pat="['\"](api[_-]?key|secret|password|passwd|token|auth[_-]?token|private[_-]?key)['\"][[:space:]]*(=>|=|:)[[:space:]]*['\"][A-Za-z0-9/+_-]{20,}['\"]|define\([[:space:]]*['\"][A-Z0-9_]*(SECRET|PASSWORD|TOKEN|API_KEY)['\"][[:space:]]*,[[:space:]]*['\"][A-Za-z0-9/+_-]{20,}['\"]"
+
+# A default nobody has filled in yet is not a leak. Without this the check goes
+# red on the one thing a settings screen is guaranteed to contain.
+placeholder_pat='REPLACE|YOUR[_-]|EXAMPLE|CHANGE[_-]?ME|TODO|FIXME|PLACEHOLDER|xxxxx|XXXXX|\*\*\*\*'
+
 before=$fails
 secrets_scanned=0
 while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
   [ -f "$f" ] || continue
   secrets_scanned=$((secrets_scanned + 1))
-  if LC_ALL=C grep -nE '(sk-ant-[A-Za-z0-9_-]{16,}|sk-[A-Za-z0-9]{32,}|ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]{30,}|gho_[A-Za-z0-9]{30,}|github_pat_[A-Za-z0-9_]{50,}|AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}|-----BEGIN [A-Z ]*PRIVATE KEY-----)' "$f"; then
+  if LC_ALL=C grep -nEI "$secret_value_pat" "$f"; then
     note_fail "$f looks like it contains a credential. It cannot be unpushed — rotate it."
   fi
+  if LC_ALL=C grep -nEI "$secret_name_pat" "$f" | LC_ALL=C grep -vE "$placeholder_pat"; then
+    note_fail "$f assigns a long opaque value to something the code calls a secret. If it is one, it cannot be unpushed — rotate it."
+  fi
 done < <(git ls-files -z)
 if [ "$secrets_scanned" -lt 1 ]; then
   note_fail "The credential scan examined no files at all. git tracks nothing here, so this check proved nothing."