diff --git a/.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml b/.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
index eed7894..bbfa485 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
@@ -113,10 +113,16 @@ jobs:
         id: lint
         run: |
           # Inline invisible character detection (from empty-linter's core patterns).
-          # Checks for: zero-width spaces, zero-width joiners, BOM, soft hyphens,
-          # non-breaking spaces, null bytes, and other invisible Unicode in source files.
+          # Checks for: C0 control characters, zero-width spaces/joiners, BOM,
+          # soft hyphens, NBSP, bidi overrides, word joiner, null bytes.
+          #
+          # ⚠ CODEPOINT escapes \x{a0}, NOT UTF-8 byte sequences \xc2\xa0. grep -P
+          # matches CHARACTERS, so the byte form never matched anything: the previous
+          # pattern caught 0 of 6 invisible-character test cases. Verified 2026-08-27.
+          # ⚠ -a is required or grep skips any file containing a NUL as "binary".
+          # ⚠ A LEADING BOM cannot be matched by grep (it strips one); checked separately.
           set +e
-          PATTERNS='\xc2\xa0|\xe2\x80\x8b|\xe2\x80\x8c|\xe2\x80\x8d|\xef\xbb\xbf|\xc2\xad|\xe2\x80\x8e|\xe2\x80\x8f|\xe2\x80\xaa|\xe2\x80\xab|\xe2\x80\xac|\xe2\x80\xad|\xe2\x80\xae|\x00'
+          PATTERNS='\x00|[\x01-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F]|\x{a0}|\x{ad}|\x{200b}|\x{200c}|\x{200d}|\x{200e}|\x{200f}|\x{202a}|\x{202b}|\x{202c}|\x{202d}|\x{202e}|\x{2060}|\x{feff}'
           find "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE" \
             -not -path '*/.git/*' -not -path '*/node_modules/*' \
             -not -path '*/.deno/*' -not -path '*/target/*' \
@@ -127,7 +133,16 @@ jobs:
               -o -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' -o -name '*.md' -o -name '*.adoc' \
               -o -name '*.idr' -o -name '*.zig' -o -name '*.v' -o -name '*.jl' \
               -o -name '*.gleam' -o -name '*.hs' -o -name '*.ml' -o -name '*.sh' \) \
-            -exec grep -Prl "$PATTERNS" {} \; > /tmp/empty-lint-results.txt 2>/dev/null
+            -exec grep -aPrl "$PATTERNS" {} \; > /tmp/empty-lint-results.txt 2>/dev/null
+          # A LEADING BOM is stripped by grep before matching, so it must be
+          # checked byte-wise. Mid-file BOMs are caught by the pattern above.
+          while IFS= read -r bf; do
+            [ -z "$bf" ] && continue
+            if [ "$(head -c3 "$bf" | od -An -tx1 | tr -d " ")" = "efbbbf" ]; then
+              echo "$bf" >> /tmp/empty-lint-results.txt
+            fi
+          done < <(find "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE" -not -path '*/.git/*' -not -path '*/node_modules/*' -type f \( -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' -o -name '*.json' -o -name '*.toml' \) 2>/dev/null)
+          sort -u -o /tmp/empty-lint-results.txt /tmp/empty-lint-results.txt 2>/dev/null || true
           EL_EXIT=$?
           set -e
 
diff --git a/config.ncl b/config.ncl
index 81a0de0..ab9a7e5 100644
--- a/config.ncl
+++ b/config.ncl
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ let OutputFormat = [| 'text, 'json, 'hex |] in
     # Known invisible artifacts (uses proven SafeHex for detection)
     artifacts = [
       { name = "NULL", hex = "0x00", severity = 'Critical, fix_action = "remove" },
+      # C0 controls U+0001..U+001F excluding TAB/LF/CR. Illegal in YAML and
+      # fatal to symbolic parsers; a stray 0x08 made a workflow unloadable and
+      # therefore silently non-running. Matched as a RANGE by is_c0_control.
+      { name = "C0-CONTROL", hex = "0x01-0x1F", severity = 'Critical, fix_action = "remove" },
       { name = "NBSP", hex = "0xA0", severity = 'Error, fix_action = "replace:20" },
       { name = "ZWSP", hex = "0x200B", severity = 'Error, fix_action = "remove" },
       { name = "BOM", hex = "0xFEFF", severity = 'Warning, fix_action = "remove" },
diff --git a/stdlib/ByteDetector.affine b/stdlib/ByteDetector.affine
index 0d229c2..1b317b3 100644
--- a/stdlib/ByteDetector.affine
+++ b/stdlib/ByteDetector.affine
@@ -41,6 +41,13 @@ pub fn known_artifacts() -> [ArtifactDef] {
   ]
 }
 
+// C0 control characters (U+0001..U+001F) are illegal in YAML and corrupt
+// symbolic parsers. TAB (9), LF (10) and CR (13) are legitimate whitespace
+// and are excluded. NULL (0) keeps its own named entry above.
+pub fn is_c0_control(byte_val: Int) -> Bool {
+  byte_val > 0 && byte_val < 32 && byte_val != 9 && byte_val != 10 && byte_val != 13
+}
+
 pub fn get_artifact_def(byte_val: Int) -> Option<ArtifactDef> {
   let defs = known_artifacts();
   for d in defs {
@@ -48,6 +55,9 @@ pub fn get_artifact_def(byte_val: Int) -> Option<ArtifactDef> {
       return Some(d);
     }
   }
+  if is_c0_control(byte_val) {
+    return Some(#{ name: "C0-CONTROL", byte_value: byte_val, severity: Critical, fix_action: "remove" });
+  }
   None
 }