diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 9e3b80b..8d9557d 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -21,6 +21,14 @@ fmt-check, and commit.
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-08-09: Made the pinned golangci-lint actually propagate: REPO_POLICIES.md
+  now carries the canonical `script/bootstrap` snippet for Go repos, which
+  installs when the installed version does not match the pin (the old
+  `if missing` guard tested PATH presence only, so pins were inert on any
+  provisioned machine and CI silently disagreed with local) and then re-resolves
+  the binary through `PATH` and fails loudly, naming the shadowing path, when
+  the install did not take effect — the failure mode the naive
+  compare-then-install fix leaves behind while reporting success.
 - 2026-08-09: Fixed the false green in the canonical CI gate: `script/cibuild`
   and `script/docker` now pass a per-invocation `CHECK_EPOCH` nonce, and the
   `Dockerfile` (plus the Go multistage template in REPO_POLICIES.md, in both its
diff --git a/prompts/REPO_POLICIES.md b/prompts/REPO_POLICIES.md
index 82f6ae9..279c8e1 100644
--- a/prompts/REPO_POLICIES.md
+++ b/prompts/REPO_POLICIES.md
@@ -354,6 +354,114 @@ style conventions are in separate documents:
   commit-pinned via
   `go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@c0d3ddc9cf3faa61a4e378e879ece580256d76e5`.
 
+- **`script/bootstrap` in Go repos must install the pinned golangci-lint
+  whenever the installed version does not match the pin — not merely when the
+  binary is absent — and must then verify the install took effect by
+  re-resolving the binary through `PATH`.** The presence test
+  `if missing golangci-lint; then go install "$GOLANGCI_LINT_REF"; fi` is wrong:
+  it tests `PATH` presence and never version, so on any already-provisioned
+  machine the pin is inert and a version bump is a no-op. Meanwhile the
+  Dockerfile installs unconditionally into a clean image, so CI and local
+  silently disagree about what the linter even is. Observed consequences: a
+  local `make check` green while `make docker` rejected the same commit with six
+  `goconst` findings, and a container linter surfacing thirteen findings the
+  host run missed. A stale host linter does not merely fail to prove the tree is
+  clean — it hides findings only the container can see. This is a deliberate
+  departure from the node handling described above, which uses whatever node is
+  installed: the linter version is the specific thing being held equal between
+  host and container, so for it, presence is not enough.
+
+    Comparing versions is necessary but **not sufficient**, because the obvious
+    fix also fails green. `go install` writes to `GOBIN` (or `GOPATH/bin`) while
+    callers resolve `golangci-lint` through `PATH`. If a different binary
+    shadows it earlier in `PATH`, the install genuinely succeeds and changes
+    nothing any caller will ever see: bootstrap prints success and the next
+    `make lint` still runs the stale linter. That is worse than no fix, because
+    it converts a known-stale toolchain into one everyone believes is pinned.
+    The canonical form, placed in `script/bootstrap` after Go itself is present:
+
+    ```sh
+    # golangci-lint v2.12.2, 2026-05-06
+    GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION="2.12.2"
+    GOLANGCI_LINT_REF="github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@c0d3ddc9cf3faa61a4e378e879ece580256d76e5"
+
+    # The version golangci-lint reports, resolved the way callers resolve it.
+    # Prints nothing when the binary is absent, exits non-zero, or prints
+    # something unparseable — all of which must read as "does not match".
+    golangci_lint_version() {
+        command -v golangci-lint >/dev/null 2>&1 || return 0
+        golangci-lint --version 2>/dev/null | head -n 1 |
+            sed -n 's/.*has version v\{0,1\}\([0-9][0-9.]*\).*/\1/p'
+    }
+
+    ensure_golangci_lint() {
+        if [ "$(golangci_lint_version)" = "$GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION" ]; then
+            return 0
+        fi
+        echo "bootstrap: installing golangci-lint $GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION"
+        go install "$GOLANGCI_LINT_REF"
+
+        # go install writes to GOBIN (or GOPATH/bin); callers resolve through
+        # PATH. Re-resolve through PATH and assert the install took effect.
+        hash -r 2>/dev/null || true
+        got="$(golangci_lint_version)"
+        if [ "$got" = "$GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION" ]; then
+            return 0
+        fi
+        gobin="$(go env GOBIN)"
+        [ -n "$gobin" ] || gobin="$(go env GOPATH)/bin"
+        found="$(command -v golangci-lint 2>/dev/null || true)"
+        echo "bootstrap: installed golangci-lint $GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION into" \
+            "$gobin, but PATH resolves golangci-lint to ${found:-nothing}," \
+            "reporting version ${got:-unparseable}." >&2
+        echo "bootstrap: remove that binary or put $gobin earlier in PATH," \
+            "then re-run bootstrap." >&2
+        exit 1
+    }
+    ```
+
+    Three properties are load-bearing; each guards a failure mode that otherwise
+    fails green:
+    - **Compare the installed version against the pin**, never test presence.
+      This is what makes a version bump propagate to machines that already have
+      some golangci-lint.
+    - **After installing, re-resolve the binary the way callers resolve it** —
+      through `PATH`, not the path `go install` wrote to — and assert
+      `--version` reports the pin. When it does not, fail non-zero and **name
+      the shadowing path** `command -v` actually found, the version it reports,
+      and the directory the install wrote to. That is a condition a human has to
+      fix by hand, so bootstrap must not print success in it. Use `hash -r`
+      first so the shell does not answer from its own lookup cache.
+    - **A mis-parse must fall through to reinstall, never to a false match.**
+      Absent binary, non-zero exit, empty output, and unrecognised output all
+      yield an empty string, which compares unequal to the pin. The failure
+      direction is always a redundant install, never a skipped one.
+
+    Keep it POSIX sh: no bashisms, no arrays, no `[[`, no `grep -P`.
+
+    **On the hash-pinning rule.** `@c0d3ddc9cf3faa61a4e378e879ece580256d76e5` is
+    a commit hash, not a server-mutable version tag, and the go command verifies
+    the fetched module against the checksum database and `go.sum` — the
+    mechanism the hash-pinning rule at the top of this document already names as
+    acceptable for Go modules. So the ref stays a bare `go install` of a
+    commit-pinned module rather than a `go.mod` tool dependency; the linter is a
+    bootstrap prerequisite rather than part of the module graph, and tracking it
+    as a tool dependency would pull its whole dependency tree into every
+    consuming repo's `go.mod` and `go.sum`. `GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION` is a
+    separate string because the ref is a hash and carries no readable version;
+    it must be updated with the ref. That commit is the `v2.12.2` tag commit, so
+    the go command resolves it to `v2.12.2` and the built binary reports
+    `2.12.2`. If a pin is ever moved to a commit that carries no release tag,
+    the binary will report a pseudo-version instead and `GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION`
+    must be set to whatever `--version` then prints.
+
+    **Verifying a change to this logic requires a negative control run in an
+    environment where a shadowing binary exists earlier in `PATH` than the
+    install target.** Without that, the control passes against the naive
+    compare-then-install form as well and therefore proves nothing. Also check
+    the mis-parse direction by feeding it unparseable `--version` output and
+    confirming it reinstalls rather than reporting a match.
+
 - When pinning images or packages by hash, add a comment above the reference
   with the version and date (YYYY-MM-DD).