diff --git a/Taskfile.yml b/Taskfile.yml
index d9a0e8c..97424b7 100644
--- a/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/Taskfile.yml
@@ -23,3 +23,8 @@ tasks:
       - golangci-lint run ./...
       - go vet ./...
       - go test ./... -race -count=1
+      # The three commands above cannot see cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__ -- Go's ./...
+      # expansion skips directories whose names start with an underscore, which
+      # is why #1 and #2 shipped green here and red in every generated repo.
+      # This gates the substituted result instead.
+      - bash scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
diff --git a/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__/main.go b/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__/main.go
index 2c3b921..e2edb84 100644
--- a/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__/main.go
+++ b/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__/main.go
@@ -22,7 +22,13 @@ func main() {
 		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "telemetry: %v\n", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
-	defer shutdown(ctx)
+	// Wrapped rather than bare: errcheck flags a deferred call that drops an
+	// error, and SetupTelemetry returns func(context.Context) error. The bare
+	// form shipped for months because this package lives in a directory whose
+	// name starts with an underscore, which Go's ./... expansion skips -- so
+	// the template's own lint never saw it while every generated repo, where
+	// the directory has a real name, inherited the failure.
+	defer func() { _ = shutdown(ctx) }()
 
 	llm := litellm.New(
 		env("LITELLM_MODEL", "berget/llama-3.3-70b"),
diff --git a/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh b/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..54c06cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Does a repo generated from this template pass its own gate?
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS
+#
+# `task check` on the template is green and has been for months, while children
+# generated from it were red from their first commit (#1, #2). The template's
+# own gate cannot see the defect, for a reason that is invisible unless you go
+# looking:
+#
+#   Go ignores directories whose names begin with "_" or "." when expanding
+#   package patterns like ./...
+#
+# The entrypoint lives in cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__, which begins with an underscore.
+# So `go build ./...`, `go vet ./...`, `go test ./...` AND
+# `golangci-lint run ./...` all silently skip the one package every generated
+# repo is built around. Confirmed:
+#
+#   $ go list ./...
+#   __MODULE_PATH__/internal/agent
+#   __MODULE_PATH__/pkg/litellm        <- no cmd package
+#
+# After substitution the directory has a real name, becomes visible, and the
+# defects appear in the child. Template green, children red, by construction.
+#
+# WHY NOT JUST LINT THE DIRECTORY DIRECTLY
+#
+# Tried: `golangci-lint run ./cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__` does work (naming a path
+# directly bypasses the pattern exclusion). But it reports a gofumpt violation
+# on the import block that does NOT exist in a generated repo -- the formatter's
+# import grouping depends on the module path, and the template's is a
+# placeholder rather than a real path. Wiring that into `check` would turn the
+# template's gate red over an artifact of being a template.
+#
+# So this simulates the substitution and gates on the RESULT, which is the only
+# artifact anyone actually runs. Same discipline as template-go-web's
+# scripts/tests/is-template_test.sh: a test for transformation-sensitive code
+# has to undergo the transformation.
+#
+# Usage: ./scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
+
+set -uo pipefail
+ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../.." && pwd)"
+
+pass=0; fail=0
+ok()  { printf '  ok   %s\n' "$1"; pass=$((pass+1)); }
+bad() { printf '  FAIL %s\n     %s\n' "$1" "${2:-}"; fail=$((fail+1)); }
+
+echo "generated-child tests"
+
+if ! command -v golangci-lint >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "  SKIP golangci-lint not installed — cannot gate the generated child" >&2
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+tmp="$(mktemp -d)"; trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+
+# Build the child exactly as a scaffolder does: the tracked tree, the entrypoint
+# directory renamed, every placeholder substituted.
+#
+# Tracked files from the WORKING TREE, not `git archive HEAD`. This runs inside
+# `task check`, so it has to gate what is about to be committed -- archiving
+# HEAD tests the previous commit and reports stale results against a fix sitting
+# unstaged, which it did on first use here. `git ls-files` keeps the file set
+# honest (no build output, no local scratch) while taking current content.
+( cd "$ROOT" && git ls-files -z ) | while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do
+  mkdir -p "$tmp/$(dirname "$f")"
+  cp "$ROOT/$f" "$tmp/$f"
+done
+if [ ! -d "$tmp/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__" ]; then
+  bad "the template still has a placeholder entrypoint directory" \
+      "cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__ not found — has the layout changed?"
+  echo; echo "$pass passed, $fail failed"; exit 1
+fi
+mv "$tmp/cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__" "$tmp/cmd/childproj"
+find "$tmp" -type f \( -name '*.go' -o -name '*.mod' -o -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.md' \) \
+  -exec sed -i \
+    -e 's|__MODULE_PATH__|git.d-ma.be/mathias/childproj|g' \
+    -e 's|__PROJECT_NAME__|childproj|g' {} +
+
+# The whole point: the entrypoint must be visible to Go tooling in the child.
+# If this regresses, everything below it passes for the wrong reason.
+if ( cd "$tmp" && go list ./... 2>/dev/null ) | grep -q '/cmd/childproj$'; then
+  ok "the generated child's entrypoint is visible to go list"
+else
+  bad "the generated child's entrypoint is visible to go list" \
+      "cmd package missing from ./... — the child would be unchecked too"
+fi
+
+out="$(cd "$tmp" && go build ./... 2>&1)"
+[ -z "$out" ] && ok "the generated child builds" \
+              || bad "the generated child builds" "$(printf '%s' "$out" | head -3)"
+
+out="$(cd "$tmp" && go vet ./... 2>&1)"
+[ -z "$out" ] && ok "the generated child passes go vet" \
+              || bad "the generated child passes go vet" "$(printf '%s' "$out" | head -3)"
+
+# The one that caught #1/#2: errcheck on the deferred shutdown, in a package the
+# template's own `golangci-lint run ./...` never analysed.
+out="$(cd "$tmp" && golangci-lint run ./... 2>&1)"
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -qE '^[0-9]+ issues:|issues:$'; then
+  bad "the generated child passes golangci-lint" "$(printf '%s' "$out" | grep -E '\.go:[0-9]+' | head -3)"
+else
+  ok "the generated child passes golangci-lint"
+fi
+
+echo
+echo "$pass passed, $fail failed"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]