diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/cd.yml b/.gitea/workflows/cd.yml
index 9af640c..7d10c98 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/cd.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/cd.yml
@@ -34,8 +34,16 @@ jobs:
 
   check:
     name: Lint / Test / Vet
+    # Deliberately NOT gated on the guard (#12). build and deploy are, because
+    # they genuinely cannot work here -- placeholder module path, no image name,
+    # no namespace. But linting and testing the template is meaningful, and
+    # gating it meant this repo had no working gate at all: #8 sat here with CI
+    # green throughout, and was found by a child rather than by us.
+    #
+    # `task check` includes scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh, which covers
+    # the entrypoint that ./... cannot see -- ungating without that would run a
+    # gate that still skips the package every child is built around.
     needs: guard
-    if: needs.guard.outputs.is_template != 'true'
     runs-on: self-hosted
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
diff --git a/Taskfile.yml b/Taskfile.yml
index 585f059..7cb85ec 100644
--- a/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/Taskfile.yml
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ tasks:
       # The template guard decides whether CI runs at all in every child repo,
       # so its regression test belongs in the same gate as the Go tests.
       - bash scripts/tests/is-template_test.sh
+      # The three Go commands above cannot see cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__ -- Go's
+      # ./... expansion skips directories whose names start with an underscore.
+      # This gates the substituted result, which is what a child actually runs.
+      - bash scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
 
   context:sync:
     desc: Regenerate all harness-specific context files
diff --git a/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh b/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..8a22571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/tests/generated-child_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Does a repo generated from this template pass its own gate?
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS
+#
+# `golangci-lint run ./...` and friends cannot see this template's entrypoint.
+# Go skips directories whose names begin with "_" or "." when expanding package
+# patterns, and the entrypoint lives in cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__:
+#
+#   $ go list ./...
+#   __MODULE_PATH__/internal/web        <- no cmd package
+#
+# After substitution the directory has a real name, becomes visible, and any
+# defect in it appears — in the child, not here. That is how template-go-agent
+# shipped a broken entrypoint for three months while its own CI stayed green
+# (template-go-agent#1, #2).
+#
+# Linting the directory by name is not a fix: `golangci-lint run
+# ./cmd/__PROJECT_NAME__` works, but reports formatter findings that do not
+# exist in a generated repo, because gofumpt's import grouping depends on the
+# module path and this one is a placeholder.
+#
+# So this substitutes the tracked tree into a throwaway child and gates the
+# RESULT, which is the only artifact anyone actually runs.
+#
+# 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=$((fail+1)); }
+
+echo "generated-child tests"
+
+for tool in golangci-lint templ; do
+  if ! command -v "$tool" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "  SKIP $tool not installed — cannot gate the generated child" >&2
+    exit 0
+  fi
+done
+
+tmp="$(mktemp -d)"; trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+
+# Tracked files from the WORKING TREE, not `git archive HEAD`: this runs inside
+# `task check`, so it must gate what is about to be committed rather than the
+# previous commit. `git ls-files` keeps the file set honest while taking
+# current content.
+( cd "$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 \( -name '*.go' -o -name '*.templ' -o -name '*.mod' -o -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.md' \) \
+  -exec sed -i \
+    -e 's|__MODULE_PATH__|git.d-ma.be/mathias/childproj|g' \
+    -e 's|__PROJECT_NAME__|childproj|g' {} +
+
+# Generated files are gitignored, so the child arrives without them — exactly as
+# a freshly scaffolded repo does. Generating here also proves the pinned
+# generator and the pinned library agree, which is template-go-web#8.
+out="$(cd "$tmp" && templ generate 2>&1)"
+if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+  ok "templ generate succeeds in the generated child"
+else
+  bad "templ generate succeeds in the generated child" "$(printf '%s' "$out" | tail -3)"
+fi
+
+# The whole point: the entrypoint must be visible to Go tooling in the child.
+# If this regresses, everything below it passes for the wrong reason.
+if ( cd "$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' "$out" | head -3)"
+
+out="$(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 ]