diff --git a/caps.sh b/caps.sh
index e755d31..88b0038 100755
--- a/caps.sh
+++ b/caps.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 #
 # Usage:
 #   ./caps.sh generate   # regenerate capability_baseline.txt
-#   ./caps.sh check      # check that no new capabilities have been added
+#   ./caps.sh check      # check that capabilities haven't grown
 #
 # Requires: go, capslock (go install github.com/google/capslock/cmd/capslock@latest)
 
@@ -15,20 +15,13 @@ CAPSLOCK="${CAPSLOCK:-capslock}"
 
 # Capabilities that must never appear in any package.
 FORBIDDEN_CAPS=(
-    CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER
     CAPABILITY_NETWORK
     CAPABILITY_CGO
     CAPABILITY_EXEC
 )
 
-# Capabilities to exclude from capslock analysis. UNSAFE_POINTER is excluded
-# because go-toml has no direct unsafe imports — capslock reports it only due
-# to stdlib internals (e.g. reflect -> unsafe) which is outside our control.
-CAPSLOCK_IGNORE="-CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER"
-
 capslock_to_baseline() {
     "$CAPSLOCK" -packages=./... -output=package -granularity=package \
-        -capabilities="$CAPSLOCK_IGNORE" \
         | jq -r 'to_entries | sort_by(.key) | .[] | .key + ": " + (.value | sort | join(", "))'
 }
 
@@ -50,6 +43,18 @@ check() {
 
     failed=0
 
+    # Verify go-toml source never directly imports "unsafe".
+    # Capslock may report CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER due to stdlib internals
+    # (e.g. reflect -> unsafe), which is a false positive. Instead of relying
+    # on capslock for this, we check the source directly.
+    unsafe_imports=$(find . -name '*.go' -not -name '*_test.go' -not -path './vendor/*' \
+        -exec grep -l '"unsafe"' {} +) || true
+    if [ -n "$unsafe_imports" ]; then
+        echo "FORBIDDEN: direct unsafe import found in:"
+        echo "$unsafe_imports"
+        failed=1
+    fi
+
     # Check for forbidden capabilities in current output.
     for cap in "${FORBIDDEN_CAPS[@]}"; do
         if grep -q "$cap" "$current"; then
@@ -60,8 +65,13 @@ check() {
     done
 
     # Extract all unique capability names from baseline and current.
-    baseline_caps=$(grep -oE 'CAPABILITY_[A-Z_]+' "$BASELINE" | sort -u)
-    current_caps=$(grep -oE 'CAPABILITY_[A-Z_]+' "$current" | sort -u)
+    # Exclude CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER from comparison — capslock reports it
+    # as a false positive from stdlib internals (reflect, sync, etc. use
+    # unsafe.Pointer internally). Go 1.26+ triggers this due to changes in
+    # how capslock traces through unclassified reflect functions. The direct
+    # source check above is the real guard against unsafe usage.
+    baseline_caps=$(grep -oE 'CAPABILITY_[A-Z_]+' "$BASELINE" | grep -v CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER | sort -u)
+    current_caps=$(grep -oE 'CAPABILITY_[A-Z_]+' "$current" | grep -v CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER | sort -u)
 
     # Check for new capability names not in the baseline.
     new_caps=$(comm -13 <(echo "$baseline_caps") <(echo "$current_caps"))
@@ -80,7 +90,7 @@ check() {
             continue
         fi
         # Check each capability in current for this package
-        for cap in $(echo "$caps" | tr ', ' '\n' | grep -v '^$'); do
+        for cap in $(echo "$caps" | tr ', ' '\n' | grep -v '^$' | grep -v CAPABILITY_UNSAFE_POINTER); do
             if ! echo "$baseline_pkg_caps" | grep -q "$cap"; then
                 echo "NEW capability for $pkg: $cap"
                 failed=1