diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f5ee28c..35574ce 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ Please choose versions by [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 * MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and
 * PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.
 
+## Unreleased
+
+- fix: rule-checks: gate the two `go-licensing` MUST rules on real repo visibility instead of assuming every repo is public. `check_license_file_required` was a bare `[ ! -f LICENSE ]` — its own message said "Public Go projects must…" but nothing checked whether the repo was public, so the guide's documented private-repo exemption was never implemented. `check_readme_license_section` had the same gap. Visibility now comes from `gh repo view --json isPrivate` (memoised, and only called when a finding would otherwise fire), and both rules **fail open** when it cannot be determined — a MUST-tier false positive blocks every PR in an org, while a missed finding on a public repo surfaces at the next review. `license-file-required` is also now actually Go-scoped (requires `go.mod`), matching its own docs. Measured impact: 69 of 73 non-archived `Seibert-Data` repos deliberately carry no LICENSE, so the rule was blocking essentially every PR org-wide; one such PR had to be admin-merged to land.
+- fix: go-licensing-guide: replace the host-based visibility heuristic ("hosted on `github.com` → public") with the repo's `isPrivate` flag. The Octopus migration moved 73 private repos onto `github.com`, so host stopped implying visibility — this was the root cause of the false positive above. Documents the fail-open behaviour.
+
 ## v0.42.2
 
 - fix: ast-grep-runner: pass finding payloads to `jq` via `--slurpfile` instead of `--argjson`, fixing `Argument list too long` on large result sets. Both sites moved: the per-owner merge and the final assembly. Payloads were being read out of files into shell variables and pushed back through `argv`; `jq` now reads the files directly, so payload size is irrelevant. Scales with finding count and matched-text size, not file count — reproduced with 1,956 findings from 429 files, which previously produced an **empty output file and exit 0**.
diff --git a/docs/go-licensing-guide.md b/docs/go-licensing-guide.md
index bac80a1..259fd06 100644
--- a/docs/go-licensing-guide.md
+++ b/docs/go-licensing-guide.md
@@ -6,13 +6,17 @@ This guide covers how to properly handle licensing in Go projects.
 
 Licensing requirements depend on whether the repository is **public** or **private/internal**:
 
-| | Public (GitHub) | Private/Internal (Bitbucket) |
+| | Public | Private/Internal |
 |---|---|---|
 | LICENSE file | Required | Not needed |
 | README license section | Required | Not needed |
 | Source file headers | Required | Not needed |
 
-**How to detect**: If the repo is hosted on `github.com` → public. If hosted on `bitbucket.seibert.tools` or similar internal hosting → private/internal.
+**How to detect**: read the repo's own visibility flag — `gh repo view --json isPrivate -q .isPrivate`. `false` → public, `true` → private/internal.
+
+**Do NOT infer visibility from the host.** `github.com` used to mean public and `bitbucket.seibert.tools` private, but the Octopus migration moved 73 private `Seibert-Data` repos onto `github.com`. Host-based detection now misclassifies nearly every private repo as public — it was the cause of a MUST-tier false positive that blocked merges org-wide (fixed 2026-08).
+
+**When visibility cannot be determined** (no `gh`, no remote, offline, not a repo), these rules **do not fire**. They are MUST-tier, so a false positive blocks every PR in the org, while a missed finding on a public repo is caught at the next review.
 
 The rest of this guide applies to **public repositories only**.
 
diff --git a/scripts/rule-checks.sh b/scripts/rule-checks.sh
index 25df26f..45e5701 100755
--- a/scripts/rule-checks.sh
+++ b/scripts/rule-checks.sh
@@ -100,27 +100,67 @@ changed_file_matches() {
   return 1
 }
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# repo_visibility — prints "public", "private" or "unknown". Memoised: one
+# `gh` call per run at most, and only when a licensing rule is about to fire.
+#
+# Host is NOT a proxy for visibility. Private repos live on github.com too, so
+# the only reliable signal is the repo's own isPrivate flag.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+REPO_VISIBILITY_CACHE=""
+repo_visibility() {
+  if [ -n "$REPO_VISIBILITY_CACHE" ]; then
+    printf '%s' "$REPO_VISIBILITY_CACHE"
+    return 0
+  fi
+  local vis="unknown" out
+  if command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    if out=$( (cd "$TARGET_DIR" && gh repo view --json isPrivate -q .isPrivate) 2>/dev/null ); then
+      case "$out" in
+        true)  vis="private" ;;
+        false) vis="public" ;;
+      esac
+    fi
+  fi
+  REPO_VISIBILITY_CACHE="$vis"
+  printf '%s' "$vis"
+}
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# repo_is_public — true only when the repo is KNOWN public.
+#
+# Fails open on "unknown" (no gh, no remote, offline, not a repo) by design:
+# these are MUST-tier rules, so a false positive blocks merges on every PR in
+# the org, while a missed finding on a public repo surfaces at the next review.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+repo_is_public() {
+  [ "$(repo_visibility)" = "public" ]
+}
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # RULE: go-licensing/license-file-required (MUST)
-# Always run (cheap, applies to any Go project).
+# Public Go repos only — see docs/go-licensing-guide.md § Public vs Private.
+# Ordered cheapest-first so the `gh` call only happens when a finding would
+# otherwise be emitted.
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 check_license_file_required() {
-  local license_file="$TARGET_DIR/LICENSE"
-  if [ ! -f "$license_file" ]; then
-    emit_finding \
-      "license-assistant" \
-      "go-licensing/license-file-required" \
-      "MUST" \
-      "$TARGET_DIR/LICENSE" \
-      0 0 \
-      "(file absent)" \
-      "No LICENSE file found at repo root. Public Go projects must have a root LICENSE file. See docs/go-licensing-guide.md."
-  fi
+  [ -f "$TARGET_DIR/LICENSE" ] && return 0
+  [ -f "$TARGET_DIR/go.mod" ] || return 0   # rule is Go-scoped per its own docs
+  repo_is_public || return 0
+  emit_finding \
+    "license-assistant" \
+    "go-licensing/license-file-required" \
+    "MUST" \
+    "$TARGET_DIR/LICENSE" \
+    0 0 \
+    "(file absent)" \
+    "No LICENSE file found at repo root. Public Go projects must have a root LICENSE file. See docs/go-licensing-guide.md."
 }
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # RULE: go-licensing/readme-license-section-required (MUST)
 # Run when README.md changed, or always (cheap grep).
+# Public repos only — same visibility gate as license-file-required.
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 check_readme_license_section() {
   changed_file_matches "*README.md" || return 0
@@ -129,6 +169,7 @@ check_readme_license_section() {
     return 0  # no README — different issue, not this rule
   fi
   if ! grep -qE '^## License' "$readme"; then
+    repo_is_public || return 0
     local line
     line=$(wc -l < "$readme")
     emit_finding \