diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 646cd65..bc29faa 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -22,3 +22,11 @@ repos:
             "-d {extends: relaxed, rules: {line-length: disable}, ignore: chart}",
             "-s",
           ]
+  - repo: local
+    hooks:
+      - id: policy-path-scope
+        name: policy rule paths stay within their own directory
+        entry: python3 scripts/check_policy_paths.py
+        language: python
+        additional_dependencies: [pyyaml]
+        files: ^policies/.*\.yaml$
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2aab8c3..ffe9cd9 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.PHONY: init plan apply format
+.PHONY: init plan apply format check-policies
 
 VAULT_AUTH_METHOD ?= approle
 VAULT_K8S_ROLE ?= woodpecker_terraform_vault
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ apply: init
 	@$(call vault_env) && \
 	terragrunt run --all --parallelism 2 --non-interactive apply
 
+check-policies:
+	@python3 scripts/check_policy_paths.py
+
 format:
 	@echo "Formatting OpenTofu files..."
 	@tofu fmt -recursive .
diff --git a/scripts/check_policy_paths.py b/scripts/check_policy_paths.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..415883f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check_policy_paths.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Fail when a rule path in policies/**/*.yaml grants outside the policy's own directory."""
+import glob
+import sys
+from pathlib import PurePosixPath
+
+import yaml
+
+# kv-v2 inserts one of these directly after the mount; it is not part of the scope.
+KV_API_SEGMENTS = {"data", "metadata", "delete", "undelete", "destroy"}
+
+ALLOWED = {
+    ("policies/global-root.yaml", "*"),  # root policy
+    ("policies/gpg/admin.yaml", "sys/plugins/catalog/secret/vault-plugin-secrets-gpg"),  # plugin catalog registration
+    ("policies/kv/service/terraform/authentik.yaml", "kv/data/kubernetes/namespace/+/default/oauth-credentials"),  # terraform writes k8s namespace secrets
+    ("policies/kv/service/terraform/authentik.yaml", "kv/data/kubernetes/namespace/logging/default/vlogs-oauth-credentials"),  # terraform writes k8s namespace secrets
+    ("policies/kv/service/terraform/enc-encapi-environment.yaml", "kv/data/kubernetes/namespace/encapi/default/environment"),  # terraform writes k8s namespace secrets
+    ("policies/kv/service/terraform/rancher.yaml", "kv/data/kubernetes/namespace/cattle-system/default/oauth-credentials"),  # terraform writes k8s namespace secrets
+    ("policies/identity/group/admin.yaml", "identity/group-alias"),  # group-alias endpoint for the same groups
+    ("policies/identity/group/admin.yaml", "identity/group-alias/*"),  # group-alias endpoint for the same groups
+    ("policies/identity/group/admin.yaml", "identity/lookup/group"),  # group lookup endpoint
+    ("policies/sys/policy/admin.yaml", "sys/policies/acl"),  # dir is policy, API path is policies
+    ("policies/sys/policy/admin.yaml", "sys/policies/acl/*"),  # dir is policy, API path is policies
+    ("policies/sys/mounts/admin.yaml", "sys/mounts-tune/*"),  # sibling API path of the mounts endpoint
+}
+
+
+def policy_scope(path):
+    parts = PurePosixPath(path).parts
+    rel = PurePosixPath(*parts[parts.index("policies") + 1:])
+    # a policy at the policies/ root has no directory, so its own name is the scope
+    return "policies" / rel, rel.parent if rel.parent.parts else PurePosixPath(rel.stem)
+
+
+def rule_scope(rule_path):
+    path = PurePosixPath(rule_path)
+    if len(path.parts) > 1 and path.parts[1] in KV_API_SEGMENTS:
+        return PurePosixPath(path.parts[0], *path.parts[2:])
+    return path
+
+
+def violations(files):
+    for f in files:
+        key, scope = policy_scope(f)
+        rules = (yaml.safe_load(open(f)) or {}).get("rules")
+        if not rules:
+            yield f"{f}: no rules"
+            continue
+        for rule in rules:
+            path = rule.get("path")
+            if not path:
+                yield f"{f}: rule without a path"
+            elif (str(key), path) not in ALLOWED and not rule_scope(path).is_relative_to(scope):
+                yield f'{f}: rule path "{path}" escapes policy scope "{scope}"'
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    found = list(violations(sys.argv[1:] or sorted(glob.glob("policies/**/*.yaml", recursive=True))))
+    for v in found:
+        print(v)
+    sys.exit(1 if found else 0)
diff --git a/scripts/test_check_policy_paths.py b/scripts/test_check_policy_paths.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fd6f26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/test_check_policy_paths.py
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Run with: python3 scripts/test_check_policy_paths.py"""
+import sys
+import tempfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).parent))
+from check_policy_paths import violations
+
+TMP = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp())
+
+
+def check(rel, *rule_paths):
+    f = TMP / rel
+    f.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    f.write_text("rules:\n" + "".join(f'  - path: "{p}"\n' for p in rule_paths))
+    return [v.replace(f"{TMP}/", "") for v in violations([str(f)])]
+
+
+# in scope, including kv-v2 data/metadata segments and any kv-v2 mount
+assert check("policies/sys/mounts/admin.yaml", "sys/mounts", "sys/mounts/*") == []
+assert check("policies/rundeck/rundeck.yaml", "rundeck/data/*", "rundeck/metadata/*") == []
+assert check("policies/kv/service/authentik/oidc-vault/read.yaml", "kv/data/service/authentik/oidc-vault") == []
+
+# + and * below the directory are fine
+assert check("policies/kv/service/vault/read.yaml", "kv/data/service/vault/+/+/auth_backend/*") == []
+assert check("policies/kubernetes/au/admin.yaml", "kubernetes/au/+/config") == []
+
+# + standing in for a literal directory segment is not
+assert check("policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/ghp/write.yaml", "kv/data/service/vault/+/+/ghp/config") == [
+    'policies/kv/service/vault/au/syd1/ghp/write.yaml: rule path '
+    '"kv/data/service/vault/+/+/ghp/config" escapes policy scope "kv/service/vault/au/syd1/ghp"'
+]
+
+# a sibling API path is not a prefix match
+assert check("policies/sys/thing/admin.yaml", "sys/thing-tune/*") == [
+    'policies/sys/thing/admin.yaml: rule path "sys/thing-tune/*" escapes policy scope "sys/thing"'
+]
+
+# out of tree entirely
+assert check("policies/kv/foo/bar/baz.yaml", "kv/data/foo/baz/bar") == [
+    'policies/kv/foo/bar/baz.yaml: rule path "kv/data/foo/baz/bar" escapes policy scope "kv/foo/bar"'
+]
+
+# allowlisted outliers pass
+assert check("policies/global-root.yaml", "*") == []
+assert check("policies/sys/policy/admin.yaml", "sys/policies/acl", "sys/policies/acl/*") == []
+assert check("policies/sys/mounts/admin.yaml", "sys/mounts-tune/*") == []
+
+# malformed policies fail
+(TMP / "policies/empty.yaml").write_text("auth:\n  approle:\n    - x\n")
+assert list(violations([str(TMP / "policies/empty.yaml")]))[0].endswith(": no rules")
+(TMP / "policies/nopath.yaml").write_text("rules:\n  - capabilities:\n      - read\n")
+assert list(violations([str(TMP / "policies/nopath.yaml")]))[0].endswith(": rule without a path")
+
+print("ok")