diff --git a/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.test.ts b/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.test.ts
index 3cfa2db5f..2cef1596e 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.test.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.test.ts
@@ -343,3 +343,9 @@ describe('Spring service connection evidence', () => {
         expect(links(result)).toEqual([]);
     });
 });
+
+it.each(['$endpoint', 'endpoint$'])('tracks a literal identifier through a transport wrapper: %s', parameter => {
+    const compose = 'services:\n  web:\n    build: ./web\n  api:\n    image: example/api\n';
+    const source = `function load(${parameter}) { return fetch(${parameter}); }\nload("http://api:8080/items");`;
+    expect(links(buildContainerTopology([project(compose, { 'web/client.js': source })]))).toEqual(['web>api:http']);
+});
diff --git a/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.ts b/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.ts
index 51de635aa..b1735aaf7 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/architecture/container-topology.ts
@@ -300,7 +300,12 @@ function networkCall(name: string): boolean {
         || /^(?:requests|http|https|axios|urllib\.request|urllib3|grpc|redis|psycopg2?|pymysql|mysql|amqp|amqplib|net|socket|ConnectionMultiplexer|Dns)\./i.test(name)
             && /(?:get|post|put|patch|delete|request|urlopen|dial|newclient|connect|connectasync|createclient|createconnection|insecure_channel|secure_channel|gethostentry(?:async)?)$/i.test(name);
 }
-const wordIn = (code: string, name: string): boolean => new RegExp(`\\b${name.replace(/[$]/g, '\\$&')}\\b`).test(code);
+function wordIn(code: string, name: string): boolean {
+    for (const [identifier] of code.matchAll(/[A-Za-z_$][\w$]*/g)) {
+        if (identifier === name) return true;
+    }
+    return false;
+}
 interface Wrapper { parameter: number; hint: string }
 /** Bounded local argument propagation to known transport APIs, not a function-name dictionary. */
 function connectionWrappers(code: string, calls: Call[]): Map<string, Wrapper> {
diff --git a/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.test.ts b/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.test.ts
index 0cb221754..a161a1216 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.test.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.test.ts
@@ -64,3 +64,10 @@ it('follows only actual call edges across components and retains their evidence'
     expect(paths[0].edges[0]).toBe(map.evidence[0]);
     expect(entryRoutes(graph.nodes[2], map.evidence)).toEqual([]);
 });
+
+it('keeps token boundaries when dropping markup from repository prose', () => {
+    const quote = sourceQuote('README.md', 'This repository provides useful source browsing and <<script>script> examples for developers.');
+    expect(quote?.text).not.toContain('<script>');
+    expect(sourceQuote('README.md', 'This repository provides useful source<b>browsing</b> for developers.')?.text)
+        .toBe('This repository provides useful source browsing for developers.');
+});
diff --git a/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.ts b/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.ts
index d4d7abd8e..f998c827c 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/architecture/repository-guide.ts
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ export function sourceCandidates(area: RepositoryArea): string[] {
 }
 
 function plainMarkdown(text: string): string {
-    return text.replace(/!\[[^\]]*\]\([^)]*\)/g, '').replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]\([^)]*\)/g, '$1').replace(/[*_`]/g, '').replace(/<[^>]*>/g, '').trim();
+    return text.replace(/!\[[^\]]*\]\([^)]*\)/g, '').replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]\([^)]*\)/g, '$1').replace(/[*_`]/g, '').replace(/<[^>]*>/g, ' ').replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim();
 }
 
 /** Quote only repository-authored prose, never infer a responsibility from an identifier. */
diff --git a/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.test.ts b/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.test.ts
index 816f4f3be..94295e92a 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.test.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.test.ts
@@ -102,3 +102,10 @@ describe('facts read from a configuration or text file (K12)', () => {
         expect(readerFacts(reader('manage.py', 'import os\n'))).toEqual([]);
     });
 });
+
+// Removing a comment must not create a root tag that was absent from the input.
+it('does not join XML markup across removed declarations or comments', () => {
+    expect(fileFactLines('pom.xml', '<<!-- ignored -->fake/><project/>')).toContain('Root element: `<project>`.');
+    expect(fileFactLines('pom.xml', '<<?meta?>fake/><project/>')).toContain('Root element: `<project>`.');
+    expect(fileFactLines('pom.xml', '<!-- <hidden/> --><project/>')).toContain('Root element: `<project>`.');
+});
diff --git a/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.ts b/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.ts
index d2876df6d..19ce6ec9b 100644
--- a/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.ts
+++ b/graph-ui/src/browser-ai/file-facts.ts
@@ -130,8 +130,12 @@ function patternFacts(text: string): string[] {
 }
 
 function xmlFacts(text: string): string[] {
-    const root = /<([A-Za-z_][\w:.-]*)[\s>/]/.exec(text.replace(/<\?[\s\S]*?\?>|<!--[\s\S]*?-->|<![^>]*>/g, ''));
-    return root ? [words.root(quote(`<${root[1]}>`))] : [];
+    // Skip markup in the original input: deleting it could join fragments into a new tag.
+    const tokens = /<\?[\s\S]*?(?:\?>|$)|<!--[\s\S]*?(?:-->|$)|<![^>]*>|<([A-Za-z_][\w:.-]*)[\s>/]/g;
+    for (const match of text.matchAll(tokens)) {
+        if (match[1]) return [words.root(quote(`<${match[1]}>`))];
+    }
+    return [];
 }
 
 /** The structure of the text, by the kind its name gives. */
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/codeql-input-boundaries.test.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/codeql-input-boundaries.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50537d7df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/codeql-input-boundaries.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+import { afterEach, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { mkdtempSync, mkdirSync, writeFileSync, symlinkSync, rmSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { Writable } from 'node:stream';
+import { literalPattern } from './literal-pattern.mjs';
+import { serveStaticAsset } from './smoke-static-assets.mjs';
+
+const temporary = [];
+afterEach(() => { for (const path of temporary.splice(0)) rmSync(path, { recursive: true, force: true }); });
+
+it.each(['a.b', 'a+b', '(a+)+$', '[project]', 'a\\b'])('treats a project name as literal text: %s', name => {
+    const pattern = literalPattern(name, { start: true, end: true });
+    expect(pattern.test(name)).toBe(true);
+    expect(pattern.test(`prefix${name}`)).toBe(false);
+    expect(pattern.test(`${name}suffix`)).toBe(false);
+});
+
+it('does not expand project-name wildcards', () => {
+    expect(literalPattern('a.b', { start: true, end: true }).test('axb')).toBe(false);
+});
+
+function fixture() {
+    const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'cbm-static-assets-')); temporary.push(root);
+    mkdirSync(join(root, 'spike')); mkdirSync(join(root, 'node_modules')); mkdirSync(join(root, 'spike-extra'));
+    writeFileSync(join(root, 'spike', 'index.html'), 'fixture');
+    writeFileSync(join(root, 'outside.txt'), 'outside-root');
+    writeFileSync(join(root, 'spike-extra', 'outside.txt'), 'sibling-root');
+    return root;
+}
+function request(root, url) {
+    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+        const chunks = []; let status;
+        const response = new Writable({ write(chunk, encoding, done) { chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)); done(); } });
+        response.writeHead = code => { status = code; };
+        response.on('error', reject);
+        response.on('finish', () => resolve({ status, body: Buffer.concat(chunks).toString() }));
+        try { serveStaticAsset(root, { url }, response); } catch (error) { reject(error); }
+    });
+}
+
+it('serves an allowed static fixture and rejects traversal and sibling prefixes', async () => {
+    const root = fixture();
+    expect(await request(root, '/spike/index.html')).toEqual({ status: 200, body: 'fixture' });
+    expect((await request(root, '/spike/../outside.txt')).status).toBe(404);
+    expect((await request(root, '/spike/%2e%2e/outside.txt')).status).toBe(404);
+    expect((await request(root, '/spike-extra/outside.txt')).status).toBe(404);
+});
+
+it('rejects a symlink escaping an allowed static root', async () => {
+    const root = fixture();
+    symlinkSync(join(root, 'outside.txt'), join(root, 'spike', 'escape.txt'));
+    expect((await request(root, '/spike/escape.txt')).status).toBe(404);
+});
+
+it('returns not found for malformed URL encoding instead of throwing', async () => {
+    expect((await request(fixture(), '/spike/%zz')).status).toBe(404);
+});
+
+it('allows a symlink whose real target stays inside the static root', async () => {
+    const root = fixture();
+    symlinkSync(join(root, 'spike', 'index.html'), join(root, 'spike', 'alias.html'));
+    expect(await request(root, '/spike/alias.html')).toEqual({ status: 200, body: 'fixture' });
+});
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-architecture.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-architecture.mjs
index 793f71fd3..3575a0d12 100644
--- a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-architecture.mjs
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-architecture.mjs
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
  */
 
 import { chromium } from 'playwright';
+import { architectureNodeSelector, projectNamePattern } from './handtest-locators.mjs';
 import { mkdir, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { inflateSync } from 'node:zlib';
@@ -446,7 +447,7 @@ async function hoverSweep(page) {
         const hid = [];
         let shown = false;
         for (const id of ids.slice(0, 14)) {
-            const chip = page.locator(`button.architecture-node-label[data-node-id="${id.replace(/"/g, '\\"')}"]`).first();
+            const chip = page.locator(architectureNodeSelector(id)).first();
             if (!(await chip.isVisible().catch(() => false))) continue;
             await chip.hover({ timeout: 3000 }).catch(() => {});
             await wait(450);
@@ -498,7 +499,7 @@ async function k21(page) {
 
 async function switchProject(page, name) {
     await page.locator('.atlas-shell details summary', { hasText: PROJECT }).first().click();
-    const entry = page.locator('.atlas-project-results button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: new RegExp(`^${name}$`) }) }).first();
+    const entry = page.locator('.atlas-project-results button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: projectNamePattern(name) }) }).first();
     await entry.waitFor({ timeout: 20000 });
     await entry.click();
 }
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-chat.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-chat.mjs
index 974c722ad..7ef7d2363 100644
--- a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-chat.mjs
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-chat.mjs
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
  * access to Hugging Face), to switch the project while the download runs; the cache is full again after it.
  */
 
+import { literalPattern } from './literal-pattern.mjs';
 import { chromium } from 'playwright';
 import { mkdir, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
@@ -843,7 +844,7 @@ const activeWorkspace = (page) => page.locator('[data-workspace-tab][aria-select
 const sameText = (left, right) => left.replace(/\d[\d,.:]*/g, '#').replace(/\s+/g, ' ') === right.replace(/\d[\d,.:]*/g, '#').replace(/\s+/g, ' ');
 async function switchTo(page, project) {
     await page.locator('.atlas-project-switcher summary').first().click();
-    await page.locator('.atlas-project-picker button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: new RegExp(`^${project}`) }) }).first().click();
+    await page.locator('.atlas-project-picker button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: literalPattern(project, { start: true }) }) }).first().click();
 }
 
 const pageState = (page) => page.evaluate(() => ({ id: window.__probePage, origin: performance.timeOrigin, workers: window.__probeModelWorkers }));
@@ -1064,7 +1065,7 @@ async function k24(page) {
     const downloads = modelRequests.length - requestsBefore;
     await save('K24', 'legs.json', legs);
     const legOk = (leg) => leg.samePage && leg.workspace.before === leg.workspace.after && leg.modelWorkersCreated === 0 && leg.prepares === 0 && leg.lamp.every((frame) => /Agent active/.test(frame.label ?? ''))
-        && new RegExp(leg.to).test(leg.project ?? '') && leg.requestsNamingOldProject.length === 0 && leg.views.length === K24_VIEWS.length && leg.views.every((view) => !view.stale && !view.unexpected.length) && leg.galaxySameAsFresh
+        && literalPattern(leg.to).test(leg.project ?? '') && leg.requestsNamingOldProject.length === 0 && leg.views.length === K24_VIEWS.length && leg.views.every((view) => !view.stale && !view.unexpected.length) && leg.galaxySameAsFresh
         && (leg.to !== CONTROL || leg.chatHasOldTurn === false) && (leg.to !== PROJECT || leg.how !== 'switcher' || leg.chatKeptOwnTurn === true);
     check('K24', 'A project switch stays in the page: the model stays loaded (no reload, no new worker, lamp active), every workspace shows only the new project and the Galaxy its graph, no request names the old one; Back/Forward the same, all views checked',
         loaded && downloads === 0 && legs.every(legOk),
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-k27.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-k27.mjs
index 523942953..5bb5433c0 100644
--- a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-k27.mjs
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-fixes-k27.mjs
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
  * wird im Browser beantwortet und navigator.sendBeacon bleibt in der Seite.
  */
 
+import { literalPattern } from './literal-pattern.mjs';
 import { chromium } from 'playwright';
 import { mkdir, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
@@ -460,7 +461,7 @@ try {
 
     // Projektwechsel nach cbm: frischer Verlauf
     await page.locator('.atlas-shell details summary', { hasText: PROJECT }).first().click();
-    const entry = page.locator('.atlas-project-results button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: new RegExp(`^${CONTROL}$`) }) }).first();
+    const entry = page.locator('.atlas-project-results button', { has: page.locator('.atlas-project-result-name', { hasText: literalPattern(CONTROL, { start: true, end: true }) }) }).first();
     await entry.waitFor({ timeout: 20000 });
     await entry.click();
     const fresh = { position: '1/1', back: { disabled: true, title: 'Nothing to go back to yet' }, forward: { disabled: true, title: 'Nothing to go forward to' }, recent: [] };
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d04e96934
--- /dev/null
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import { literalPattern } from './literal-pattern.mjs';
+
+/** Match one architecture chip by its graph node ID. */
+export function architectureNodeSelector(id) {
+    // CSS strings need escapes for backslashes, quotes, and control characters.
+    // Terminate each hex escape so the next character cannot extend its code point.
+    const escaped = id.replace(/[\x00-\x1f\x7f"\\]/g, char => `\\${char.codePointAt(0).toString(16)} `);
+    return `button.architecture-node-label[data-node-id="${escaped}"]`;
+}
+
+/** Match a complete project name in the project chooser. */
+export function projectNamePattern(name) {
+    return literalPattern(name, { start: true, end: true });
+}
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.test.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bfcaaecaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/handtest-locators.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+import { expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { JSDOM } from 'jsdom';
+import { architectureNodeSelector, projectNamePattern } from './handtest-locators.mjs';
+
+it.each(['node', 'node"name', 'node\\name', 'node\\"name', 'node\nname', 'node\rname', 'node\fname', 'node], button'])('selects only the literal graph node ID: %j', id => {
+    const { document } = new JSDOM('<button class="architecture-node-label" data-node-id="other"></button>').window;
+    const target = document.createElement('button');
+    target.className = 'architecture-node-label';
+    target.setAttribute('data-node-id', id);
+    document.body.append(target);
+    expect(document.querySelectorAll(architectureNodeSelector(id))).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(document.querySelector(architectureNodeSelector(id))).toBe(target);
+});
+
+it.each(['a.b', 'a+b', '(project)', '[project]', 'a\\b', '*', '(a+)+$'])('matches a complete literal project name: %j', name => {
+    const pattern = projectNamePattern(name);
+    expect(pattern.test(name)).toBe(true);
+    expect(pattern.test(`prefix${name}`)).toBe(false);
+    expect(pattern.test(`${name}suffix`)).toBe(false);
+});
+
+it('does not treat a project-name dot as a wildcard', () => {
+    expect(projectNamePattern('a.b').test('axb')).toBe(false);
+});
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/literal-pattern.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/literal-pattern.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67da5c57a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/literal-pattern.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+/** Build a pattern for literal text with optional start/end anchoring. */
+export function literalPattern(value, { start = false, end = false } = {}) {
+    const escaped = value.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&');
+    return new RegExp(`${start ? '^' : ''}${escaped}${end ? '$' : ''}`);
+}
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/smoke-spike.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/smoke-spike.mjs
index 586220d07..23acd89fc 100644
--- a/graph-ui/tools/smoke-spike.mjs
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/smoke-spike.mjs
@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@ import { createServer } from 'node:http';
 import { request as httpRequest } from 'node:http';
 import net from 'node:net';
 import { mkdtemp, mkdir, writeFile, readFile, stat, rm } from 'node:fs/promises';
-import { existsSync, createReadStream } from 'node:fs';
+import { existsSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { serveStaticAsset } from './smoke-static-assets.mjs';
 import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
-import { join, dirname, resolve, extname, normalize } from 'node:path';
+import { join, dirname, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 import { promisify } from 'node:util';
 
@@ -251,8 +252,6 @@ const MIME = {
 };
 
 function startStaticProxy(port, cPort) {
-  const allowedRoots = [join(ROOT, 'spike'), join(ROOT, 'node_modules')];
-
   const server = createServer((req, res) => {
     if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url.split('?')[0] === '/rpc') {
       const chunks = [];
@@ -284,16 +283,7 @@ function startStaticProxy(port, cPort) {
       return;
     }
 
-    const urlPath = decodeURIComponent(req.url.split('?')[0]);
-    const candidate = resolve(join(ROOT, normalize(urlPath)));
-    const allowed = allowedRoots.some((root) => candidate === root || candidate.startsWith(root + '/'));
-    if (!allowed || !existsSync(candidate)) {
-      res.writeHead(404, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain; charset=utf-8' });
-      res.end('not found');
-      return;
-    }
-    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': MIME[extname(candidate)] ?? 'application/octet-stream' });
-    createReadStream(candidate).pipe(res);
+    serveStaticAsset(ROOT, req, res, MIME);
   });
 
   return new Promise((resolveServer, rejectServer) => {
diff --git a/graph-ui/tools/smoke-static-assets.mjs b/graph-ui/tools/smoke-static-assets.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..40974b98e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/graph-ui/tools/smoke-static-assets.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import { createReadStream, realpathSync, statSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { resolve, extname, sep } from 'node:path';
+
+/** Serve the smoke fixture and installed assets only, including after resolving symlinks. */
+export function serveStaticAsset(root, req, res, mime = {}) {
+    const notFound = () => {
+        res.writeHead(404, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain; charset=utf-8' });
+        res.end('not found');
+    };
+    let candidate;
+    try {
+        const urlPath = decodeURIComponent((req.url ?? '/').split('?')[0]);
+        candidate = resolve(root, `.${urlPath}`);
+    } catch {
+        notFound();
+        return;
+    }
+    for (const directory of ['spike', 'node_modules']) {
+        const allowedRoot = resolve(root, directory);
+        if (!candidate.startsWith(allowedRoot + sep)) continue;
+        try {
+            const realRoot = realpathSync(allowedRoot);
+            const realCandidate = realpathSync(candidate);
+            if (!realCandidate.startsWith(realRoot + sep)) continue;
+            if (!statSync(realCandidate).isFile()) break;
+            const stream = createReadStream(realCandidate);
+            stream.once('error', () => {
+                if (!res.headersSent) notFound();
+                else res.destroy();
+            });
+            res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': mime[extname(realCandidate)] ?? 'application/octet-stream' });
+            stream.pipe(res);
+            return;
+        } catch {
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+    notFound();
+}