diff --git a/scripts/codex-git-hooks/pre-commit b/scripts/codex-git-hooks/pre-commit
index b4c608c76..e5bdab661 100644
--- a/scripts/codex-git-hooks/pre-commit
+++ b/scripts/codex-git-hooks/pre-commit
@@ -36,10 +36,21 @@ scan_added_lines() {
     return 0
   fi
 
-  if hits="$(printf '%s\n' "$added_lines" | rg -n --pcre2 "$regex" 2>/dev/null)"; then
+  if ! command -v rg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    printf '[ECC pre-commit] ripgrep (rg) is required for secret scanning; install it and ensure it is on PATH when Git runs the hook.\n' >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  if hits="$(printf '%s\n' "$added_lines" | rg -n --pcre2 -- "$regex" 2>/dev/null)"; then
     printf '\n[ECC pre-commit] Potential secret detected (%s) in %s\n' "$name" "$file" >&2
     printf '%s\n' "$hits" | head -n 3 >&2
     has_findings=1
+  else
+    local scan_status=$?
+    if [[ "$scan_status" -ne 1 ]]; then
+      printf '[ECC pre-commit] Secret scanner failed (rg exit %s) for %s; commit blocked because scanning could not complete.\n' "$scan_status" "$file" >&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
   fi
 }
 
@@ -56,7 +67,7 @@ while IFS= read -r file; do
   scan_added_lines "$file" "GitHub classic token" 'ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]{36}'
   scan_added_lines "$file" "GitHub fine-grained token" 'github_pat_[A-Za-z0-9_]{20,}'
   scan_added_lines "$file" "AWS access key" 'AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}'
-  scan_added_lines "$file" "private key block" '-----BEGIN (RSA|EC|OPENSSH|DSA|PRIVATE) KEY-----'
+  scan_added_lines "$file" "private key block" '-----BEGIN (RSA |EC |OPENSSH |DSA |ENCRYPTED )?PRIVATE KEY-----'
   scan_added_lines "$file" "generic credential assignment" "(?i)\\b(api[_-]?key|secret|password|token)\\b\\s*[:=]\\s*['\\\"][^'\\\"]{12,}['\\\"]"
 done <<< "$staged_files"
 
diff --git a/tests/scripts/codex-hooks.test.js b/tests/scripts/codex-hooks.test.js
index 50d0cf5f0..7889fa5d6 100644
--- a/tests/scripts/codex-hooks.test.js
+++ b/tests/scripts/codex-hooks.test.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ const TOML = require('@iarna/toml');
 
 const repoRoot = path.join(__dirname, '..', '..');
 const installScript = path.join(repoRoot, 'scripts', 'codex', 'install-global-git-hooks.sh');
+const preCommitHook = path.join(repoRoot, 'scripts', 'codex-git-hooks', 'pre-commit');
 const prePushHook = path.join(repoRoot, 'scripts', 'codex-git-hooks', 'pre-push');
 const pluginCacheCheckScript = path.join(repoRoot, 'scripts', 'codex', 'check-plugin-cache.js');
 const mergeCodexConfigScript = path.join(repoRoot, 'scripts', 'codex', 'merge-codex-config.js');
@@ -164,6 +165,86 @@ if (
   passed++;
 else failed++;
 
+function runHermeticPreCommit({ content = 'safe text\n', filename = 'sample.txt', scanner = false, env = {} } = {}) {
+  const tempDir = createTempDir('codex-pre-commit-');
+  try {
+    const bashEnv = path.join(tempDir, 'bash-env');
+    const binDir = path.join(tempDir, 'bin');
+    const callsPath = path.join(tempDir, 'scanner-calls');
+    fs.mkdirSync(binDir);
+    const hookEnv = makeHermeticCodexEnv(tempDir, path.join(tempDir, '.codex'), {
+      PATH: process.env.PATH,
+      GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM: '1',
+      MSYS_NO_PATHCONV: '1',
+      ECC_SKIP_GIT_HOOKS: '0',
+      ECC_SKIP_PRECOMMIT: '0',
+      ...env,
+    });
+    const initialized = spawnSync('git', ['init', '--quiet'], { cwd: tempDir, env: hookEnv });
+    assert.strictEqual(initialized.status, 0, initialized.stderr?.toString());
+    if (content !== null) {
+      fs.writeFileSync(path.join(tempDir, filename), content);
+      const staged = spawnSync('git', ['add', '--', filename], { cwd: tempDir, env: hookEnv });
+      assert.strictEqual(staged.status, 0, staged.stderr?.toString());
+    }
+    // Keep real Git/awk available, while hiding every installed ripgrep binary.
+    fs.writeFileSync(bashEnv, `
+git_path="$(command -v git)"
+awk_path="$(command -v awk)"
+head_path="$(command -v head)"
+cat_path="$(command -v cat)"
+rg_path="$(command -v rg || true)"
+git() { "$git_path" "$@"; }
+awk() { "$awk_path" "$@"; }
+head() { "$head_path" "$@"; }
+cat() { "$cat_path" "$@"; }
+unset -f rg
+PATH="${toBashPath(binDir)}"
+${scanner ? `rg() {
+printf '%s\\n' "$*" >> "${toBashPath(callsPath)}"
+${scanner === 'real' ? '"$rg_path" "$@"' : scanner === 'finding' ? "printf '1:synthetic-scanner-finding\\n'; return 0;" : scanner === 'error' ? 'return 2;' : 'return 1;'}
+}` : ''}
+`);
+    const result = runBash(preCommitHook, {
+      env: { ...hookEnv, BASH_ENV: toBashPath(bashEnv) },
+      cwd: tempDir,
+      preservePath: false,
+    });
+    result.scannerCalls = fs.existsSync(callsPath) ? fs.readFileSync(callsPath, 'utf8').trim().split('\n') : [];
+    return result;
+  } finally {
+    cleanup(tempDir);
+  }
+}
+
+for (const [name, options, status, diagnostic] of [
+  ['blocks safe staged text when ripgrep is missing', {}, 1, /ripgrep.*required/i],
+  ['blocks a staged token when ripgrep is missing', { content: `token = "ghp_${'a'.repeat(36)}"\n` }, 1, /ripgrep.*required/i],
+  ['allows a successful scan with no findings', { scanner: true }, 0, null],
+  ['blocks a finding reported by an invoked scanner', { scanner: 'finding' }, 1, /Potential secret detected/],
+  ['blocks an invoked scanner error', { scanner: 'error' }, 1, /scanner failed.*exit 2/i],
+  ['allows safe text through the real scanner', { scanner: 'real' }, 0, null],
+  ['blocks a token through the real scanner', { scanner: 'real', content: `token = "ghp_${'a'.repeat(36)}"\n` }, 1, /Potential secret detected/],
+  ['blocks a private key through the real scanner', { scanner: 'real', content: '-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n' }, 1, /private key block/],
+  ['blocks an RSA private key through the real scanner', { scanner: 'real', content: '-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n' }, 1, /private key block/],
+  ['allows an empty index without ripgrep', { content: null }, 0, null],
+  ['allows excluded lockfiles without ripgrep', { filename: 'yarn.lock' }, 0, null],
+  ['preserves the pre-commit bypass warning', { env: { ECC_SKIP_PRECOMMIT: '1' } }, 0, /hook bypassed via env/],
+  ['preserves the global bypass warning', { env: { ECC_SKIP_GIT_HOOKS: '1' } }, 0, /hook bypassed via env/],
+]) {
+  if (test(`pre-commit ${name}`, () => {
+    const result = runHermeticPreCommit(options);
+    assert.strictEqual(result.status, status, `${result.stdout}\n${result.stderr}`);
+    if (diagnostic) assert.match(result.stderr, diagnostic);
+    else assert.strictEqual(result.stderr, '');
+    if (options.scanner) {
+      assert.ok(result.scannerCalls.length > 0, 'The scanner must actually execute');
+      assert.ok(result.scannerCalls.every(call => call.startsWith('-n --pcre2 -- ')), 'Regex must follow the option terminator');
+    }
+  })) passed++;
+  else failed++;
+}
+
 function runHermeticPrePush({
   failScript = null,
   includeCorepack = true,