diff --git a/.github/workflows/auto-merge.yml b/.github/workflows/auto-merge.yml
index f5b5bbc98..f4c6194b2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/auto-merge.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/auto-merge.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Auto-merge — nobody is in the merge loop.
 #
 # Green, ready PRs merge themselves and deploy themselves. The policy lives in
-# ONE place for the whole fleet — catomean/dotfiles,
+# ONE place for the whole fleet — bitbaum/dotfiles,
 # scripts/ci/auto-merge-sweep.sh — and this file only says "run it, with these
 # settings".
 #
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ permissions:
 
 jobs:
   sweep:
-    uses: catomean/dotfiles/.github/workflows/auto-merge-sweep.yml@master
+    uses: bitbaum/dotfiles/.github/workflows/auto-merge-sweep.yml@master
     with:
       base_branch: main
       ci_workflow: ci.yml
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index a2b4c5369..28637ab7f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,23 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: npm ci
 
+      - name: Every external `uses:` names a canonical owner, not a redirect
+        # Twice in two days an owner rename stopped every merge and deploy in
+        # this repo: `maonakamoto` → `catomean` (2026-08-26), then the move to
+        # the `bitbaum` org (2026-08-28). REST and git follow a rename redirect,
+        # so every normal way of checking says the reference is fine; the
+        # Actions resolver does not follow it and dies before any step exists,
+        # with no readable log. PRs stay green and clean the whole time — the
+        # red run is on main, under a workflow nobody opens.
+        #
+        # Deliberately NOT part of `npm run verify`: verify is the local/CI SSOT
+        # bundle and must stay offline and deterministic. This one needs the API
+        # to answer what a repo is really called, so it lives here and no-ops
+        # without a token.
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+        run: node scripts/ci/check-workflow-refs.mjs
+
       - name: Verify (docs + type-check + routes + lint + unit — same as local)
         # SSOT for "green": the pre-build gate is defined ONCE as the `verify`
         # npm script and called verbatim here, so `npm run verify` locally and CI
@@ -273,7 +290,11 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 0
 
       - name: Secret scan (gitleaks)
-        # Free for public repos; no license needed. Fails the job on any finding.
+        # Runs the MIT-licensed gitleaks CLI directly. gitleaks-ACTION is free
+        # for personal accounts only: when these repos moved into the `bitbaum`
+        # organisation it began refusing to run ("License key is required") and
+        # this job went red on every PR — blocking the merge queue while
+        # scanning nothing at all. The CLI has no such restriction.
         #
         # Skipped on workflow_dispatch, and only there. On push and pull_request
         # the action scans the incoming commits; a dispatched run has no such
@@ -290,9 +311,7 @@ jobs:
         # triggers nothing), so without this every automated merge left main red
         # and CD, which chains off green CI, never deployed.
         if: github.event_name != 'workflow_dispatch'
-        uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v3
-        env:
-          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: bash scripts/ci/secret-scan.sh
 
       - name: Setup Node.js
         uses: actions/setup-node@v7
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index e4a91c423..1d3e0ed45 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ push branch → open PR → CI green → auto-merge.yml squash-merges it
 
 `.github/workflows/auto-merge.yml` calls the fleet's canonical sweep — the
 policy no longer lives in this repo. It is defined once in
-`maonakamoto/dotfiles`, `scripts/ci/auto-merge-sweep.sh`, and a fix made to a
+`bitbaum/dotfiles`, `scripts/ci/auto-merge-sweep.sh`, and a fix made to a
 local copy here would reach nobody. The sweep merges **one** PR per sweep, and
 only when: it is not a draft, carries no hold label, every check has finished
 green, GitHub calls it cleanly mergeable, and main's own CI is currently green. One car per sweep is deliberate — a PR's
diff --git a/scripts/ci/check-workflow-refs.mjs b/scripts/ci/check-workflow-refs.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1e2df7821
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ci/check-workflow-refs.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Every `uses:` that points at another repository must name that repository's
+ * CANONICAL owner — not a name that merely redirects to it.
+ *
+ * This exists because the same outage happened twice in two days:
+ *
+ *   2026-08-26  the account `maonakamoto` was renamed to `catomean`
+ *   2026-08-28  the repos moved to the organisation `bitbaum`
+ *
+ * Both times every merge and every deploy in this repo stopped, and both times
+ * nothing looked wrong. GitHub redirects a renamed owner for the REST API and
+ * for git remotes — `gh api repos/<old>/dotfiles` still answers, `git push` to
+ * the old remote still works — so every way a human normally checks says the
+ * reference is fine. The Actions resolver is the one consumer that does NOT
+ * follow the redirect. It fails before any step exists, with "This run likely
+ * failed because of a workflow file issue" and no readable log.
+ *
+ * The signal is the dangerous shape: pull requests stay GREEN, mergeable and
+ * clean. The red run is on main, under a workflow nobody opens. Work simply
+ * stops shipping.
+ *
+ * THE CHECK: ask the REST API what each referenced repo is really called. That
+ * is precisely the discrepancy — REST resolves the redirect and reports the
+ * canonical `full_name`, Actions does not resolve it at all. If those two
+ * disagree, the workflow is already broken, whether or not it has run yet.
+ *
+ * A static allowlist could not do this: after a rename the workflow file and
+ * the allowlist would both hold the same stale name and agree with each other.
+ * Only asking GitHub what the repo is called today can tell.
+ *
+ * Runs in CI, where GITHUB_TOKEN is present. Skips (exit 0) without a token so
+ * a local `npm run verify` does not depend on the network — CI is where this
+ * has to hold.
+ */
+
+import { readdirSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+
+const WORKFLOW_DIR = '.github/workflows';
+const token = process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN || process.env.GH_TOKEN;
+
+if (!token) {
+  console.log('[check-workflow-refs] no GITHUB_TOKEN — skipping (this gate runs in CI)');
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+/**
+ * `uses: owner/repo/path@ref` and `uses: owner/repo@ref`.
+ * Local (`./.github/...`) and container (`docker://`) references have no owner
+ * to be wrong about, so they are not matched.
+ */
+const USES = /^\s*uses:\s*([A-Za-z0-9][\w.-]*)\/([\w.-]+)(?:\/[^@\s]+)?@/gm;
+
+const refs = new Map(); // "owner/repo" -> Set of workflow files
+
+for (const file of readdirSync(WORKFLOW_DIR).filter(f => /\.ya?ml$/.test(f))) {
+  const text = readFileSync(join(WORKFLOW_DIR, file), 'utf8');
+  for (const [, owner, repo] of text.matchAll(USES)) {
+    const key = `${owner}/${repo}`;
+    refs.set(key, (refs.get(key) ?? new Set()).add(file));
+  }
+}
+
+const problems = [];
+let checked = 0;
+
+for (const [ref, files] of refs) {
+  const res = await fetch(`https://api.github.com/repos/${ref}`, {
+    headers: {
+      authorization: `Bearer ${token}`,
+      accept: 'application/vnd.github+json',
+      'user-agent': 'orangecat-check-workflow-refs',
+    },
+  });
+
+  if (res.status === 404) {
+    problems.push(`${ref} does not exist (referenced by ${[...files].join(', ')})`);
+    continue;
+  }
+
+  if (!res.ok) {
+    // Rate limiting or an outage is "could not look", never "looks fine".
+    console.error(`[check-workflow-refs] could not resolve ${ref}: HTTP ${res.status}`);
+    process.exit(2);
+  }
+
+  const { full_name: canonical } = await res.json();
+  checked += 1;
+
+  if (canonical.toLowerCase() !== ref.toLowerCase()) {
+    problems.push(
+      `${ref} is a REDIRECT to ${canonical} — REST and git follow it, the Actions ` +
+        `resolver does NOT, so ${[...files].join(', ')} will fail to load with no ` +
+        `usable log. Change the reference to ${canonical}.`
+    );
+  }
+}
+
+if (problems.length > 0) {
+  console.error('[check-workflow-refs] FAIL');
+  for (const p of problems) {
+    console.error(`  ${p}`);
+  }
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+console.log(`[check-workflow-refs] OK — ${checked} external workflow reference(s), all canonical.`);
diff --git a/scripts/ci/secret-scan.sh b/scripts/ci/secret-scan.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..63157b77b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ci/secret-scan.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Scan the commits this run is actually about for leaked secrets.
+#
+# WHY NOT gitleaks-action: it is free for personal accounts only. When these
+# repos moved into the `bitbaum` organisation the action began refusing to run
+# — "[bitbaum] is an organization. License key is required." — and the job went
+# red on every PR, blocking the whole merge queue while scanning nothing. The
+# gitleaks CLI is MIT and has no such restriction, so this runs the scanner
+# directly and keeps the coverage the action used to give.
+#
+# THE TRAP THIS GUARDS: `gitleaks` exits 0 on an EMPTY commit range. A range
+# that comes out empty — a force-push, a missing base ref, a shallow clone —
+# therefore reports success having examined nothing, which is the worst possible
+# outcome for a security gate: not "no secrets", but "no look", wearing a green
+# tick. So the range is computed first and an empty one is a hard failure.
+#
+# Deliberately scans a RANGE, not all of history. There are ~173 pre-existing
+# findings in 2025-era commits that only a history rewrite can clear; scanning
+# everything would make this permanently red and teach everyone to ignore it.
+# Coverage is unaffected — every commit passes through a PR run before it can
+# merge.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+GITLEAKS_VERSION="${GITLEAKS_VERSION:-8.30.1}"
+
+case "${GITHUB_EVENT_NAME:-}" in
+  pull_request)
+    base="$(jq -r '.pull_request.base.sha' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH")"
+    head="$(jq -r '.pull_request.head.sha' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH")"
+    ;;
+  push)
+    base="$(jq -r '.before' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH")"
+    head="${GITHUB_SHA}"
+    # A new branch (and a first push) reports an all-zero "before". There is no
+    # range to compute, so scan just the tip commit rather than inventing one.
+    if [ -z "$base" ] || [ "$base" = "null" ] || [ "$base" = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000" ]; then
+      base="${head}~1"
+    fi
+    ;;
+  *)
+    echo "secret-scan: unsupported event '${GITHUB_EVENT_NAME:-none}' — refusing to guess a range" >&2
+    exit 2
+    ;;
+esac
+
+if ! git cat-file -e "${base}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then
+  echo "secret-scan: base commit ${base} is not in this clone (needs fetch-depth: 0)" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+count="$(git rev-list --count "${base}..${head}")"
+echo "secret-scan: ${count} commit(s) in ${base:0:8}..${head:0:8}"
+
+if [ "$count" -eq 0 ]; then
+  # Never let "nothing to scan" read as "nothing found".
+  echo "secret-scan: EMPTY range — gitleaks would exit 0 having scanned nothing" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+curl -sSfL "https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/releases/download/v${GITLEAKS_VERSION}/gitleaks_${GITLEAKS_VERSION}_linux_x64.tar.gz" \
+  | tar -xz -C /tmp gitleaks
+chmod +x /tmp/gitleaks
+
+/tmp/gitleaks git . \
+  --log-opts="${base}..${head}" \
+  --redact \
+  --verbose \
+  --exit-code 1