diff --git a/src/nullpii.ts b/src/nullpii.ts
index 2ea9a1f..2fcd7b5 100644
--- a/src/nullpii.ts
+++ b/src/nullpii.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import { ModelManager } from './model-manager.js';
 import { normalizeForDetection, remapSpan } from './normalize.js';
 import { escapePlaceholders, unescapePlaceholders } from './placeholder-escape.js';
 import { runRecognizers } from './recognizers.js';
+import { dropSpansInsideTemplates, findTemplateRanges } from './template-mask.js';
 import {
   GLINER_MODEL_CATEGORIES,
   GLINER_ZERO_SHOT_EXTRA,
@@ -230,8 +231,17 @@ export class NullPii {
       this.config.threshold ?? DEFAULT_POST_FILTER_THRESHOLD,
       this.config.categoryThresholds ?? {},
     );
+    // Drop spans that fall inside user-authored template syntax
+    // (`{{...}}`, `${...}`, `<%...%>`, `{%...%}`). The model routinely
+    // tags template variable names as `private_person`, which after
+    // vault substitution would produce nested-brace garbage like
+    // `{{{{PII_..._}}}}`. Template ranges are computed on the original
+    // input — escape is length-preserving so offsets transfer to the
+    // escaped-text coordinate space the spans live in.
+    const templateRanges = findTemplateRanges(text);
+    const masked = dropSpansInsideTemplates(merged, templateRanges);
     const refineOn = this.config.boundaryRefine ?? DEFAULT_BOUNDARY_REFINE;
-    const spans = refineOn ? refineSpanBoundaries(escaped, merged) : merged;
+    const spans = refineOn ? refineSpanBoundaries(escaped, masked) : masked;
 
     const session = sessionId ?? this.vault.createSession();
     logf(LOG_SCOPE, 'sanitize', {
diff --git a/src/template-mask.ts b/src/template-mask.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05c4aea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/template-mask.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import type { PiiSpan } from './types/index.js';
+
+/**
+ * Scan `text` for common templating syntax ranges. Spans falling inside
+ * one of these ranges are dropped before vault substitution so the model
+ * never gets to flag a template variable name as PII.
+ *
+ * Supported syntaxes (deliberately conservative):
+ *  - `{{ ... }}` — Mustache / Handlebars / Vue / Jinja2 expression
+ *  - `${ ... }` — JS / TS template literal
+ *  - `<% ... %>` — ERB / EJS
+ *  - `{% ... %}` — Jinja2 / Twig statement
+ *
+ * Each match covers the FULL syntactic span including the delimiters,
+ * so a recognizer span partially overlapping the opener / closer is
+ * also dropped (the alternative leaves bracket count off after vault
+ * substitution).
+ *
+ * Non-greedy match — nested `{{...}}` resolves on the inner pair, which
+ * is the desired outcome (the outer braces become bare braces, which
+ * GLiNER no longer mistakes for sentinels).
+ */
+const TEMPLATE_PATTERNS: readonly RegExp[] = [
+  /\{\{[\s\S]*?\}\}/g,
+  /\$\{[^{}]*\}/g,
+  /<%[\s\S]*?%>/g,
+  /\{%[\s\S]*?%\}/g,
+];
+
+export interface TemplateRange {
+  readonly start: number;
+  readonly end: number;
+}
+
+export function findTemplateRanges(text: string): TemplateRange[] {
+  const ranges: TemplateRange[] = [];
+  for (const re of TEMPLATE_PATTERNS) {
+    re.lastIndex = 0;
+    let m: RegExpExecArray | null = re.exec(text);
+    while (m !== null) {
+      ranges.push({ start: m.index, end: m.index + m[0].length });
+      m = re.exec(text);
+    }
+  }
+  return mergeRanges(ranges);
+}
+
+/** Drop spans that overlap ANY template range. Partial overlap is enough —
+ * a span that crosses a `{{` / `}}` boundary corrupts bracket count after
+ * vault substitution, so it must go too. */
+export function dropSpansInsideTemplates(
+  spans: readonly PiiSpan[],
+  ranges: readonly TemplateRange[],
+): PiiSpan[] {
+  if (ranges.length === 0) return [...spans];
+  return spans.filter((s) => !ranges.some((r) => overlaps(s.start, s.end, r.start, r.end)));
+}
+
+function overlaps(aStart: number, aEnd: number, bStart: number, bEnd: number): boolean {
+  return aStart < bEnd && bStart < aEnd;
+}
+
+function mergeRanges(ranges: readonly TemplateRange[]): TemplateRange[] {
+  if (ranges.length <= 1) return [...ranges];
+  const sorted = [...ranges].sort((a, b) => a.start - b.start || a.end - b.end);
+  const out: TemplateRange[] = [];
+  for (const r of sorted) {
+    const last = out[out.length - 1];
+    if (last !== undefined && r.start < last.end) {
+      out[out.length - 1] = { start: last.start, end: Math.max(last.end, r.end) };
+    } else {
+      out.push(r);
+    }
+  }
+  return out;
+}
diff --git a/test/nullpii.test.ts b/test/nullpii.test.ts
index e91252d..dcebe51 100644
--- a/test/nullpii.test.ts
+++ b/test/nullpii.test.ts
@@ -198,6 +198,46 @@ describe('NullPii e2e pipeline (mocked ONNX)', () => {
     await n.dispose();
   });
 
+  it('drops spans inside user-authored template syntax', async () => {
+    // Regression: even with PUA sentinels stripped (PR #43), the model
+    // still tagged template variable names (`short-kebab-case-slug`) as
+    // `private_person`, producing nested-brace garbage like
+    // `{{{{PII_..._}}}}` after vault substitution. The template-mask
+    // post-filter drops spans inside `{{...}}` / `${...}` / `<%...%>`.
+    // The recognizer pack does NOT match `short-kebab-case-slug` so this
+    // test relies on the post-filter, not the ML mock (which returns no
+    // spans). To simulate the ML false-positive we register a recognizer
+    // that fires inside the template — same code path.
+    const n = new NullPii({
+      modelDir: '/fake',
+      backend: 'cpu',
+      recognizers: [
+        {
+          id: 'test:fake-person',
+          pattern: /short-kebab-case-slug/g,
+          label: 'private_person',
+          confidence: 0.99,
+        },
+      ],
+    });
+    const text = 'name: {{short-kebab-case-slug}} email: alice@acme.io';
+    // Re-register the default email recognizer so the email still fires.
+    n.addRecognizer({
+      id: 'core:email',
+      pattern: /\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}\b/g,
+      label: 'private_email',
+      confidence: 0.95,
+    });
+    const out = await n.sanitize(text);
+    // Only the email survives; the template content is masked out.
+    expect(out.spans).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(out.spans[0]?.label).toBe('private_email');
+    expect(out.sanitized).toContain('{{short-kebab-case-slug}}');
+    // No nested-brace corruption.
+    expect(out.sanitized).not.toMatch(/\{\{\{\{/);
+    await n.dispose();
+  });
+
   it('init runs once across many sanitize calls', async () => {
     const n = new NullPii({ modelDir: '/fake', backend: 'cpu' });
     const r1 = await n.sanitize('First email: a@acme.io');
diff --git a/test/template-mask.test.ts b/test/template-mask.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2753ac6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/template-mask.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { dropSpansInsideTemplates, findTemplateRanges } from '../src/template-mask.js';
+import type { PiiSpan } from '../src/types/index.js';
+
+function mkSpan(start: number, end: number, text: string): PiiSpan {
+  return { label: 'private_person', start, end, text, score: 0.9 };
+}
+
+describe('findTemplateRanges', () => {
+  it('detects Mustache / Handlebars `{{...}}`', () => {
+    const text = 'hello {{name}} world';
+    expect(findTemplateRanges(text)).toEqual([{ start: 6, end: 14 }]);
+  });
+
+  it('detects JS template literal `${...}`', () => {
+    const text = 'hi ${user.name}!';
+    expect(findTemplateRanges(text)).toEqual([{ start: 3, end: 15 }]);
+  });
+
+  it('detects ERB / EJS `<%...%>`', () => {
+    const text = '<%= user.email %>';
+    expect(findTemplateRanges(text)).toEqual([{ start: 0, end: 17 }]);
+  });
+
+  it('detects Jinja2 / Twig `{%...%}`', () => {
+    const text = '{% if x %}body{% endif %}';
+    expect(findTemplateRanges(text)).toEqual([
+      { start: 0, end: 10 },
+      { start: 14, end: 25 },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('handles mixed templates and merges overlaps', () => {
+    const text = '{% if x %}{{name}}{% endif %}';
+    const ranges = findTemplateRanges(text);
+    expect(ranges).toEqual([
+      { start: 0, end: 10 },
+      { start: 10, end: 18 },
+      { start: 18, end: 29 },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('non-greedy match — separate `{{a}}` and `{{b}}` produce two ranges', () => {
+    const text = '{{a}} between {{b}}';
+    expect(findTemplateRanges(text)).toEqual([
+      { start: 0, end: 5 },
+      { start: 14, end: 19 },
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('returns empty for text without template syntax', () => {
+    expect(findTemplateRanges('plain text only')).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('dropSpansInsideTemplates', () => {
+  // Reference text: 'hello {{user_name}} send to alice@acme.io'
+  // Template range = [6, 19); email = [28, 41).
+  const templateSpan = mkSpan(8, 17, 'user_name');
+  const emailSpan: PiiSpan = {
+    label: 'private_email',
+    start: 28,
+    end: 41,
+    text: 'alice@acme.io',
+    score: 0.95,
+  };
+
+  it('drops spans fully inside a template range', () => {
+    const out = dropSpansInsideTemplates([templateSpan, emailSpan], [{ start: 6, end: 19 }]);
+    expect(out).toEqual([emailSpan]);
+  });
+
+  it('drops spans partially overlapping a template boundary', () => {
+    // Span that crosses `}}` corrupts brackets after vault substitution.
+    const crossing = mkSpan(15, 22, 'name}} s');
+    const out = dropSpansInsideTemplates([crossing, emailSpan], [{ start: 6, end: 19 }]);
+    expect(out).toEqual([emailSpan]);
+  });
+
+  it('keeps spans entirely outside template ranges', () => {
+    const out = dropSpansInsideTemplates([emailSpan], [{ start: 6, end: 19 }]);
+    expect(out).toEqual([emailSpan]);
+  });
+
+  it('no ranges → passthrough', () => {
+    const out = dropSpansInsideTemplates([emailSpan, templateSpan], []);
+    expect(out).toEqual([emailSpan, templateSpan]);
+  });
+});