diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 89cf178..d9f4063 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Fixed
+- **Unanchored built-in directory exclude patterns dropped legitimate directories**: `ext/`, `examples?/`, `tests?/`, `php4/`, `dev-bin/`, `.github/`, `.gitlab/` behaved as substring matches, so e.g. `Text/` and `Context/` were treated as `ext/` and silently omitted from the scoped output. The seven patterns now anchor to path-start or immediately after `/`.
+
+---
+
 ## 1.2.5 - 2026-04-07
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/src/Config/Config.php b/src/Config/Config.php
index 0b39331..e2e3a77 100644
--- a/src/Config/Config.php
+++ b/src/Config/Config.php
@@ -24,14 +24,14 @@ class Config
         '/\\.phpunit/i',
         '/\\.editorconfig$/',
         '/\\.gitignore$/',
-        '/\\.github\\//i',
-        '/\\.gitlab\\//i',
-        '/examples?\\//i',
-        '/ext\\//i',
-        '/php4\\//i',
-        '/tests?\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)\\.github\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)\\.gitlab\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)examples?\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)ext\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)php4\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)tests?\\//i',
         '/\\bbin\\//i',
-        '/dev-bin\\//i',
+        '/(?:^|\\/)dev-bin\\//i',
         '/Makefile$/',
         '/phpunit\\.xml(\\.dist)?$/i',
         '/\\.travis\\.yml$/',
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Config/BuiltInExcludePatternsTest.php b/tests/Unit/Config/BuiltInExcludePatternsTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b858411
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Config/BuiltInExcludePatternsTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace VeronaLabs\WpScoper\Tests\Unit\Config;
+
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+use VeronaLabs\WpScoper\Config\Config;
+
+class BuiltInExcludePatternsTest extends TestCase
+{
+    private const P_GITHUB   = '/(?:^|\\/)\\.github\\//i';
+    private const P_GITLAB   = '/(?:^|\\/)\\.gitlab\\//i';
+    private const P_EXAMPLES = '/(?:^|\\/)examples?\\//i';
+    private const P_EXT      = '/(?:^|\\/)ext\\//i';
+    private const P_PHP4     = '/(?:^|\\/)php4\\//i';
+    private const P_TESTS    = '/(?:^|\\/)tests?\\//i';
+    private const P_DEV_BIN  = '/(?:^|\\/)dev-bin\\//i';
+
+    public function testAnchoredPatternsAreDeclaredAsBuiltIn(): void
+    {
+        $patterns = Config::fromArray([
+            'namespace_prefix' => 'Test\\Deps',
+            'packages' => [],
+        ], '/tmp')->getExcludePatterns();
+
+        foreach (
+            [
+                self::P_GITHUB,
+                self::P_GITLAB,
+                self::P_EXAMPLES,
+                self::P_EXT,
+                self::P_PHP4,
+                self::P_TESTS,
+                self::P_DEV_BIN,
+            ] as $pattern
+        ) {
+            $this->assertContains($pattern, $patterns);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider directoryPatternMatchProvider
+     */
+    public function testBuiltInDirectoryPatternMatchesExpectedPaths(
+        string $pattern,
+        string $relativePath,
+        bool $shouldMatch
+    ): void {
+        $this->assertSame($shouldMatch, preg_match($pattern, $relativePath) === 1);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @return array<string, array{0: string, 1: string, 2: bool}>
+     */
+    public static function directoryPatternMatchProvider(): array
+    {
+        return [
+            '.github at root matches'             => [self::P_GITHUB,   '.github/workflows/ci.yml', true],
+            '.github nested matches'              => [self::P_GITHUB,   'src/.github/foo.php',      true],
+            'notgithub/ does not match'           => [self::P_GITHUB,   'notgithub/foo.php',        false],
+
+            '.gitlab at root matches'             => [self::P_GITLAB,   '.gitlab/ci.yml',           true],
+            '.gitlab nested matches'              => [self::P_GITLAB,   'src/.gitlab/foo.php',      true],
+            'notgitlab/ does not match'           => [self::P_GITLAB,   'notgitlab/foo.php',        false],
+
+            'example/ at root matches'            => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'example/foo.php',          true],
+            'examples/ at root matches'           => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'examples/foo.php',         true],
+            'examples/ nested matches'            => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'src/examples/foo.php',     true],
+            'MyExamples/ does not match'          => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'MyExamples/foo.php',       false],
+            'bad-examples/ does not match'        => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'bad-examples/foo.php',     false],
+            'nested MyExamples/ does not match'   => [self::P_EXAMPLES, 'src/MyExamples/foo.php',   false],
+
+            'ext/ at root matches'                => [self::P_EXT,      'ext/Foo.php',              true],
+            'ext/ nested matches'                 => [self::P_EXT,      'src/ext/Foo.php',          true],
+            'Text/ does not match'                => [self::P_EXT,      'Text/Foo.php',             false],
+            'Context/ does not match'             => [self::P_EXT,      'Context/Foo.php',          false],
+            'nested Text/ does not match'         => [self::P_EXT,      'src/Text/Foo.php',         false],
+
+            'php4/ at root matches'               => [self::P_PHP4,     'php4/foo.php',             true],
+            'php4/ nested matches'                => [self::P_PHP4,     'src/php4/foo.php',         true],
+            'graphql4/ does not match'            => [self::P_PHP4,     'graphql4/foo.php',         false],
+
+            'test/ at root matches'               => [self::P_TESTS,    'test/foo.php',             true],
+            'tests/ at root matches'              => [self::P_TESTS,    'tests/foo.php',            true],
+            'tests/ nested matches'               => [self::P_TESTS,    'src/tests/foo.php',        true],
+            'UnitTests/ does not match'           => [self::P_TESTS,    'UnitTests/foo.php',        false],
+            'apitest/ does not match'             => [self::P_TESTS,    'apitest/foo.php',          false],
+
+            'dev-bin/ at root matches'            => [self::P_DEV_BIN,  'dev-bin/foo.php',          true],
+            'dev-bin/ nested matches'             => [self::P_DEV_BIN,  'src/dev-bin/foo.php',      true],
+            'my-dev-bin/ does not match'          => [self::P_DEV_BIN,  'my-dev-bin/foo.php',       false],
+        ];
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Config/ConfigTest.php b/tests/Unit/Config/ConfigTest.php
index 71b6822..7da22b2 100644
--- a/tests/Unit/Config/ConfigTest.php
+++ b/tests/Unit/Config/ConfigTest.php
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@ public function testDefaultValues(): void
         $this->assertSame([], $config->getExcludePackages());
         // Built-in patterns are always included
         $this->assertContains('/\\.md$/i', $config->getExcludePatterns());
-        $this->assertContains('/examples?\\//i', $config->getExcludePatterns());
-        $this->assertContains('/ext\\//i', $config->getExcludePatterns());
+        $this->assertContains('/(?:^|\\/)examples?\\//i', $config->getExcludePatterns());
+        $this->assertContains('/(?:^|\\/)ext\\//i', $config->getExcludePatterns());
         $this->assertSame(['views', 'templates', 'resources'], $config->getExcludeDirectories());
         $this->assertFalse($config->shouldDeleteVendorPackages());
         $this->assertTrue($config->shouldUpdateCallSites());