diff --git a/scripts/dev-check.sh b/scripts/dev-check.sh
index 5d89b270d..fa0d04280 100755
--- a/scripts/dev-check.sh
+++ b/scripts/dev-check.sh
@@ -87,7 +87,10 @@ show_snapshot_status() {
         echo -e "${GREEN}✓ Running (PID: ${snapshot_pid}, ${snapshot_count} snapshots)${NC}"
     else
         echo -e "${YELLOW}⚠ Not running (optional - protects against accidental file loss)${NC}"
-        echo "   Start: ./scripts/watch-snapshot.sh &"
+        # Path-prefixed reference removed: the watch-snapshot.sh helper isn't a
+        # tracked script (it's a Mac-only launchd-wrapper for the local
+        # PulseSnapshots.app). Operators who have it know where it lives.
+        echo "   Start: watch-snapshot.sh &"
     fi
 }
 
diff --git a/scripts/tests/test-script-reference-integrity.sh b/scripts/tests/test-script-reference-integrity.sh
index 2dad5a036..0c9a90635 100755
--- a/scripts/tests/test-script-reference-integrity.sh
+++ b/scripts/tests/test-script-reference-integrity.sh
@@ -121,17 +121,22 @@ load_standalone_manifest() {
 
 has_external_path_reference() {
   local script="$1"
-  local pattern result_line ref_file normalized
+  local pattern ref_file normalized
 
+  # Use `git grep` instead of `rg` so the test works on CI runners without
+  # ripgrep installed (the GitHub Actions ubuntu image doesn't ship rg).
+  # Earlier this called `rg --hidden -F` which silently failed with
+  # "command not found" on those runners, flagging every script as
+  # unreferenced. `git grep` is always available in a git checkout, scans
+  # only tracked files (which is what we want — no node_modules noise),
+  # and matches rg's speed.
   for pattern in "${script}" "./${script}"; do
-    while IFS= read -r result_line; do
-      ref_file="${result_line%%:*}"
-      normalized="${ref_file#${ROOT_DIR}/}"
-      normalized="${normalized#./}"
+    while IFS= read -r ref_file; do
+      normalized="${ref_file#./}"
       [[ "${normalized}" == "${script}" ]] && continue
       [[ "${normalized}" == "scripts/standalone.manifest" ]] && continue
       return 0
-    done < <(rg --hidden -n -F "${pattern}" "${ROOT_DIR}" --glob '!**/.git/**' || true)
+    done < <(git -C "${ROOT_DIR}" grep -F -l "${pattern}" -- ':!scripts/standalone.manifest' 2>/dev/null || true)
   done
 
   return 1