diff --git a/src/pipeline/pipeline_incremental.c b/src/pipeline/pipeline_incremental.c
index bf71a1f84..aa7d04321 100644
--- a/src/pipeline/pipeline_incremental.c
+++ b/src/pipeline/pipeline_incremental.c
@@ -338,7 +338,10 @@ static int semantic_manifest_walk_controls(semantic_manifest_builder_t *builder,
     }
     cbm_dir_t *dir = cbm_opendir(abs_dir);
     if (!dir) {
-        return CBM_NOT_FOUND;
+        /* A nested directory we can't open has no control files to
+         * contribute; skip it like discover.c's walk_dir already does.
+         * The root call (depth 0) still fails closed. */
+        return depth == 0 ? CBM_NOT_FOUND : 0;
     }
     int rc = 0;
     cbm_dirent_t *entry;
diff --git a/tests/test_pipeline.c b/tests/test_pipeline.c
index 5608ee559..eae749bc1 100644
--- a/tests/test_pipeline.c
+++ b/tests/test_pipeline.c
@@ -4123,6 +4123,45 @@ TEST(pipeline_semantic_manifest_rejects_non_directory_root) {
     PASS();
 }
 
+#ifndef _WIN32
+/* A nested directory the process cannot open (permission-denied) must not
+ * abort the whole manifest walk: it has no control files to contribute, so
+ * it is skipped, and control files in sibling directories still get found.
+ * Root-not-a-directory (above) is a different, still fail-closed case. */
+TEST(pipeline_semantic_manifest_skips_unreadable_subdirectory) {
+    char tmp[256];
+    snprintf(tmp, sizeof(tmp), "/tmp/cbm_manifest_locked_dir_XXXXXX");
+    ASSERT_NOT_NULL(cbm_mkdtemp(tmp));
+    write_temp_file(tmp, "readable.py", "def Readable():\n    return 1\n");
+    write_temp_file(tmp, "locked/secret.txt", "should never be opened\n");
+    write_temp_file(tmp, "sibling/.gitignore", "*.log\n");
+
+    char locked_path[512];
+    snprintf(locked_path, sizeof(locked_path), "%s/locked", tmp);
+    ASSERT_EQ(chmod(locked_path, 0), 0);
+
+    cbm_file_hash_t *manifest = NULL;
+    int manifest_count = -1;
+    int rc = cbm_pipeline_build_semantic_manifest("manifest-skip-locked", tmp, NULL, 0, NULL, 0,
+                                                  NULL, NULL, &manifest, &manifest_count);
+
+    bool found_sibling_gitignore = false;
+    for (int i = 0; i < manifest_count; i++) {
+        if (manifest[i].rel_path && strcmp(manifest[i].rel_path, "sibling/.gitignore") == 0) {
+            found_sibling_gitignore = true;
+        }
+    }
+
+    chmod(locked_path, 0755);
+    cbm_pipeline_free_semantic_manifest(manifest, manifest_count > 0 ? manifest_count : 0);
+    th_rmtree(tmp);
+
+    ASSERT_EQ(rc, 0);
+    ASSERT_TRUE(found_sibling_gitignore);
+    PASS();
+}
+#endif /* !_WIN32 */
+
 /* A fully validated staged graph must be able to recover from a definitely
  * non-SQLite destination without deleting evidence or overwriting an earlier
  * quarantine. The replacement happens only after the corrupt bytes are moved. */
@@ -13862,6 +13901,9 @@ SUITE(pipeline_semantic_manifest_repro) {
     RUN_TEST(pipeline_incremental_successful_publication_preserves_adr);
     RUN_TEST(pipeline_full_adr_capture_failure_preserves_previous_generation);
     RUN_TEST(pipeline_semantic_manifest_rejects_non_directory_root);
+#ifndef _WIN32
+    RUN_TEST(pipeline_semantic_manifest_skips_unreadable_subdirectory);
+#endif
     RUN_TEST(pipeline_full_reindex_quarantines_corrupt_destination_without_overwrite);
     RUN_TEST(pipeline_full_reindex_replaces_legacy_schema_without_quarantine);
 #endif