diff --git a/backend/__tests__/unit/routes/tasksApi.githubCouplingRemoved.test.js b/backend/__tests__/unit/routes/tasksApi.githubCouplingRemoved.test.js
index 4c23f5bb8..74ccf8ce7 100644
--- a/backend/__tests__/unit/routes/tasksApi.githubCouplingRemoved.test.js
+++ b/backend/__tests__/unit/routes/tasksApi.githubCouplingRemoved.test.js
@@ -32,12 +32,93 @@ describe('task board is independent of GitHub', () => {
     expect(task).not.toHaveProperty('githubIssueOwned');
   });
 
+  // The needles, kept in one place so the assertion below and the liveness
+  // control below THAT cannot drift apart. `createGithubIssue` used to be a
+  // third needle here and was removed: it existed nowhere in the tree except
+  // inside this file's own regex, so it could never match and never fail —
+  // a third of the alternation was decorative (@sprint-review, 58470).
+  const COUPLING_NEEDLES = [
+    // [needle, a file that must still contain it]
+    ['GitHubAppService', 'services/githubAppService.ts'],
+    ['githubIssue', 'scripts/remove-task-github-fields.ts'],
+  ];
+
+  const read = (rel) => fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, '../../../', rel), 'utf8');
+
   it('does not give the task route a GitHub write path', () => {
-    const routeSource = fs.readFileSync(
-      path.join(__dirname, '../../../routes/tasksApi.ts'),
-      'utf8',
-    );
+    const routeSource = read('routes/tasksApi.ts');
+
+    // POSITIVE CONTROL. Without it, this test proves only that some string
+    // lacks some substrings — an empty read, a truncated file, or the wrong
+    // path would all pass the negative assertion silently. readFileSync
+    // throwing covers a MISSING file; it does not cover a present-but-wrong
+    // one.
+    //
+    // The precise form matters, and "add a positive control" is too weak a
+    // prescription (@sprint-review): the control must be a needle you know is
+    // present in THAT SAME haystack, asserted from THAT SAME variable. A
+    // passing assertion elsewhere in the file proves nothing about this read
+    // — it can be green while this particular readFileSync returned something
+    // no one intended.
+    expect(routeSource).toMatch(/router\.(get|post|patch|put|delete)\(/);
+    expect(routeSource.length).toBeGreaterThan(1000);
+
+    for (const [needle] of COUPLING_NEEDLES) {
+      expect(routeSource).not.toContain(needle);
+    }
+  });
+
+  // The control that makes the assertion above mean something. A negative
+  // match passes for two different reasons — the coupling is gone, or the
+  // needle no longer names anything. Rename GitHubAppService and the route
+  // test goes green forever with the coupling fully present; this one reddens
+  // instead and forces the needle to be updated with the symbol.
+  it('every needle still names a live symbol, so a rename cannot disarm the test', () => {
+    for (const [needle, home] of COUPLING_NEEDLES) {
+      expect(read(home)).toContain(needle);
+    }
+  });
+
+  // The escape those two needles cannot close (@sprint-review, 58544): an
+  // import alias. `import GH from '../services/githubAppService'` reintroduces
+  // the coupling in full while `GitHubAppService` never appears in the route
+  // source — both needles stay absent, both assertions above stay green.
+  //
+  // A blanket /github/i over the whole file would close it, and would also
+  // redden on a comment explaining the decoupling. That is a false failure
+  // someone eventually hits and then deletes the test over. Assert over the
+  // module SPECIFIERS instead: coupling has to arrive through one, and a
+  // comment is never one.
+  const MODULE_SPECIFIER_RE = /(?:from\s*|require\(\s*|import\(\s*)['"]([^'"]+)['"]/g;
+  const specifiersOf = (src) => [...src.matchAll(MODULE_SPECIFIER_RE)].map((m) => m[1]);
+
+  it('imports no GitHub module under any name, aliased or otherwise', () => {
+    const specifiers = specifiersOf(read('routes/tasksApi.ts'));
+
+    // Same-haystack control as above. An extraction that returned [] would
+    // satisfy the negative assertion perfectly and prove nothing.
+    expect(specifiers).toContain('../models/Task');
+    expect(specifiers).toContain('../services/taskEventService');
+    expect(specifiers.length).toBeGreaterThan(5);
+
+    expect(specifiers.filter((s) => /github/i.test(s))).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('the specifier extractor still fires on a GitHub import, so the check cannot go blind', () => {
+    // Liveness for the INSTRUMENT, not the symbol. The needle control above
+    // proves a name is still live; this proves the regex still matches. A
+    // control that fails to construct is indistinguishable from an instrument
+    // that cannot detect, so plant the thing being denied and see it caught.
+    const planted = [
+      "import GH from '../services/githubAppService';",
+      "const gh = require('../services/githubAppService');",
+      "const lazy = await import('../services/githubAppService');",
+    ].join('\n');
 
-    expect(routeSource).not.toMatch(/GitHubAppService|githubIssue|createGithubIssue/);
+    expect(specifiersOf(planted).filter((s) => /github/i.test(s))).toEqual([
+      '../services/githubAppService',
+      '../services/githubAppService',
+      '../services/githubAppService',
+    ]);
   });
 });