diff --git a/src/cognition/emergent/SandboxedToolForge.ts b/src/cognition/emergent/SandboxedToolForge.ts
index 3731cace1d0..c0db5a0e453 100644
--- a/src/cognition/emergent/SandboxedToolForge.ts
+++ b/src/cognition/emergent/SandboxedToolForge.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
  */
 
 import { createHash, createHmac, randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';
-import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { readFile, realpath } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import * as path from 'node:path';
 import type { SandboxExecutionRequest, SandboxExecutionResult, SandboxAPI } from './types.js';
 import { CodeSandbox } from '../../safety/sandbox/executor/CodeSandbox.js';
@@ -474,7 +474,7 @@ export class SandboxedToolForge {
     if (allowlist.includes('fs.readFile')) {
       extras.fs = {
         readFile: async (filePath: string) => {
-          const resolvedPath = path.resolve(filePath);
+          const resolvedPath = await realpath(path.resolve(filePath));
           const allowed = this.fsReadRoots.some((root) => {
             return resolvedPath === root || resolvedPath.startsWith(`${root}${path.sep}`);
           });
@@ -483,7 +483,7 @@ export class SandboxedToolForge {
               `fs.readFile blocked: path "${resolvedPath}" is outside the allowed roots`,
             );
           }
-          const data = await readFile(filePath);
+          const data = await readFile(resolvedPath);
           if (data.byteLength > 1_048_576) {
             throw new Error(
               `fs.readFile blocked: file exceeds 1 MB limit (${data.byteLength} bytes)`,