diff --git a/packages/scan/src/__tests__/code-rules.test.ts b/packages/scan/src/__tests__/code-rules.test.ts
index d8c71c1a..f703ddfb 100644
--- a/packages/scan/src/__tests__/code-rules.test.ts
+++ b/packages/scan/src/__tests__/code-rules.test.ts
@@ -869,12 +869,36 @@ describe('misconfiguration, weak crypto and injection', () => {
   it('flags an XPath expression with an inner quote around the interpolation', () => {
     // The `"`-delimited f-string contains a `'`; a class that excluded both
     // quotes stopped before the interpolation and missed it.
-    expect(ruleIds('a.py', "expr = f\"//user[name/text()='{username}']\"")).toContain(
-      'py-xpath-injection',
-    );
+    const src = [
+      'from lxml import etree',
+      'expr = f"//user[name/text()=\'{username}\']"',
+    ].join('\n');
+    expect(ruleIds('a.py', src)).toContain('py-xpath-injection');
     expect(ruleIds('a.py', 'result = doc.xpath("//user[name=$n]", n=username)')).toEqual([]);
   });
 
+  it('does not read the // of a URL scheme as an XPath step', () => {
+    // The commonest false positive by far: an f-string holding a URL. `//`
+    // after a scheme is not a descendant-or-self step, and a file that does no
+    // XML at all cannot be evaluating XPath. Both halves are asserted here
+    // because either one alone still let the other shape through.
+    const urls = [
+      'url = f"https://{host}/v1/{path}"',
+      'dsn = f"postgres://postgres:{pw}@{host}:5432/{db}"',
+      "req = f'redis://{host}:{port}/0'",
+    ].join('\n');
+    expect(ruleIds('a.py', urls)).not.toContain('py-xpath-injection');
+
+    // Even with lxml in the file, a URL is still a URL.
+    expect(ruleIds('a.py', ['from lxml import etree', 'url = f"https://{host}/v1"'].join('\n'))).toEqual(
+      [],
+    );
+
+    // And a real XPath in a file that never imports an XML library is out of
+    // scope, the same way the Java XXE rule joins on its parser imports.
+    expect(ruleIds('a.py', 'expr = f"//user[@id={uid}]"')).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
   it('flags a NoSQL query built from request data', () => {
     expect(ruleIds('a.js', 'return users.find(req.body.filter);')).toContain('js-nosql-injection');
     expect(ruleIds('a.js', 'return users.find({ _id: sanitize(req.params.id) });')).toEqual([]);
diff --git a/packages/scan/src/__tests__/false-positives.test.ts b/packages/scan/src/__tests__/false-positives.test.ts
index f95e38df..7f859b4b 100644
--- a/packages/scan/src/__tests__/false-positives.test.ts
+++ b/packages/scan/src/__tests__/false-positives.test.ts
@@ -159,6 +159,30 @@ describe('fixture credentials in test files', () => {
     expect(ruleIds('tests/db.test.js', dsn)).toContain('secret-database-url');
   });
 
+  it('exempts a DSN whose password slot is a Python f-string or a <pw> usage line', () => {
+    // The code that BUILDS a connection string holds the password in a
+    // variable; the interpolation is the proof it is not a credential. Both
+    // shapes came off one pull request -- the f-string from the tool that
+    // assembles the DSN, the angle brackets from the usage comment above it.
+    const templated = [
+      'url = f"postgres://postgres:{pw}@{host}:5432/{db}"',
+      "dsn = f'mysql://{user}:{password}@{host}/{name}'",
+      '#   CLOUD_DB_URL=postgres://postgres.<ref>:<pw>@aws-0-<region>.pooler.supabase.com:5432/postgres',
+    ];
+    for (const line of templated) {
+      expect(ruleIds('dev2/dev2-site', line), line).not.toContain('secret-database-url');
+    }
+
+    // A literal password in the same slot is still material, and a templated
+    // username beside a real password stays reported: only the password slot
+    // decides it.
+    expect(ruleIds('dev2/sites.d/site.json', 'postgres://postgres:7f3a9c21e4@db.internal:5432/app'))
+      .toContain('secret-database-url');
+    expect(ruleIds('a.py', 'url = f"postgres://{user}:hunter2hunter2@{host}/app"')).toContain(
+      'secret-database-url',
+    );
+  });
+
   it('does not read a fixture stem out of the middle of a word', () => {
     expect(isTestFixtureValue("const x = 'a'", 'latestbuildsecret')).toBe(false);
     expect(isTestFixtureValue("const x = 'a'", 'contestwinner2024')).toBe(false);
diff --git a/packages/scan/src/code-rules.ts b/packages/scan/src/code-rules.ts
index 1497e9cd..5549c51a 100644
--- a/packages/scan/src/code-rules.ts
+++ b/packages/scan/src/code-rules.ts
@@ -330,6 +330,14 @@ const XXE_GUARD =
 const XML_PARSING_FILE =
   /\b(?:javax\.xml|org\.xml\.sax|org\.w3c\.dom|org\.jdom2?|org\.dom4j|XmlPullParser|DocumentBuilderFactory|DocumentBuilder|SAXParserFactory|SAXParser|XMLInputFactory|XMLReaderFactory|XMLReader|SAXBuilder|SAXReader)\b/;
 
+/**
+ * Python only evaluates XPath through lxml or ElementTree; nothing else in the
+ * standard library takes an XPath expression. Joining on the file keeps the
+ * rule off the far more common f-string that simply holds a URL -- see the
+ * `://` exclusion in the pattern for the second half of that defence.
+ */
+const PY_XPATH_FILE = /\b(?:lxml|xml\.etree|ElementTree|etree|defusedxml|xpath)\b/i;
+
 /** A sink that executes whatever string reaches it. */
 const CODE_SINK =
   /\bglobalThis\s*\[|\bconstructor\b|\beval\b|\bFunction\b|\brun\s*\(|\bvm\s*\.\s*run/;
@@ -1456,9 +1464,12 @@ export const CODE_RULES: readonly CodeRule[] = [
     severity: 'high',
     languages: ['python'],
     // Per-quote, so an inner `'` in a `"`-delimited f-string (`text()='{x}'`)
-    // does not truncate the match before the interpolation.
+    // does not truncate the match before the interpolation. `(?<!:)` keeps the
+    // `//` of a URL scheme out of it: `f"https://{host}/v1"` is a URL, not a
+    // descendant-or-self step, and it was by far the commonest match here.
     pattern:
-      /\bf"[^"\n]*(?:\/\/|\/\w+\[)[^"\n]*\{[^}\n]+\}|\bf'[^'\n]*(?:\/\/|\/\w+\[)[^'\n]*\{[^}\n]+\}/,
+      /\bf"[^"\n]*(?:(?<!:)\/\/|\/\w+\[)[^"\n]*\{[^}\n]+\}|\bf'[^'\n]*(?:(?<!:)\/\/|\/\w+\[)[^'\n]*\{[^}\n]+\}/,
+    fileRequires: PY_XPATH_FILE,
   },
   {
     id: 'py-fast-password-hash',
diff --git a/packages/scan/src/secret-rules.ts b/packages/scan/src/secret-rules.ts
index e14c8711..ff2326ad 100644
--- a/packages/scan/src/secret-rules.ts
+++ b/packages/scan/src/secret-rules.ts
@@ -207,11 +207,20 @@ export const SECRET_RULES: readonly SecretRule[] = [
  */
 /**
  * A template expression, in the syntaxes that reach a connection string: Go
- * and Handlebars `{{…}}`, shell and JavaScript `${…}`, bare `$VAR`, and
- * printf `%s`/`%d`/`%v`. Anchored to the end of the credential segment so it
- * has to fill the slot rather than merely appear somewhere near it.
+ * and Handlebars `{{…}}`, shell and JavaScript `${…}`, bare `$VAR`, printf
+ * `%s`/`%d`/`%v`, the single brace of a Python f-string or `str.format`
+ * (`{pw}`), and the `<pw>` of a usage line in a comment or README. Anchored to
+ * the end of the credential segment so it has to fill the slot rather than
+ * merely appear somewhere near it.
+ *
+ * The single brace and the angle brackets are the two that a tool building
+ * DSNs actually writes — `f"postgres://postgres:{pw}@{host}/{db}"` is the code
+ * that assembles a connection string, not a credential sitting in a file. Note
+ * the angle-bracket form cannot be left to the `<[a-z-]+>` entry in
+ * KNOWN_PLACEHOLDERS below: that one is `\b`-anchored, and there is no word
+ * boundary between the `:` of the DSN and the `<` that follows it.
  */
-const INTERPOLATION = String.raw`(?:\{\{[^}]*\}\}|\$\{[^}]*\}|\$[A-Za-z_]\w*|%[sdv])`;
+const INTERPOLATION = String.raw`(?:\{\{[^}]*\}\}|\$\{[^}]*\}|\$[A-Za-z_]\w*|%[sdv]|\{[^{}\s'"@/]+\}|<[A-Za-z_][\w.-]*>)`;
 
 const KNOWN_PLACEHOLDERS = [
   // Deliberately NOT here: AWS's published documentation key/secret pair