diff --git a/.github/workflows/governance-reusable.yml b/.github/workflows/governance-reusable.yml
index 880db774..4fcba58c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/governance-reusable.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/governance-reusable.yml
@@ -174,9 +174,18 @@ jobs:
           exemption_patterns = []
           claude_md = pathlib.Path('.claude/CLAUDE.md')
           if claude_md.exists():
+              # Locate the TypeScript-exemption section's heading line. The
+              # regex matches any markdown heading containing both
+              # "TypeScript" and "Exemption[s]" — accepts variants like
+              # "### TypeScript Exemptions (Approved)" and
+              # "### TypeScript / JavaScript Exemptions (Approved)" — and
+              # is anchored to a heading prefix so prose mentions of the
+              # phrase elsewhere in the file (e.g. "the TypeScript
+              # exemptions above") do NOT trigger table parsing.
+              ts_heading = re.compile(r'^#{1,4}\s+.*TypeScript.*[Ee]xemption')
               in_table = False
               for line in claude_md.read_text(encoding='utf-8').splitlines():
-                  if re.search(r'TypeScript [Ee]xemptions', line):
+                  if ts_heading.match(line):
                       in_table = True
                       continue
                   if in_table and line.startswith(('### ', '## ', '# ')):