diff --git a/.github/scripts/test_ci_workflow.py b/.github/scripts/test_ci_workflow.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..890f52a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/test_ci_workflow.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#
+# Copyright 2026 The Ethos maintainers
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+CI_WORKFLOW = ROOT / ".github/workflows/ci.yml"
+
+
+def workflow_text() -> str:
+    return CI_WORKFLOW.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+
+
+class CiWorkflowTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_alpha_fixture_and_layout_gates_run_in_pr_ci(self) -> None:
+        text = workflow_text()
+
+        self.assertIn("python3 fixtures/validate_fixtures.py", text)
+        self.assertIn("make layout-evaluator-alpha", text)
+        self.assertIn("PYTHONPATH=python python3 -m unittest discover -s python/tests", text)
+
+    def test_schema_job_installs_jsonschema_and_validates_examples(self) -> None:
+        text = workflow_text()
+
+        self.assertIn('pip install "jsonschema>=4.18"', text)
+        self.assertIn("python3 schemas/validate_examples.py", text)
+
+    def test_ci_workflow_guard_is_run_by_ci(self) -> None:
+        text = workflow_text()
+
+        self.assertIn("python3 .github/scripts/test_ci_workflow.py", text)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 5fe163e..780aeb2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ jobs:
         run: python3 .github/scripts/test_gate_zero_evidence_preflight.py
       - name: determinism workflow tests
         run: python3 .github/scripts/test_determinism_workflow.py
+      - name: CI workflow tests
+        run: python3 .github/scripts/test_ci_workflow.py
       - name: Gate Zero harness tests
         run: python3 benchmarks/harness/test_run_gate_zero.py
       - name: same-platform double-parse byte-diff
diff --git a/docs/execution-status.md b/docs/execution-status.md
index eacee66..ce50fca 100644
--- a/docs/execution-status.md
+++ b/docs/execution-status.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ The committed implementation now includes:
 - The determinism workflow includes a Windows x64 preflight lane for core c14n/profile/fingerprint contract tests, while PDFium-backed corpus work remains explicitly skipped unless the pinned runtime is configured on that runner. A static workflow test guards that matrix wiring.
 - `ethos doc parse` / `ethos fingerprint` PDF execution through a worker process with `max_parse_ms` timeout enforcement, stable error-envelope relay, diagnostics-gated worker stderr, and page-range validation/filtering.
 - Quantized page/span extraction at the backend boundary, plus a basic deterministic layout pass that assembles paragraph `text_block` elements, fixture-backed alpha heading and flat list-item elements, and simple column reading order for the current born-digital fixtures. Current alpha layout confidence is explicit for heading signals, and below-threshold layout confidence emits deterministic `low_confidence_reading_order` diagnostics instead of staying silent. Fixture validation binds selected `fixture.json` expectations to committed extraction/layout goldens and binds current alpha text/Markdown exports to committed layout output so current read-order, element-type, heading-export, list-item, and export cases fail closed on drift.
-- An internal layout evaluator scaffold exists at `fixtures/evaluate_layout_alpha.py` and `make layout-evaluator-alpha`. It reads committed `fixture.json`, `extraction.json`, `layout.json`, `text.txt`, and `markdown.md` files, summarizes alpha element-type and subset coverage, and fails closed on missing layout expectations, dangling/invalid warning references, confidence-policy drift, export-golden drift, invalid span expectation metadata, expected page/span-text/font-id drift, expected rotation drift, or drift in fixture-backed reading order / heading / list-item / hyphenation / ligature cases.
+- An internal layout evaluator scaffold exists at `fixtures/evaluate_layout_alpha.py` and `make layout-evaluator-alpha`. It reads committed `fixture.json`, `extraction.json`, `layout.json`, `text.txt`, and `markdown.md` files, summarizes alpha element-type and subset coverage, and fails closed on missing layout expectations, dangling/invalid warning references, confidence-policy drift, export-golden drift, invalid span expectation metadata, expected page/span-text/font-id drift, expected rotation drift, or drift in fixture-backed reading order / heading / list-item / hyphenation / ligature cases. PR CI runs the evaluator and has a static workflow guard for that wiring.
 - Schema/example/profile validation is green through `schemas/validate_examples.py` using `jsonschema` draft 2020-12 validation, including the crop descriptor artifact contract plus referential-integrity and bbox sanity checks outside JSON Schema.
 - `ethos verify` now produces non-empty quote, value, presence, and table-cell verification checks over native Ethos document JSON and synthetic OpenDataLoader-style JSON through `--grounding opendataloader-json`; it also verifies quote/value/presence citations over pinned real OpenDataLoader 2.4.7 JSON, including grounded and ungrounded cases, maps explicit real OpenDataLoader-style row/cell structures to table-cell grounding, and normalizes conservative real-style text/child-container aliases when page/bbox/text data remains explicit. Citation/config inputs are rejected when they drift outside the closed schemas. The public demo harness covers grounded, ungrounded, split-quote, not-found, stale-fingerprint, unsupported non-v1 claim, capability-limited, malformed-citation, malformed OpenDataLoader-style input, and summary-format reject paths.
 - Verification semantics are now trust-honest at alpha scope: quote containment is explicitly labeled, value/table-cell checks require normalized equality, fingerprint-pinned citations fail closed when source fingerprints are unavailable, and structured capability limits explain why a run is downgraded.
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ Milestone A has an accepted internal Gate Zero decision for roadmap control, so
 | PDFium loader/runtime checks | Landed: missing/mismatched version, artifact, and runtime library hashes fail deterministically | Release packaging and operator setup path still need hardening |
 | Real PDF backend | Landed for simple born-digital PDFs: page count, quantized spans, worker execution, timeout, page filtering, and fingerprint path exist | Wider corpus coverage, failure fixtures, memory-limit behavior, quirk log, and Gate Zero run are still missing |
 | Layout groundwork | Landed: basic paragraph text blocks, fixture-backed alpha heading and flat list-item elements, simple column reading order over quantized spans, explicit alpha heading-confidence values, deterministic below-threshold confidence diagnostics, fixture metadata checks against committed extraction/layout goldens for current read-order and element-type expectations, and alpha text/Markdown export goldens derived from committed layout output | Tables, nested/richer list and heading semantics, broader rotation/quirk handling, and broader confidence dimensions remain future work |
-| Layout evaluator scaffold | Landed: deterministic internal evaluator over committed extraction/layout fixture expectations, with heading/list/reading-order/rotation/hyphenation/ligature/font-identity/span-expectation coverage checks, expected page/span-text/font-id checks, expected-spans metadata validation, warning-reference checks, confidence-policy checks, text/Markdown export-golden checks, expectation drift diagnostics, report JSON, Make target, and unit coverage | Broader evaluator dimensions and CI matrix integration remain future work |
+| Layout evaluator scaffold | Landed: deterministic internal evaluator over committed extraction/layout fixture expectations, with heading/list/reading-order/rotation/hyphenation/ligature/font-identity/span-expectation coverage checks, expected page/span-text/font-id checks, expected-spans metadata validation, warning-reference checks, confidence-policy checks, text/Markdown export-golden checks, expectation drift diagnostics, report JSON, Make target, unit coverage, PR CI wiring, and static CI workflow guard coverage | Broader evaluator dimensions remain future work |
 | Python surface scaffold | Landed: internal stdlib wrapper over a caller-provided local `ethos doc parse` command, with explicit JSON/Markdown/text methods, page selection passthrough, diagnostics passthrough, timeout handling, command failure reporting, and mocked-command unit coverage | Native binding work, broader API design, and public setup path remain future work |
 | Font policy groundwork | Partially landed: substitution table and profile policy are present; substitution-table bytes are pinned by the deterministic profile and checked by schema/example validation; absent bundled fallback assets must remain represented by a null fallback-bundle hash; fixture output uses deterministic substitution IDs, and committed embedded-font fixture metadata now binds expected extraction font identity | Bundled fallback asset introduction/hash pinning and broader font/CID validation remain open |
 | Schema/example validation | Landed: schemas, examples, deterministic profile, referential integrity, and bbox sanity pass the `jsonschema` validation gate | Contract changes still require explicit versioning and compatibility review |