diff --git a/tests/unit/commands/test_policy_status.py b/tests/unit/commands/test_policy_status.py
index 65a5b14c1..2a4266e6b 100644
--- a/tests/unit/commands/test_policy_status.py
+++ b/tests/unit/commands/test_policy_status.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import json
+import re
 import textwrap
 import unicodedata
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -68,15 +69,25 @@ def _rich_policy() -> ApmPolicy:
 
 
 def _ascii_only(text: str) -> bool:
-    """Return True iff every codepoint is printable ASCII (U+0020-U+007E)."""
+    """Return True iff every codepoint (after stripping ANSI sequences) is
+    printable ASCII (U+0020-U+007E) or an allowed Rich box-drawing character.
+
+    ANSI escape sequences (e.g. ``\\x1b[1m``, ``\\x1b[0m``) are generated by
+    Rich for terminal styling.  They are stripped before the check because the
+    intent is to detect *content* characters we author that violate the repo's
+    cross-platform encoding rule (emojis, smart-quotes, etc.) -- not to ban
+    Rich's own ANSI rendering codes.
+    """
+    # Strip CSI escape sequences (\x1b[ ... <letter>) produced by Rich.
+    _ansi = re.compile(r"\x1b\[[0-9;]*[A-Za-z]")
+    text = _ansi.sub("", text)
     for ch in text:
         if ch in ("\n", "\r", "\t"):
             continue
         cp = ord(ch)
         if cp < 0x20 or cp > 0x7E:
-            # Allow Rich box-drawing characters in *rendered* output --
-            # they originate from the Rich library, not our source code.
-            # The encoding rule applies to source/CLI strings we author.
+            # Remaining control characters (e.g. stray ESC not part of a CSI
+            # sequence) are not acceptable.
             if unicodedata.category(ch).startswith("C"):
                 return False
             # Box-drawing & similar are tolerated in Rich-rendered output;