diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index 6ba65c8..5cf8f85 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ jobs:
 
       # Pinned deliberately: an unpinned ruff picks up new rules on release and
       # turns a green branch red without anything in this repo changing.
-      - run: pip install ruff==0.16.2
+      - run: pip install ruff==0.16.2 vulture==2.14
 
       - run: ruff check .
+
+      - name: Dead code
+        run: tools/check-dead-code.sh
diff --git a/tools/check-dead-code.sh b/tools/check-dead-code.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..117e0e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/check-dead-code.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Dead-code gate. Shared across offworldlabs Python repos; canonical copy lives
+# in offworldlabs/ops.
+#
+#   tools/check-dead-code.sh          # fail if anything unwhitelisted is dead
+#   tools/check-dead-code.sh --list   # print findings without failing
+#
+# Why this wraps vulture rather than calling it directly:
+#
+# Tests are SCANNED but not REPORTED. Excluding tests entirely — the obvious
+# setup — makes anything used only by tests look dead, which is the largest
+# single source of false positives. Scanning them fixes that, but then unused
+# test helpers become findings in their own right. So we scan everything and
+# drop findings whose location is a test file.
+#
+# Build artefacts are excluded because they contain a stale copy of the source,
+# which doubles every finding.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.."
+
+EXCLUDE=".venv,scripts,htmlcov,__pycache__,node_modules,build,dist,*.egg-info"
+# Framework-dispatched handlers: Flask (@bp/@app) and FastAPI (@router/@app).
+DECORATORS="@app.*,@bp.*,@router.*"
+WHITELIST=""
+[ -f vulture_whitelist.py ] && WHITELIST="vulture_whitelist.py"
+
+findings="$(vulture . $WHITELIST \
+    --min-confidence 60 \
+    --exclude "$EXCLUDE" \
+    --ignore-decorators "$DECORATORS" \
+    2>/dev/null | grep -vE '(^|/)tests?/|/test_|conftest\.py' || true)"
+
+if [ -z "$findings" ]; then
+    echo "no dead code found"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+echo "$findings"
+
+if [ "${1:-}" = "--list" ]; then
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+echo >&2
+echo "Dead code found. Delete it, or — only if it is referenced dynamically and" >&2
+echo "vulture cannot see that — add it to vulture_whitelist.py with a reason." >&2
+exit 1