diff --git a/test/helpers/shared-libs-eval-fixture.ts b/test/helpers/shared-libs-eval-fixture.ts
index b533abdc8..3d97fbf76 100644
--- a/test/helpers/shared-libs-eval-fixture.ts
+++ b/test/helpers/shared-libs-eval-fixture.ts
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ function sharedCurlRequest(args: string[]) {
       const url = new URL(urls[0]);
       const repoPath = /^\/repos\/fixture\/shared-libs(?:\/(?:contents\/.+|pulls(?:\/\d+(?:\/files)?)?|commits(?:\/(?:[a-f0-9]{40}|main))?|branches(?:\/[^/]+)?))?$/;
       if (url.protocol !== 'https:' || url.hostname !== 'api.github.com' || url.port || url.username || url.password || url.hash ||
-        (!repoPath.test(url.pathname) && url.pathname !== '/search/issues')) throw new Error('unsupported URL');
+        (!repoPath.test(url.pathname) && !['/search/issues', '/rate_limit'].includes(url.pathname))) throw new Error('unsupported URL');
       result.endpoint = url.pathname.slice(1) + url.search;
     } catch { result.violations.push('unsupported curl URL: fixture GitHub GET endpoints only'); }
   }
diff --git a/test/shared-libs-fixture.test.ts b/test/shared-libs-fixture.test.ts
index 24e281a34..08c696495 100644
--- a/test/shared-libs-fixture.test.ts
+++ b/test/shared-libs-fixture.test.ts
@@ -885,6 +885,25 @@ describe('shared-code curl source isolation', () => {
     expect(after).toEqual(before);
   });
 
+  test('the provider rate-limit probe gets the same 404 over curl as over gh, not a refusal', () => {
+    // Gate census 37174266054 slice 9: shared-libs-read-only probed API availability
+    // with this exact command; gh already answers rate_limit as an unknown endpoint (404).
+    const f = createSharedLibsFixture('curl-rate-limit');
+    cleanup.push(f.root);
+    installSourceShims(f);
+    const command = 'curl -sS -m 20 -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\\n" "https://api.github.com/rate_limit" 2>&1';
+    const response = curl(f, ['-sS', '-m', '20', '-o', '/dev/null', '-w', '%{http_code}\\n', 'https://api.github.com/rate_limit']);
+    expect(response.status).toBe(0);
+    expect(response.stdout).toBe('404\n');
+    expect(gh(f, 'rate_limit').stderr).toContain('HTTP 404');
+    expect(sharedReadOnlyViolations([{ tool: 'Bash', input: { command } }], readRequests(f))).toEqual([]);
+    for (const args of [['-X', 'POST', 'https://api.github.com/rate_limit'], ['-o', path.join(scratch(), 'out'), 'https://api.github.com/rate_limit'],
+      ['https://api.github.com/rate_limit/extra']]) {
+      expect(curl(f, args).status, JSON.stringify(args)).toBe(2);
+      expect(sharedReadOnlyViolations([], readRequests(f).slice(-1)).length, JSON.stringify(args)).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    }
+  });
+
   test('unknown URLs, methods and file-producing curl options are rejected by the shim', () => {
     const f = createSharedLibsFixture('curl-rejected');
     cleanup.push(f.root);