diff --git a/.changes/guardrails/chore-guardrails-self-remote-bc46117e.md b/.changes/guardrails/chore-guardrails-self-remote-bc46117e.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ca42543792
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/guardrails/chore-guardrails-self-remote-bc46117e.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+bump: none
+---
+
+No plugin file ships changed: the root `.lefthook/` remote scripts, which consumers fetch from `main`, now run only from lefthook's `info/lefthook-remotes/` cache (on Windows too), and the lefthook-remote test checks it.
diff --git a/.lefthook/commit-msg/guardrails-commit-msg-convention.sh b/.lefthook/commit-msg/guardrails-commit-msg-convention.sh
index 9a81039d98..9438bd3007 100755
--- a/.lefthook/commit-msg/guardrails-commit-msg-convention.sh
+++ b/.lefthook/commit-msg/guardrails-commit-msg-convention.sh
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@
 # The guardrails commit-msg-convention entry for consumers of the plugin's lefthook remote
 # (plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.yml). Lefthook looks up a remote's scripts
 # under this repository's root .lefthook/, so this runs the plugin's own script, which finds its libs beside it.
-exec bash "${BASH_SOURCE[0]%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/commit-msg-convention.sh" "$@"
+# Skip the work-tree copy, so only the fetched copy of main in lefthook-remotes/ runs. Backslashes
+# become slashes first: lefthook on Windows passes a backslash path.
+src=${BASH_SOURCE[0]//\\//}
+[[ $src == */info/lefthook-remotes/* ]] || exit 0
+exec bash "${src%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/commit-msg-convention.sh" "$@"
diff --git a/.lefthook/pre-commit/guardrails-pre-commit-content.sh b/.lefthook/pre-commit/guardrails-pre-commit-content.sh
index ea4c932c88..509255a9b6 100755
--- a/.lefthook/pre-commit/guardrails-pre-commit-content.sh
+++ b/.lefthook/pre-commit/guardrails-pre-commit-content.sh
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@
 # The guardrails pre-commit-content entry for consumers of the plugin's lefthook remote
 # (plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.yml). Lefthook looks up a remote's scripts
 # under this repository's root .lefthook/, so this runs the plugin's own script, which finds its libs beside it.
-exec bash "${BASH_SOURCE[0]%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/pre-commit-content.sh" "$@"
+# Skip the work-tree copy, so only the fetched copy of main in lefthook-remotes/ runs. Backslashes
+# become slashes first: lefthook on Windows passes a backslash path.
+src=${BASH_SOURCE[0]//\\//}
+[[ $src == */info/lefthook-remotes/* ]] || exit 0
+exec bash "${src%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/pre-commit-content.sh" "$@"
diff --git a/.lefthook/pre-push/guardrails-reference-verify.sh b/.lefthook/pre-push/guardrails-reference-verify.sh
index a72ad2a516..b41375d87b 100755
--- a/.lefthook/pre-push/guardrails-reference-verify.sh
+++ b/.lefthook/pre-push/guardrails-reference-verify.sh
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@
 # The guardrails reference-verify entry for consumers of the plugin's lefthook remote
 # (plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.yml). Lefthook looks up a remote's scripts
 # under this repository's root .lefthook/, so this runs the plugin's own script, which finds its libs beside it.
-exec bash "${BASH_SOURCE[0]%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/reference-verify.sh" "$@"
+# Skip the work-tree copy, so only the fetched copy of main in lefthook-remotes/ runs. Backslashes
+# become slashes first: lefthook on Windows passes a backslash path.
+src=${BASH_SOURCE[0]//\\//}
+[[ $src == */info/lefthook-remotes/* ]] || exit 0
+exec bash "${src%/*}/../../plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/reference-verify.sh" "$@"
diff --git a/docs/conventions/check-placement/README.md b/docs/conventions/check-placement/README.md
index c20fa7af94..7de3930fce 100644
--- a/docs/conventions/check-placement/README.md
+++ b/docs/conventions/check-placement/README.md
@@ -244,9 +244,10 @@ committed config through their own install step.
 **Committed hook config runs the checked-out branch's code.** Lefthook and husky read their config,
 and plain shared hooks read `.githooks/`, from the branch that is checked out. Once a clone has
 installed hooks, a commit or push on a contributor's branch runs whatever that branch puts in
-`lefthook.yml`, `.husky/` or `.githooks/`. Pinning the check scripts to the merge-base, as this
-repository's pre-push job does, does not reach the config file itself. Before committing or
-pushing on a branch you do not trust, read its diff to those paths.
+`lefthook.yml`, `lefthook-local.yml`, `.lefthook/`, `.lefthook-local/`, `.husky/` or `.githooks/`.
+Pinning the check scripts to the merge-base, as this repository's pre-push job does, does not
+reach the config file itself. Before committing or pushing on a branch you do not trust, read its
+diff to those paths: pre-commit and commit-msg hooks run at commit, before any push.
 
 ### Drift: the content-hash stamp
 
diff --git a/docs/conventions/check-placement/adopting-git-hooks.md b/docs/conventions/check-placement/adopting-git-hooks.md
index 8326f93ecc..43ee338673 100644
--- a/docs/conventions/check-placement/adopting-git-hooks.md
+++ b/docs/conventions/check-placement/adopting-git-hooks.md
@@ -55,8 +55,9 @@ A clone that skips this step gets no hooks, so for a team with authors outside C
 lefthook or husky over plain hooks. A clone that tried the entry locally moves to shared by
 running setup with `scope=shared`; setup offers to remove the local copies once the shared entry
 verifies. Committed hook config runs whatever the checked-out branch holds, so before committing
-or pushing on a branch you do not trust, read its diff to `lefthook.yml`, `.husky/` and
-`.githooks/` ([details](README.md#where-installed-copies-live)).
+or pushing on a branch you do not trust, read its diff to `lefthook.yml`, `lefthook-local.yml`,
+`.lefthook/`, `.lefthook-local/`, `.husky/` and `.githooks/`
+([details](README.md#where-installed-copies-live)).
 
 ## Decline
 
diff --git a/lefthook.yml b/lefthook.yml
index 9a21134e85..92ab1b775a 100644
--- a/lefthook.yml
+++ b/lefthook.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Git hooks for this repository (https://lefthook.dev/configuration/). Install once per clone:
-# `lefthook install`; until then the .claude/settings.json pre-push row runs the same check on a
-# Claude Code session's pushes and says to install. Placement rules:
+# `lefthook install`, which also fetches the guardrails git hooks named in `remotes:` below; until
+# then the .claude/settings.json pre-push row runs the check-affected check on a Claude Code
+# session's pushes and says to install. Placement rules:
 # docs/conventions/check-placement/README.md.
 pre-push:
   jobs:
@@ -9,7 +10,9 @@ pre-push:
     # check tooling the branch changes, so a contributor branch checked out to review or fix
     # cannot run its own check code. This file itself is read from the checked-out branch, as
     # lefthook and husky always read their config, so a branch that edits lefthook.yml still
-    # controls this job: read a branch's lefthook.yml diff before pushing from it.
+    # controls this job: read a branch's diff to lefthook.yml, lefthook-local.yml, .lefthook/ and
+    # .lefthook-local/ before committing or pushing on it, since the guardrails hooks below fire at
+    # commit too.
     # Lefthook gives stdin to at most one job per hook, so this job judges HEAD rather than the
     # pushed refs. Exit 1 is a failing check and blocks the push; anything else passes, and CI
     # checks the pushed commit either way.
@@ -24,3 +27,13 @@ pre-push:
         git archive "$mb" -- .claude/hooks/check-affected-pre-push.sh lib/hook-utils.sh 2>/dev/null | tar -x -C "$tmp" 2>/dev/null
         [ -f "$tmp/.claude/hooks/check-affected-pre-push.sh" ] || exit 0
         bash "$tmp/.claude/hooks/check-affected-pre-push.sh" --git-hook </dev/null
+
+# The guardrails git hooks, run from lefthook's fetched copy of this repository's main as in every
+# consumer (plugins/guardrails/README.md#git-hooks); each .lefthook/ script exits 0 when run from
+# the work tree, so a checked-out branch's copy never runs.
+remotes:
+  - git_url: https://github.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins
+    ref: main
+    refetch_frequency: 24h
+    configs:
+      - plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.yml
diff --git a/plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.test.sh b/plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.test.sh
index fe9c5e20a3..d188af3213 100755
--- a/plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.test.sh
+++ b/plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.test.sh
@@ -38,16 +38,35 @@ jobs="$(awk '
 ' "$CONFIG")"
 expect "the remote config has one job per entry event" "commit-msg pre-commit pre-push" \
   "$(cut -d' ' -f1 <<<"$jobs" | sort | xargs)"
+GUARD="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'rm -rf "$GUARD"' EXIT
 while read -r event name script; do
   wrapper="$TOP/.lefthook/$event/$script"
   expect "$name: its script is under .lefthook/$event/" yes "$([[ -f "$wrapper" ]] && echo yes)"
   # shellcheck disable=SC2016 # matches the wrapper's literal text
-  target="$(sed -n 's#^exec bash "${BASH_SOURCE\[0\]%/\*}/\(.*\)" "\$@"$#\1#p' "$wrapper" 2>/dev/null)"
+  target="$(sed -n 's#^exec bash "${src%/\*}/\(.*\)" "\$@"$#\1#p' "$wrapper" 2>/dev/null)"
   expect "$name: its script runs an entry script that exists" yes \
     "$([[ -n "$target" && -f "$TOP/.lefthook/$event/$target" ]] && echo yes)"
+  # The wrapper beside a stub entry script that reports a run: once in a work tree, once under a
+  # fetched remote, with a Windows-style backslash path.
+  for root in "$GUARD/wt" "$GUARD/git/info/lefthook-remotes/r"; do
+    mkdir -p "$root/.lefthook/$event" "$(dirname "$root/.lefthook/$event/$target")"
+    cp "$wrapper" "$root/.lefthook/$event/$script"
+    printf '#!/usr/bin/env bash\necho ran\n' >"$root/.lefthook/$event/$target"
+  done
+  out="$(bash "$GUARD/wt/.lefthook/$event/$script" </dev/null 2>&1)"
+  expect "$name: the work-tree copy exits 0 without running the entry script" "0:" "$?:$out"
+  out="$(bash "$GUARD/git/info/lefthook-remotes/r/.lefthook/$event/$script" </dev/null 2>&1)"
+  expect "$name: the fetched copy runs the entry script" "ran" "$out"
+  # A file whose name holds the backslashes stands in for the Windows path of the fetched copy.
+  win="$GUARD/git\\info\\lefthook-remotes\\r\\.lefthook\\$event\\$script"
+  cp "$wrapper" "$win"
+  out="$(bash "$win" </dev/null 2>&1)"
+  expect "$name: the fetched copy runs from a backslash path" "ran" "$out"
   entry="${script#guardrails-}"
   expect "$name: not a shared-copy job name" yes "$([[ "$name" != "guardrails-${entry%.sh}" ]] && echo yes)"
 done <<<"$jobs"
+rm -rf "$GUARD"
 expect "entries.json's remote names this config" "plugins/guardrails/git-hooks/lefthook-remote.yml" \
   "$(jq -r '.remote.config' "$HERE/entries.json" 2>/dev/null || sed -n 's/.*"config": "\(.*\)".*/\1/p' "$HERE/entries.json")"