diff --git a/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-provenance.test.ts b/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-provenance.test.ts
index 893d05af5e5..8ad6fb769c1 100644
--- a/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-provenance.test.ts
+++ b/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-provenance.test.ts
@@ -497,6 +497,15 @@ describe('file provenance at the actual CLI and model-result boundary', () => {
     )
   })
 
+  it('answers files search as a search, refused until its results report provenance', async () => {
+    const result = await runCli({ kind: 'cli', argv: ['files', 'search', '--query', 'CANARY'] })
+    expect(result.success).toBe(false)
+    expect(JSON.stringify(result)).toContain('grep <pattern> --scope files')
+    expect(mocks.reference).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(mocks.file).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+    expect(mocks.stream).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+  })
+
   it('refuses an unknown file through the actual CLI text read without loading its bytes', async () => {
     classify('unknown')
     const result = await runCli(readFile)
diff --git a/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-read-transport.ts b/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-read-transport.ts
index 436ec74380d..d0ee33fd263 100644
--- a/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-read-transport.ts
+++ b/apps/sim/lib/mothership/agent-cli/file-read-transport.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import {
   v2DownloadFileContract,
   v2ListFileFoldersContract,
   v2ReadFileTextContract,
+  v2SearchFileContentContract,
 } from '@/lib/api/contracts/v2/files'
 import {
   authenticateV2ApiKey,
@@ -54,6 +55,8 @@ export function createFileReadTransport(context: {
     `${basePath}${v2ListFileFoldersContract.path}`,
     `${basePath}${v2BulkDownloadFilesContract.path}`,
   ])
+  /** Search results quote file text but name no file provenance, so Chat cannot admit them. */
+  const searchPath = `${basePath}${v2SearchFileContentContract.path}`
   /**
    * Admits one delivery's classification into the invocation registry. A delivery it refuses is
    * either withheld (text and forwarded responses reach only the model, so refusing them is enough)
@@ -135,6 +138,18 @@ export function createFileReadTransport(context: {
     ) {
       return forward(input, init)
     }
+    if (url.pathname === searchPath) {
+      return Response.json(
+        {
+          error: {
+            code: 'FORBIDDEN',
+            message:
+              'files search is unavailable in Chat. Search file contents with grep <pattern> --scope files.',
+          },
+        },
+        { status: 403 }
+      )
+    }
     const match = /^([^/]+)(\/text)?$/.exec(url.pathname.slice(prefix.length))
     if (!match) return forward(input, init)
     const request = new NextRequest(new Request(input, init))