diff --git a/.changeset/ast-grep-0-45-3.md b/.changeset/ast-grep-0-45-3.md
index b9dcdb4b..bec6ec87 100644
--- a/.changeset/ast-grep-0-45-3.md
+++ b/.changeset/ast-grep-0-45-3.md
@@ -3,3 +3,9 @@
 ---
 
 Update the bundled ast-grep to 0.45.3 (from 0.45.2).
+
+What a rule author sees in `taskless check` on ast-grep rules:
+
+- An inline `ast-grep-ignore` comment in scanned code now takes effect only when it is the comment's first alphabetic text. A comment that merely mentioned the directive as prose above a flagged line used to suppress the finding; it no longer does, so findings can appear that were hidden before. Move `ast-grep-ignore` to the start of the comment if the suppression was meant.
+- The same prose mentions no longer produce `unused-suppression` hints.
+- Rule files, `taskless verify`, and the language list are unchanged. Nothing installed under `.taskless/` needs migrating.
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/generated/ast-grep-rule-schema.json b/packages/cli/src/generated/ast-grep-rule-schema.json
index d5278fb7..30159355 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/generated/ast-grep-rule-schema.json
+++ b/packages/cli/src/generated/ast-grep-rule-schema.json
@@ -661,6 +661,11 @@
     },
     "Severity": {
       "oneOf": [
+        {
+          "description": "Turns off the rule.",
+          "type": "string",
+          "const": "off"
+        },
         {
           "description": "A kind reminder for code with potential improvement.",
           "type": "string",
@@ -680,11 +685,6 @@
           "description": "An error that code produces bugs or has logic errors.",
           "type": "string",
           "const": "error"
-        },
-        {
-          "description": "Turns off the rule.",
-          "type": "string",
-          "const": "off"
         }
       ]
     },
@@ -743,5 +743,5 @@
       "additionalProperties": true
     }
   },
-  "$comment": "Generated by fetch-ast-grep-schema.ts at 2026-08-26T03:59:55.871Z from ast-grep v0.45.2 (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ast-grep/ast-grep/0.45.2/schemas/rule.json)"
+  "$comment": "Generated by fetch-ast-grep-schema.ts at 2026-09-15T23:43:40.361Z from ast-grep v0.45.3 (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ast-grep/ast-grep/0.45.3/schemas/rule.json)"
 }
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/rules/capabilities.ts b/packages/cli/src/rules/capabilities.ts
index 4c9ebbae..d64a2bbd 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/rules/capabilities.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/rules/capabilities.ts
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
  * Pinned against the binary by `test/ast-grep-vendor-contract.test.ts`
  * ("engine capabilities" → "reports the pinned version").
  */
-export const AST_GREP_VERSION = "0.45.2";
+export const AST_GREP_VERSION = "0.45.3";
 
 /**
  * Every language ast-grep can parse, verbatim from
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/ast-grep-vendor-contract.test.ts b/packages/cli/test/ast-grep-vendor-contract.test.ts
index b30ef195..040c47ad 100644
--- a/packages/cli/test/ast-grep-vendor-contract.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/test/ast-grep-vendor-contract.test.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import { escapeRegExp } from "../src/util/regex";
  * ast-grep's observable behaviour, pinned.
  *
  * Everything here is a property of a **vendored third-party binary**, exact-
- * pinned at `0.45.2` in `packages/cli/package.json`. Our own tests assert that
+ * pinned at `0.45.3` in `packages/cli/package.json`. Our own tests assert that
  * our code behaves correctly *given* these; this file asserts the givens, so an
  * ast-grep bump that changes one fails here — naming the assumption and the
  * code that rests on it — instead of surfacing downstream.
@@ -326,6 +326,30 @@ const semanticsRule = (body: string) =>
     "",
   ].join("\n");
 
+/**
+ * Every finding `rule("no-eval")` produces over one source file, in stream
+ * order — including the built-in `unused-suppression` rule's, which is why
+ * `ruleId` and `severity` are read rather than assumed.
+ */
+const findingsFor = (source: string) =>
+  scan(
+    project({
+      rules: { "no-eval": rule("no-eval") },
+      sources: { "src/a.ts": source },
+    })
+  )
+    .stdout.split("\n")
+    .filter((line) => line !== "")
+    .map(
+      (line) =>
+        JSON.parse(line) as {
+          ruleId: string;
+          severity: string;
+          text: string;
+          note: unknown;
+        }
+    );
+
 /** A Markdown rule whose `rule:` body is given verbatim, already indented. */
 const markdownRule = (body: string) =>
   [
@@ -489,13 +513,22 @@ withSg("ast-grep vendor contract", () => {
       // `off` is accepted in a rule but disables it, so it can never appear in
       // output (asserted below). A rule at any other severity fails the parse
       // rather than reaching us, which is what keeps the four-value union safe.
+      //
+      // ORDER CHANGED AT 0.45.3, vocabulary unchanged. `off` moved from last
+      // to first, here and in the vendored schema's `Severity` enum alike:
+      // `--min-severity` (ast-grep/ast-grep#2917) compares severities as an
+      // ordered type, and `off` has to sort lowest for "off means no minimum"
+      // to fall out of that comparison. Nothing of ours reads the order —
+      // `verify` validates against the schema's `const` values, not their
+      // position — so the exact text is pinned to make the next reorder
+      // visible, not because anything depends on it.
       const cwd = project({
         rules: { "no-eval": rule("no-eval", "catastrophe") },
         sources: evalSource,
       });
       const result = scan(cwd);
       expect(result.stderr).toContain(
-        "unknown variant `catastrophe`, expected one of `hint`, `info`, `warning`, `error`, `off`"
+        "unknown variant `catastrophe`, expected one of `off`, `hint`, `info`, `warning`, `error`"
       );
     });
 
@@ -1086,6 +1119,132 @@ withSg("ast-grep vendor contract", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  /**
+   * Inline `ast-grep-ignore` comments in SCANNED code, and where the directive
+   * has to sit to count. CHANGED AT 0.45.3 (ast-grep/ast-grep#2909).
+   *
+   * Nothing of ours writes these or documents them, but `check` scans whatever
+   * source a project has, and ast-grep honours the comment wherever it finds
+   * one — so a user's code carries this behaviour into `taskless check`
+   * whether or not they wrote the comment for us. Through 0.45.2 the check was
+   * a substring search: any comment CONTAINING `ast-grep-ignore` was a live
+   * directive, so prose describing the mechanism above a flagged line
+   * suppressed the finding, and prose with nothing to suppress was reported as
+   * an unused directive. At 0.45.3 the directive must be the comment's first
+   * alphabetic text.
+   *
+   * Both halves of that are the quiet kind: a finding appears that did not
+   * before, or a hint stops appearing, and nothing says why. Measured against
+   * both binaries, so each case below records which side of the bump it is on.
+   */
+  describe("inline ast-grep-ignore comments", () => {
+    it("suppresses the next line, bare or naming the rule", () => {
+      // The mechanism itself, unchanged across the bump and pinned so the
+      // cases that follow are read against a working baseline rather than a
+      // directive that stopped applying altogether.
+      expect(
+        findingsFor(
+          [
+            "// ast-grep-ignore",
+            'const a = eval("1");',
+            "// ast-grep-ignore: no-eval",
+            'const b = eval("2");',
+            "",
+          ].join("\n")
+        )
+      ).toEqual([]);
+    });
+
+    it("no longer suppresses from a comment that mentions the directive as prose", () => {
+      // CHANGED AT 0.45.3. At 0.45.2 this scan reported NOTHING: the
+      // substring match read the prose as a directive and swallowed the
+      // finding. A codebase whose comments discuss suppression now reports
+      // the findings those comments sat on, which a rule author sees as new
+      // errors from an unchanged rule.
+      const findings = findingsFor(
+        [
+          "// see ast-grep-ignore: no-eval for how to suppress this",
+          'const c = eval("3");',
+          "",
+        ].join("\n")
+      );
+      expect(findings.map((finding) => finding.ruleId)).toEqual(["no-eval"]);
+      expect(findings[0]?.text).toBe('eval("3")');
+    });
+
+    it("no longer reports a prose mention as an unused directive", () => {
+      // The other half of the same change, in the other direction: at 0.45.2
+      // this scan produced an `unused-suppression` hint on the comment line.
+      // A project that had been carrying that hint sees it disappear.
+      expect(
+        findingsFor(
+          [
+            "// This comment mentions ast-grep-ignore as prose",
+            "const g = 1;",
+            "",
+          ].join("\n")
+        )
+      ).toEqual([]);
+    });
+
+    it("anchors on the first ALPHABETIC character, not the first character", () => {
+      // The exact boundary upstream chose: everything before the first letter
+      // is skipped, so the comment marker, extra whitespace, a block-comment
+      // opener and even a leading list number are not prose. A directive
+      // behind `// 1.` therefore still suppresses, which is the case an
+      // author would guess wrong about from "must be first". (This comment
+      // is itself scanned by the repo's own `check`, so no line of it may
+      // start with the token — a wrapped one did, and was reported.)
+      expect(
+        findingsFor(
+          [
+            "/* ast-grep-ignore */",
+            'const d = eval("4");',
+            "//   ast-grep-ignore",
+            'const e = eval("5");',
+            "// 1. ast-grep-ignore",
+            'const f = eval("6");',
+            "",
+          ].join("\n")
+        )
+      ).toEqual([]);
+      // And one letter before it is enough to make it prose again.
+      expect(
+        findingsFor(
+          ["// NOTE ast-grep-ignore", 'const h = eval("7");', ""].join("\n")
+        ).map((finding) => finding.text)
+      ).toEqual(['eval("7")']);
+    });
+
+    it("reports a genuinely unused directive on the stream as a hint", () => {
+      // How a user sees any of this at all. `unused-suppression` is a built-in
+      // rule, not one of ours, and it arrives on `--json=stream` like any
+      // finding: `ruleId` is the built-in's name, `severity` is `hint` (inside
+      // AstGrepMatch's union, so it renders), and `note` is `null` rather than
+      // absent — `check.md` documents that shape, and `format.ts` tests
+      // truthiness, so the null is tolerated rather than typed. A finding
+      // that scoped its rule to something else counts as unused too, and the
+      // finding it did not cover is reported beside it.
+      const findings = findingsFor(
+        [
+          "// ast-grep-ignore",
+          "const h = 1;",
+          "// ast-grep-ignore: other-rule",
+          'const i = eval("9");',
+          "",
+        ].join("\n")
+      );
+      expect(
+        findings.map((finding) => [finding.ruleId, finding.severity])
+      ).toEqual([
+        ["no-eval", "error"],
+        ["unused-suppression", "hint"],
+        ["unused-suppression", "hint"],
+      ]);
+      expect(findings[1]?.note).toBeNull();
+    });
+  });
+
   describe("the `sg` alias prints a deprecation banner on stderr", () => {
     // DEPRECATED AT 0.45.0. `AST_GREP_BINARY.binaryNames` puts `ast-grep`
     // first, but the resolver reverses that list at its link-based tiers, so
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/engine-version-consistency.test.ts b/packages/cli/test/engine-version-consistency.test.ts
index 5a3fb29f..45832546 100644
--- a/packages/cli/test/engine-version-consistency.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/test/engine-version-consistency.test.ts
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ describe("a resolution says which tier answered", () => {
 /**
  * The third link: a pinned package contains the version its NAME claims.
  *
- * The pin says `@ast-grep/cli-…: 0.45.2`, and nothing forced the file inside it
+ * The pin says `@ast-grep/cli-…: 0.45.3`, and nothing forced the file inside it
  * to be that. A mispublished or substituted package satisfies the pin, installs
  * cleanly, and answers `--version` with something else.
  *
diff --git a/packages/cli/test/reconcile-marker.test.ts b/packages/cli/test/reconcile-marker.test.ts
index 9938fbf4..30c6f819 100644
--- a/packages/cli/test/reconcile-marker.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/test/reconcile-marker.test.ts
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ describe("recording a rules reconciliation", () => {
     expect(rules?.reconciledTo).toBe(version);
     // Engine versions are the input a later differential needs. Recorded here
     // and nowhere else, so an upgrade cannot silently refresh them.
-    expect(rules?.engines).toEqual({ sg: "0.45.2", vale: "3.20.0" });
+    expect(rules?.engines).toEqual({ sg: "0.45.3", vale: "3.20.0" });
   });
 
   it("reports the marker through info", async () => {