diff --git a/.github/workflows/code_style.yml b/.github/workflows/code_style.yml
index 620760ae..bd964729 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/code_style.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/code_style.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,15 @@ jobs:
     - name: Check formatting
       run: cargo fmt --all -- --check
 
+  deny-check:
+    name: cargo-deny
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - name: Checkout repository
+      uses: actions/checkout@v6
+    - name: Run cargo deny
+      uses: EmbarkStudios/cargo-deny-action@v2
+
   clippy:
     name: Clippy (${{ matrix.name }})
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -71,18 +80,18 @@ jobs:
 
   # Roll-up job for branch protection
   code-style:
-    name: Code Style (fmt + clippy)
+    name: Code Style (fmt + clippy + deny)
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     if: always()
-    needs: [format, clippy, clippy-windows]
+    needs: [format, clippy, clippy-windows, deny-check]
     steps:
       - run: |
-          if [[ "${{ needs.format.result }}" != "success" || "${{ needs.clippy.result }}" != "success" ]]; then
+          if [[ "${{ needs.format.result }}" != "success" || "${{ needs.clippy.result }}" != "success" || "${{ needs.deny-check.result }}" != "success" ]]; then
             echo "One or more jobs failed"
             exit 1
           fi
-          # clippy-windows only runs on main PRs, so skip/success are both acceptable
-          if [[ "${{ needs.clippy-windows.result }}" == "failure" ]]; then
-            echo "Windows clippy failed"
+          # clippy-windows only runs on main PRs, so skipped is acceptable but failure is not
+          if [[ "${{ needs.clippy-windows.result }}" != "success" && "${{ needs.clippy-windows.result }}" != "skipped" ]]; then
+            echo "Windows clippy failed: ${{ needs.clippy-windows.result }}"
             exit 1
           fi
diff --git a/deny.toml b/deny.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..80aa2215
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deny.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+[advisories]
+unmaintained = "workspace"
+yanked = "deny"
+ignore = [
+    # Pre-existing advisories — tracked for upgrade in separate PRs
+    # serde_yml unsound/unmaintained — direct dep, upgrade tracked separately
+    "RUSTSEC-2025-0068",
+    # tokio-tar PAX header parsing — sandbox containers only
+    "RUSTSEC-2025-0111",
+    # wasmtime fd_renumber host panic — WASIp1, mitigated by fuel limits
+    "RUSTSEC-2025-0046",
+    # wasmtime shared linear memory unsoundness — no shared memory in our guests
+    "RUSTSEC-2025-0118",
+    # wasmtime guest-controlled resource exhaustion — mitigated by fuel/memory limits
+    "RUSTSEC-2026-0020",
+    # wasmtime wasi:http/types.fields panic — mitigated by fuel limits
+    "RUSTSEC-2026-0021",
+]
+
+[licenses]
+version = 2
+allow = [
+    "MIT",
+    "Apache-2.0",
+    "Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception",
+    "BSD-2-Clause",
+    "BSD-3-Clause",
+    "ISC",
+    "Unicode-3.0",
+    "Unicode-DFS-2016",
+    "OpenSSL",
+    "Zlib",
+    "MPL-2.0",
+    "0BSD",
+    "BSL-1.0",
+    "CC0-1.0",
+    "Unlicense",
+    "CDLA-Permissive-2.0",
+]
+unused-allowed-license = "allow"
+
+[bans]
+multiple-versions = "warn"
+wildcards = "deny"
+
+[sources]
+unknown-registry = "deny"
+unknown-git = "deny"
+allow-registry = ["https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"]
+allow-git = []
diff --git a/scripts/ci/quality_gate_strict.sh b/scripts/ci/quality_gate_strict.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ed595964
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ci/quality_gate_strict.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Ensure we are running from the repository root
+cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+echo "==> fmt check"
+cargo fmt --all -- --check
+
+echo "==> clippy (all warnings)"
+cargo clippy --locked --all --benches --tests --examples --all-features -- -D warnings
+
+echo "==> cargo deny"
+if ! command -v cargo-deny &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "ERROR: cargo-deny not installed (install with: cargo install cargo-deny)"
+    exit 1
+fi
+cargo deny check
+
+echo "==> tests"
+cargo test --locked