diff --git a/emrg/sandbox/fence.py b/emrg/sandbox/fence.py
index 0b82b0d5..7e4b82f9 100644
--- a/emrg/sandbox/fence.py
+++ b/emrg/sandbox/fence.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
 from emrg.sandbox.grants import GrantKindNotEnforced
 from emrg.sandbox.policy import DANGER_FULL_ACCESS, SandboxPolicy
 from emrg.sandbox.roots import canonical_path, named_grants, writable_roots
-from emrg.tools.file_policy import protected_paths
+from emrg.tools.file_policy import protected_hit
 
 
 def file_refusal(file_path: str, policy: SandboxPolicy) -> str | None:
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@ def file_refusal(file_path: str, policy: SandboxPolicy) -> str | None:
         # unconfined.
         return None
     target = canonical_path(file_path)
-    if target in protected_paths():
+    protected = protected_hit(target)
+    if protected is not None:
         # The host's own daemon state (``~/.emrg/config.toml`` and its four
         # neighbours).  Containment already refuses all five in every deployment
         # this repo runs, because none of them sits inside a session's workspace
@@ -87,12 +88,21 @@ def file_refusal(file_path: str, policy: SandboxPolicy) -> str | None:
         # session whose cwd is ``~`` would make the OS fence grant them.  So this
         # is the one place the in-process fence is **stricter** than the kernel
         # profile rather than identical to it: it can refuse a write bash would
-        # be allowed to make, never the reverse.  The list stays in
-        # ``emrg/tools/file_policy.py`` because this module and
-        # ``emrg/sandbox/roots.py`` are its two readers — the in-process fence
-        # and the kernel profile refuse the same five paths because they ask the
-        # same derivation, not because two lists happen to agree.
-        return f"{policy.mode} sandbox: blocked write to protected daemon file {file_path!r}"
+        # be allowed to make, never the reverse.  The list itself lives in
+        # ``emrg/tools/file_policy.py``, and ``protected_hit`` there is the one
+        # predicate this module and ``emrg/sandbox/roots.py`` both ask — the
+        # in-process fence and the kernel profile refuse the same five paths
+        # because they ask one derivation, not because two lists happen to agree.
+        #
+        # Asked by file identity, not by comparing canonical strings: on a volume
+        # that folds case two spellings are one file, and `realpath` hands back
+        # whichever spelling it was given — so the string test admitted
+        # `~/.emrg/CONFIG.TOML` while refusing `~/.emrg/config.toml` (#2551).
+        resolved = f" (resolves to {protected!r})" if protected != target else ""
+        return (
+            f"{policy.mode} sandbox: blocked write to protected daemon "
+            f"file {file_path!r}{resolved}"
+        )
     try:
         # The enforcement question is asked here rather than left to
         # ``writable_roots``, which agents paths and so has no answer for a
diff --git a/emrg/sandbox/roots.py b/emrg/sandbox/roots.py
index 582da04f..1ade75b5 100644
--- a/emrg/sandbox/roots.py
+++ b/emrg/sandbox/roots.py
@@ -510,14 +510,16 @@ def judge_extra_root(
        visibly, rather than assembled out of a file grant.
     4. **Not the home directory** — same shape, one level in. The grant is meant
        to be the size of what was named.
-    5. **Never over a protected daemon state file** (:func:`~emrg.tools.file_policy.protected_paths`)
+    5. **Never over a protected daemon state file** (:func:`~emrg.tools.file_policy.protected_hit`)
        — those five are unreachable today by *geometry* (none sits inside a
        session workspace or a temp area). A host-named root makes them reachable
        as an ordinary write, so the guard has to be explicit rather than
-       incidental. The kernel profiles would grant them; the in-process fence
-       would refuse (``fence.file_refusal`` is deliberately the stricter of the
-       two) — that split is the "user-visible strange" the rant names, and this
-       rule is what keeps it unreachable.
+       incidental. It asks by **file identity**, so the file is refused under
+       every spelling that reaches it and the directories above it too — a
+       spelling a volume folds names the same file. The kernel profiles would
+       grant them; the in-process fence would refuse (``fence.file_refusal`` is
+       deliberately the stricter of the two) — that split is the "user-visible
+       strange" the rant names, and this rule is what keeps it unreachable.
     6. **The path must exist** — a grant is spelled differently for a directory
        (``subpath``) and a file (``literal``), and for a name that is not there
        yet that choice has to be guessed. Refusing it means every stored root
@@ -549,7 +551,7 @@ def judge_extra_root(
     # Imported here rather than at module scope: ``emrg.session`` imports this
     # module for ``canonical_path``, and that happens before the tool package is
     # on the import path. The list still has one home; this is a reference.
-    from emrg.tools.file_policy import protected_paths
+    from emrg.tools.file_policy import protected_hit
 
     if kind is not None and kind not in (GRANT_DIRECTORY, GRANT_FILE, GRANT_REGISTRY):
         return ExtraRootVerdict("", refusal=(
@@ -579,12 +581,15 @@ def judge_extra_root(
             f"{path!r} is the home directory — name the file or directory you "
             "mean, so the grant is the size you asked for"
         ))
-    for protected in protected_paths():
-        if canonical == protected or protected.startswith(canonical.rstrip(os.sep) + os.sep):
-            return ExtraRootVerdict(canonical, refusal=(
-                f"{path!r} would grant {protected!r}, a protected daemon state "
-                "file — those are refused at every tier"
-            ))
+    if (protected := protected_hit(canonical, as_directory=True)) is not None:
+        # By file identity, for the file *and* for any directory above it: on a
+        # volume that folds case the string test admitted `~/.EMRG` beside a
+        # protected `~/.emrg/config.toml`, which grants the very files this rule
+        # exists to keep unreachable (#2551, requirement 4).
+        return ExtraRootVerdict(canonical, refusal=(
+            f"{path!r} would grant {protected!r}, a protected daemon state "
+            "file — those are refused at every tier"
+        ))
     if not os.path.exists(canonical):
         return ExtraRootVerdict(canonical, refusal=(
             f"{path!r} does not exist — a root names what is there, because a "
diff --git a/emrg/tools/file_policy.py b/emrg/tools/file_policy.py
index a15129a6..f1ec1877 100644
--- a/emrg/tools/file_policy.py
+++ b/emrg/tools/file_policy.py
@@ -74,6 +74,65 @@ def protected_paths() -> list[str]:
     return out
 
 
+def same_file(a: str, b: str) -> bool:
+    """Whether two paths name one file, by the filesystem's own identity.
+
+    ``os.path.samefile`` compares ``st_dev``/``st_ino`` — the file-id pair on
+    Windows — which is the only answer that survives a spelling a volume folds.
+    On a volume that folds case (macOS's APFS default, and NTFS) ``config.toml``
+    and ``CONFIG.TOML`` are **one file with two spellings**, while
+    ``os.path.realpath`` returns whichever spelling it was handed: a comparison
+    of canonical *strings* answers "different file" for one file (#2551).
+
+    A path that is not there has no identity to compare, so this answers False:
+    it is not the (existing) file it is being compared with, and each caller's
+    other rules still give that path its own verdict.
+
+    :param a: one path.
+    :param b: the other.
+    :returns: whether both name the same file on disk.
+    """
+    if a == b:
+        return True
+    try:
+        return os.path.samefile(a, b)
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        return False
+
+
+def protected_hit(canonical: str, *, as_directory: bool = False) -> str | None:
+    """The protected daemon file this canonical path reaches, compared by identity.
+
+    The comparison is :func:`same_file` rather than string equality, because a
+    protected file is protected under **every** spelling that reaches it — the
+    alias a volume folds, and the hard link a case-sensitive volume cannot fold
+    away. Asking by identity is also what keeps a genuinely different file whose
+    name differs only in case reachable: ``normcase`` is the identity function on
+    POSIX, and lowering both sides would refuse it (#2551, requirement 2).
+
+    :param canonical: the target, already canonicalized by the caller.
+    :param as_directory: judge it as a root that would be granted as a tree, so
+        a directory **above** a protected file is a hit as well as the file
+        itself. The ancestor walk is by identity for the same reason the file
+        test is: ``~/.EMRG`` is ``~/.emrg`` on a folding volume.
+    :returns: the protected path that was reached, or ``None``.
+    """
+    for protected in protected_paths():
+        if same_file(canonical, protected):
+            return protected
+        if not as_directory:
+            continue
+        node = os.path.dirname(protected)
+        while True:
+            if same_file(canonical, node):
+                return protected
+            parent = os.path.dirname(node)
+            if parent == node:
+                break
+            node = parent
+    return None
+
+
 def trusted_write_zones() -> list[str]:
     """Canonicalized write roots that a ``workspace-write`` session may target.
 
diff --git a/tests/test_file_policy_has_one_home.py b/tests/test_file_policy_has_one_home.py
index 3a901411..f560d735 100644
--- a/tests/test_file_policy_has_one_home.py
+++ b/tests/test_file_policy_has_one_home.py
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@
 #: The helpers the *mechanics* keep in ``emrg/tools/file_policy.py``: where a
 #: relative spelling resolves, what "inside" means, and the host's protected
 #: files. The policy itself is no longer one of them.
-MECHANICS = ("resolve_file_target", "is_within", "is_absolute_path", "protected_paths")
+MECHANICS = ("resolve_file_target", "is_within", "is_absolute_path", "protected_paths",
+             "same_file", "protected_hit")
 
 
 def _run(coro):
@@ -104,9 +105,140 @@ def test_the_legacy_predicates_are_gone_everywhere(name):
         assert not hasattr(module, name), f"{module.__name__} re-binds {name}"
 
 
-def test_the_fence_imports_the_home_s_protected_paths():
-    """The fence names the host's protected files through the home, not around it."""
-    assert fence.protected_paths is file_policy.protected_paths
+def test_the_fence_asks_the_home_which_files_are_protected():
+    """The fence names the host's protected files through the home, not around it.
+
+    The name this pins moved when the comparison became an identity one (#2551):
+    the fence used to import the *list* and compare canonical strings, and it now
+    imports the lookup the home states the rule in. The requirement is unchanged
+    — one home, and the fence bound to the home's own object rather than a copy.
+    """
+    assert fence.protected_hit is file_policy.protected_hit
+
+
+def _fence_with_protected(monkeypatch, protected: Path, workspace: Path):
+    """A ``workspace-write`` policy whose protected list is one temporary file.
+
+    ``protected_paths()`` is derived from the *real* home, and no test here may
+    touch it; the seam is the home's own function, so what a test arms is a list
+    of temporary paths and the derivation keeps its own guard elsewhere. The
+    workspace is the same temporary directory on purpose: the file tools' fence
+    is deliberately stricter than containment, and a target the workspace grants
+    is the only place that difference is visible.
+    """
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        file_policy, "protected_paths", lambda: [os.path.realpath(protected)]
+    )
+    return resolve_policy(mode="workspace-write", workspace_root=str(workspace))
+
+
+def test_a_second_name_for_a_protected_file_is_refused(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """One file, one verdict — by identity, not by the spelling that reached it.
+
+    A hard link asks this question with case folding taken out: two names, one
+    inode, and ``realpath`` returns each name as written, so the string
+    comparison this replaces answered "inside the workspace and not on the list"
+    and allowed the write. No volume can help here — a hard link is one file on
+    every filesystem this repo runs on — so this is the arm that holds on a
+    case-sensitive runner too (#2551).
+    """
+    victim = tmp_path / "config.toml"
+    victim.write_text("host state", encoding="utf-8")
+    alias = tmp_path / "not-the-config"
+    os.link(victim, alias)
+    policy = _fence_with_protected(monkeypatch, victim, tmp_path)
+
+    assert file_refusal(str(victim), policy) is not None
+    refusal = file_refusal(str(alias), policy)
+
+    assert refusal is not None and "protected daemon file" in refusal
+    # A judgment names the file it judged: the alias and the protected file
+    # differ in spelling, and a refusal printing only the spelling would send its
+    # reader looking for a second file that is not there.
+    #
+    # The clause is read, not grepped for the bare path. The message renders the
+    # resolved identity with `!r`, so on Windows it carries escaped backslashes
+    # and `realpath` is *not* a substring of it: the bare-path form of this
+    # assertion passed here and failed `test-windows` (measured on #2552's run
+    # 39962749524, `1 failed, 5346 passed`). Comparing the clause with the same
+    # rendering asks the question the sentence asks — is the file it names the
+    # one that was reached — on every platform.
+    resolved = refusal.split("(resolves to ", 1)[1].rstrip(")")
+    assert resolved == repr(os.path.realpath(victim)), refusal
+
+    # The same construction on a file the list does not name. Identity is what
+    # the answer is keyed to, so a second name for an ordinary file stays
+    # writable: the arm is "this IS a protected file", never "this file has two
+    # names" — and that direction is measurable on every volume, unlike the
+    # case-folding one below.
+    mine = tmp_path / "notes.md"
+    mine.write_text("mine", encoding="utf-8")
+    mine_alias = tmp_path / "notes-alias.md"
+    os.link(mine, mine_alias)
+    assert file_refusal(str(mine_alias), policy) is None
+
+
+def test_a_case_variant_spelling_of_a_protected_file_is_refused(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """The same question on the volume the defect was reported against.
+
+    The volume is asked, not assumed: where it keeps the two spellings apart they
+    are two files and the old answer was already right, so the case is skipped
+    with that reason. On a volume that folds them — APFS's default, and NTFS —
+    ``CONFIG.TOML`` is ``config.toml``, and it was *allowed* before this fix
+    while its own spelling was refused (#2551, requirement 1).
+    """
+    victim = tmp_path / "config.toml"
+    victim.write_text("host state", encoding="utf-8")
+    variant = tmp_path / "CONFIG.TOML"
+    if not file_policy.same_file(str(variant), str(victim)):
+        pytest.skip("this volume keeps CONFIG.TOML and config.toml apart as two files")
+    policy = _fence_with_protected(monkeypatch, victim, tmp_path)
+
+    refusal = file_refusal(str(variant), policy)
+
+    assert refusal is not None and "protected daemon file" in refusal
+
+
+def test_a_distinct_file_whose_name_differs_only_in_case_stays_writable(
+    tmp_path, monkeypatch
+):
+    """The other direction, and why the mechanism is identity rather than lowering.
+
+    On a volume that tells the two names apart, ``notes.md`` beside ``NOTES.md``
+    is a second file the session owns, and refusing it would be the false
+    positive that makes a case-insensitive comparison unusable on Linux:
+    ``normcase`` is the identity function on POSIX, so a blanket ``.lower()`` is
+    the shape this test refuses (#2551, requirement 2). Skipped where the volume
+    folds the names, because then there is no second file to ask about.
+    """
+    victim = tmp_path / "config.toml"
+    victim.write_text("host state", encoding="utf-8")
+    sibling = tmp_path / "NOTES.md"
+    sibling.write_text("mine", encoding="utf-8")
+    shout = tmp_path / "notes.md"
+    if file_policy.same_file(str(shout), str(sibling)):
+        pytest.skip("this volume folds case, so notes.md and NOTES.md are one file")
+    policy = _fence_with_protected(monkeypatch, victim, tmp_path)
+
+    assert file_refusal(str(shout), policy) is None
+
+
+def test_a_target_that_is_not_there_still_gets_a_verdict(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """An identity test cannot compare what is absent, and that must not read as a pass.
+
+    ``same_file`` answers False for a path with no inode, which leaves the target
+    to the containment rule it was always judged by: inside the workspace it is
+    writable, outside every granted root it is refused, and neither answer raises
+    (#2551, requirement 3).
+    """
+    victim = tmp_path / "config.toml"
+    victim.write_text("host state", encoding="utf-8")
+    policy = _fence_with_protected(monkeypatch, victim, tmp_path)
+
+    assert file_refusal(str(tmp_path / "not-there-yet.txt"), policy) is None
+    outside = os.path.join(ABSOLUTE_ELSEWHERE, "not-there-either.txt")
+    refusal = file_refusal(outside, policy)
+    assert refusal is not None and "outside every root" in refusal
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
diff --git a/tests/test_sandbox_extra_roots.py b/tests/test_sandbox_extra_roots.py
index 3bf7c87e..cdd5b012 100644
--- a/tests/test_sandbox_extra_roots.py
+++ b/tests/test_sandbox_extra_roots.py
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
 )
 from emrg.server.daemon import EmrgServer
 from emrg.session import Session
+from emrg.tools import file_policy
 
 
 class _RecordingWs:
@@ -298,6 +299,41 @@ def test_the_protected_file_itself_is_refused_too(outside):
     assert verdict.refusal and "agents.yml" in verdict.refusal
 
 
+def test_a_root_naming_the_protected_directory_by_another_spelling_is_refused(
+    outside, tmp_path, monkeypatch
+):
+    """The grant arm reads identity too, and the directory is where it matters.
+
+    A root is granted as a tree, so the question is not only "is this the file"
+    but "does this name a directory above one". On a volume that folds case,
+    ``~/.EMRG`` beside a protected ``~/.emrg/config.toml`` is that directory, and
+    the string comparison this replaces admitted it — the grant the rule exists
+    to refuse (#2551, requirement 4).
+
+    The volume is asked rather than assumed: where it keeps the two spellings
+    apart they are two directories, the grant is the size the host asked for, and
+    the case is skipped with that reason. The protected list is a temporary one,
+    because ``protected_paths()`` derives from the real home and no test here
+    touches it.
+    """
+    ws, _ = outside
+    home = tmp_path / "home"
+    (home / ".emrg").mkdir(parents=True)
+    victim = home / ".emrg" / "config.toml"
+    victim.write_text("host state", encoding="utf-8")
+    variant = home / ".EMRG"
+    if not file_policy.same_file(str(variant), str(home / ".emrg")):
+        pytest.skip("this volume keeps .EMRG and .emrg apart as two directories")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        file_policy, "protected_paths", lambda: [os.path.realpath(victim)]
+    )
+
+    verdict = judge_extra_root(str(variant), _ws_policy(ws))
+
+    assert verdict.refusal, verdict
+    assert "protected daemon state file" in verdict.refusal
+
+
 # ── §2 one derivation point ───────────────────────────────────────────────