diff --git a/packages/loopover-engine/src/objective-anchor.ts b/packages/loopover-engine/src/objective-anchor.ts
index ce59c55f03..915d65eff9 100644
--- a/packages/loopover-engine/src/objective-anchor.ts
+++ b/packages/loopover-engine/src/objective-anchor.ts
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ function kindsFromPath(path: string): ObjectiveAnchorChangeKind[] {
   if (CONFIG_FILENAMES.has(filename) || filename.endsWith(".jsonc") || filename.endsWith(".toml")) {
     kinds.push("config");
   }
-  if (/package(?:-lock)?\.json$/u.test(filename)) {
+  if (/^package(?:-lock)?\.json$/u.test(filename)) {
     kinds.push("dependency");
   }
   return kinds;
diff --git a/packages/loopover-engine/test/objective-anchor.test.ts b/packages/loopover-engine/test/objective-anchor.test.ts
index 5f0d84d57c..8de3808495 100644
--- a/packages/loopover-engine/test/objective-anchor.test.ts
+++ b/packages/loopover-engine/test/objective-anchor.test.ts
@@ -70,6 +70,14 @@ test("extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures normalizes paths, derives modules, and clas
   ]);
 });
 
+test("extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures tags only exact package(.-lock).json as a dependency, not a prefixed sibling (#8874)", () => {
+  const positive = extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures({ paths: ["package.json", "package-lock.json"] });
+  assert.ok(positive.changeKinds.includes("dependency"));
+
+  const negative = extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures({ paths: ["sub-package.json", "mock-package.json"] });
+  assert.ok(!negative.changeKinds.includes("dependency"));
+});
+
 test("scoreObjectiveAnchor returns 1 for full structural overlap", () => {
   const result = scoreObjectiveAnchor({ replayed: replay(), revealed: revealed() });
 
diff --git a/test/unit/engine-objective-anchor-config-classification.test.ts b/test/unit/engine-objective-anchor-config-classification.test.ts
index e7b7a1fdc2..f2afafae2f 100644
--- a/test/unit/engine-objective-anchor-config-classification.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/engine-objective-anchor-config-classification.test.ts
@@ -16,4 +16,25 @@ describe("loopover-engine objective-anchor config-filename classification", () =
     expect(features.changeKinds).toContain("config");
     expect(features.paths).toEqual([".loopover.yml"]);
   });
+
+  // The dependency check must use the same exact-match discipline as the adjacent CONFIG_FILENAMES
+  // check: an anchored /^package(?:-lock)?\.json$/ so a differently-prefixed sibling is NOT tagged
+  // "dependency" (#8874). Exercised on the vitest side because Codecov grades this file via vitest.
+  it("tags only exact package(.-lock).json as a 'dependency' change kind, not a prefixed sibling (#8874)", () => {
+    const dependency = extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures({
+      paths: ["package.json", "package-lock.json"],
+      labels: [],
+      titles: [],
+      notes: [],
+    });
+    expect(dependency.changeKinds).toContain("dependency");
+
+    const notDependency = extractObjectiveAnchorFeatures({
+      paths: ["sub-package.json", "mock-package.json"],
+      labels: [],
+      titles: [],
+      notes: [],
+    });
+    expect(notDependency.changeKinds).not.toContain("dependency");
+  });
 });