diff --git a/config/scripts/typecheck-project-coverage.test.mjs b/config/scripts/typecheck-project-coverage.test.mjs
index 1d4b7f93c97..ca4171badbf 100644
--- a/config/scripts/typecheck-project-coverage.test.mjs
+++ b/config/scripts/typecheck-project-coverage.test.mjs
@@ -29,6 +29,14 @@ function typedFiles(directory) {
 }
 
 describe('typecheck project coverage', () => {
+  it('keeps CLI tests in the scheduled CLI typecheck project', () => {
+    const project = projects.find(({ config }) => config === 'config/tsconfig.tc.cli.json')
+    expect(project).toBeDefined()
+    const tests = typedFiles('src/cli').filter(isTest)
+    expect(tests.length).toBeGreaterThan(0)
+    expect(tests.filter((file) => !project.files.has(resolve(root, file)))).toEqual([])
+  })
+
   it('checks every shared test exactly once, in the scheduled Node project', () => {
     const tests = typedFiles('src/shared').filter(isTest)
     expect(tests.length).toBeGreaterThan(0)
diff --git a/config/tsconfig.build.cli.json b/config/tsconfig.build.cli.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9789e2484e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/tsconfig.build.cli.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "extends": "./tsconfig.cli.json",
+  "exclude": [
+    "../src/**/*.test.ts",
+    "../src/**/*.test.tsx",
+    "../src/**/*.spec.ts",
+    "../src/**/*.spec.tsx"
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9b4a221d75c..df965b9a263 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@
     "verify:localization-extraction": "node config/scripts/verify-localization-extraction.mjs",
     "verify:localization-coverage": "node config/scripts/audit-localization-coverage.mjs --check",
     "audit:localization": "node config/scripts/audit-localization-coverage.mjs",
-    "build:cli": "pnpm run build:packages && tsc -p config/tsconfig.cli.json --outDir out --composite false --incremental false && pnpm run prepare:cli-output",
+    "build:cli": "pnpm run build:packages && tsc -p config/tsconfig.build.cli.json --outDir out --composite false --incremental false && pnpm run prepare:cli-output",
     "prepare:cli-output": "node config/scripts/verify-cli-bin.mjs --fix-executable --fix-package-json && node config/scripts/install-dev-cli.mjs",
     "test:linux-cli-contract": "node config/scripts/run-linux-cli-launch-contract-docker.mjs --appimage dist/orca-linux.AppImage",
     "test:repro:skills-cli-runtime": "pnpm run build:cli && pnpm run build:electron-vite && pnpm run verify:built-skills-cli",
diff --git a/src/main/cli/packaged-cli-assets.test.ts b/src/main/cli/packaged-cli-assets.test.ts
index 7e7713f2c73..90b4484f98b 100644
--- a/src/main/cli/packaged-cli-assets.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/cli/packaged-cli-assets.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { execFile, spawn } from 'node:child_process'
+import { globSync } from 'node:fs'
 import {
   copyFile,
   cp,
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ describe('packaged CLI assets', () => {
         args: [
           join(projectDir, 'node_modules', 'typescript', 'bin', 'tsc'),
           '-p',
-          join(projectDir, 'config', 'tsconfig.cli.json'),
+          join(projectDir, 'config', 'tsconfig.build.cli.json'),
           '--outDir',
           join(source, 'out'),
           '--composite',
@@ -82,6 +83,9 @@ describe('packaged CLI assets', () => {
         timeoutMs: 60_000
       })
       expect(compile.code, compile.stdout + compile.stderr).toBe(0)
+      expect(globSync('**/*.{test,spec}.{js,jsx,cjs,mjs}', { cwd: join(source, 'out') })).toEqual(
+        []
+      )
       await mkdir(dirname(archive), { recursive: true })
       await writeFile(join(source, 'out', 'package.json'), JSON.stringify({ type: 'commonjs' }))
       for (const name of ['zod', 'tweetnacl']) {