diff --git a/src/scan.js b/src/scan.js
index a193ea2..a6f492c 100644
--- a/src/scan.js
+++ b/src/scan.js
@@ -34,11 +34,30 @@ export function collectFiles(target) {
     if (CODE_EXT.has(e) || TEXT_EXT.has(e) || (e === "" && hasShebang(target))) out.push(target);
     return out;
   }
+  const seenDirs = new Set();
+  const dirInode = (dir) => {
+    try {
+      const s = statSync(dir);
+      if (!s.isDirectory()) return null;
+      return `${s.dev}:${s.ino}`;
+    } catch {
+      return null;
+    }
+  };
+
   const walk = (dir) => {
+    const inode = dirInode(dir);
+    if (!inode || seenDirs.has(inode)) return;
+    seenDirs.add(inode);
     for (const name of readdirSync(dir)) {
       if (SKIP_DIR.has(name)) continue;
       const p = join(dir, name);
-      const s = statSync(p);
+      let s;
+      try {
+        s = statSync(p);
+      } catch {
+        continue;
+      }
       if (s.isDirectory()) walk(p);
       else if (s.isFile()) {
         const e = extname(name).toLowerCase();
diff --git a/test/skill-audit.test.js b/test/skill-audit.test.js
index 17e8e91..51fa748 100644
--- a/test/skill-audit.test.js
+++ b/test/skill-audit.test.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { test } from "node:test";
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
 import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
-import { mkdirSync, mkdtempSync, readFileSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { mkdirSync, mkdtempSync, readFileSync, rmSync, symlinkSync, writeFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 import { basename, dirname, join, relative } from "node:path";
@@ -267,6 +267,35 @@ test("hardening: browser creds, persistence, anti-forensics, dynamic exec", () =
   assert.ok(scanText(py, "x.py", null).some((x) => x.rule === "SKILL-OBF-003"));
 });
 
+
+test("collectFiles terminates when directory symlinks form a cycle", (t) => {
+  const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "skill-audit-symlink-cycle-"));
+  t.after(() => rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true }));
+  const nested = join(root, "nested");
+  mkdirSync(nested, { recursive: true });
+  writeFileSync(join(nested, "SKILL.md"), "# skill\n");
+  symlinkSync(root, join(nested, "loop"), "dir");
+
+  const start = Date.now();
+  const files = collectFiles(root);
+  assert.ok(Date.now() - start < 2000, "collectFiles should not hang on symlink cycles");
+  assert.deepEqual(files.map((file) => basename(file)).sort(), ["SKILL.md"]);
+});
+
+test("collectFiles follows benign directory symlinks without duplicating scans", (t) => {
+  const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "skill-audit-symlink-ok-"));
+  t.after(() => rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true }));
+  const real = join(root, "real");
+  mkdirSync(real, { recursive: true });
+  writeFileSync(join(real, "SKILL.md"), "# skill\n");
+  writeFileSync(join(real, "run.sh"), "echo ok\n");
+  symlinkSync(real, join(root, "alias"), "dir");
+
+  const files = collectFiles(root).map((file) => relative(root, file)).sort();
+  assert.equal(files.length, 2);
+  assert.deepEqual(files.map((file) => basename(file)).sort(), ["SKILL.md", "run.sh"]);
+});
+
 test("collectFiles skips venv and .venv directories", (t) => {
   const root = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "skill-audit-skip-venv-"));
   t.after(() => rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true }));