diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 8a83df474..c4b25e329 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ jobs:
     timeout-minutes: 8
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+        with:
+          # Contract tests resolve reviewed historical subjects and create
+          # non-shallow fresh clones; the default one-commit checkout cannot.
+          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Install uv
         uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v7
         with:
@@ -135,16 +139,20 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Run E2E smoke tests
         run: |
-          echo "### E2E Test Results" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
           uv run pytest tests/e2e/ -m e2e \
             --override-ini="addopts=--strict-markers --verbose --tb=short" \
             --timeout=60 -v > e2e-output.txt 2>&1 || touch e2e_failed
           cat e2e-output.txt
-          echo '```text' >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
-          tail -n 25 e2e-output.txt >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
-          echo '```' >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          {
+            echo "### E2E Test Results"
+            echo '```text'
+            tail -n 25 e2e-output.txt
+            echo '```'
+            if [ -f e2e_failed ]; then
+              echo "E2E tests failed — see above for server stderr output."
+            fi
+          } >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
           if [ -f e2e_failed ]; then
-            echo "E2E tests failed — see above for server stderr output." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
             exit 1
           fi
         shell: bash
@@ -204,14 +212,14 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Check Overall Status
         run: |
-          echo "### 🏆 Final Quality Gate Status" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "### 🏆 Final Quality Gate Status" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
           SUCCESS=true
 
           check_required() {
             local name="$1"
             local result="$2"
             if [[ "$result" != "success" ]]; then
-              echo "❌ ${name} failed: ${result}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+              echo "❌ ${name} failed: ${result}" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
               SUCCESS=false
             fi
           }
@@ -222,10 +230,10 @@ jobs:
             local name="$1"
             local result="$2"
             if [[ "$result" == "failure" || "$result" == "cancelled" ]]; then
-              echo "❌ ${name} failed: ${result}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+              echo "❌ ${name} failed: ${result}" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
               SUCCESS=false
             else
-              echo "✅ ${name}: ${result}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+              echo "✅ ${name}: ${result}" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
             fi
           }
 
@@ -253,13 +261,13 @@ jobs:
           # run where neither the test matrix nor the docs-check executed (guards
           # against a route misfire that skips everything).
           if [[ "$TEST" == "skipped" && "$DOCS" == "skipped" ]]; then
-            echo "❌ Neither Test Suite nor Docs Check ran — route misfire?" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+            echo "❌ Neither Test Suite nor Docs Check ran — route misfire?" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
             SUCCESS=false
           fi
 
           if [ "$SUCCESS" = true ]; then
-            echo "✅ All systems go! This version meets our authority standards." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+            echo "✅ All systems go! This version meets our authority standards." >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
           else
-            echo "⚠️ Quality Gate rejected this version." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+            echo "⚠️ Quality Gate rejected this version." >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
             exit 1
           fi
diff --git a/tests/governance/test_ci_routing_contract.py b/tests/governance/test_ci_routing_contract.py
index 00287b055..d2c6a1ffc 100644
--- a/tests/governance/test_ci_routing_contract.py
+++ b/tests/governance/test_ci_routing_contract.py
@@ -94,9 +94,7 @@ def test_ci_full_language_suite_runs_once_per_reusable_test_matrix() -> None:
     workflow = PROJECT_ROOT / ".github" / "workflows" / "reusable-test.yml"
     text = workflow.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
 
-    assert (
-        '-m "not slow and not e2e and not network and not benchmark"' in text
-    )
+    assert '-m "not slow and not e2e and not network and not benchmark"' in text
     assert (
         '-m "not slow and not e2e and not network and not benchmark and not full_language"'
         in text
@@ -231,3 +229,19 @@ def test_bandit_security_scan_is_blocking_and_configured() -> None:
     assert "bandit -c pyproject.toml -r tree_sitter_analyzer/" in body
     assert "|| true" not in body
     assert 'exit "$BANDIT_STATUS"' in body
+
+
+def test_docs_check_fetches_history_for_contract_subjects() -> None:
+    """Regression for PR #1255: docs contracts require a non-shallow clone."""
+    ci_text = (PROJECT_ROOT / ".github" / "workflows" / "ci.yml").read_text(
+        encoding="utf-8"
+    )
+    _, marker, remainder = ci_text.partition("\n  docs-check:\n")
+    docs_job, next_marker, _ = remainder.partition("\n  quality-check:\n")
+
+    assert marker == "\n  docs-check:\n"
+    assert next_marker == "\n  quality-check:\n"
+    checkout_start = docs_job.index("      - uses: actions/checkout@v7\n")
+    checkout_end = docs_job.index("\n      - name:", checkout_start)
+    checkout_step = docs_job[checkout_start:checkout_end]
+    assert checkout_step.splitlines().count("          fetch-depth: 0") == 1