diff --git a/src/ui-safety-gate.cts b/src/ui-safety-gate.cts
index 1aaf89b35..88649a74a 100644
--- a/src/ui-safety-gate.cts
+++ b/src/ui-safety-gate.cts
@@ -81,8 +81,10 @@ export function checkUiPresence(text: string): UiPresenceResult {
   // authoritative declaration of whether the phase has a UI surface — progress.md
   // and new-project.md already parse this line (`UI hint.*yes`). The bare token
   // `UI` in the line itself must not count as a UI indicator, and the declaration
-  // overrides token-sniffing.
-  const hintMatch = normalised.match(/\*\*UI hint\*\*\s*:\s*(yes|no)/i);
+  // overrides token-sniffing. Line-anchored (`m`) so a mid-line prose mention is
+  // not treated as the metadata line; word-boundary on the value so `nope`/`not`
+  // do not match `no`.
+  const hintMatch = normalised.match(/^\s*\*\*UI hint\*\*\s*:\s*(yes|no)\b/im);
   const hint = hintMatch ? hintMatch[1].toLowerCase() : null;
 
   // Strip ANY `**UI hint**:` line before token-sniffing so a hint without a
diff --git a/tests/ui-safety-gate.test.cjs b/tests/ui-safety-gate.test.cjs
index 6d5810f91..6d2d0bd40 100644
--- a/tests/ui-safety-gate.test.cjs
+++ b/tests/ui-safety-gate.test.cjs
@@ -96,6 +96,18 @@ describe('checkUiPresence', () => {
       'a phase that explicitly declares UI hint: yes must be flagged as UI');
   });
 
+  test('#2150 `**UI hint**: yes` over a pure-backend body still flags UI', () => {
+    const result = checkUiPresence('**UI hint**: yes\n\nBackend API refactor.\n');
+    assert.strictEqual(result.hasUI, true, 'hint:yes is authoritative even with no UI tokens');
+    assert.deepStrictEqual(result.tokens, []);
+  });
+
+  test('#2150 hint value is whole-word matched (nope/not do not mean no)', () => {
+    const result = checkUiPresence('**UI hint**: nope\n\nBuild a dashboard component.\n');
+    assert.strictEqual(result.hasUI, true,
+      'a malformed hint value like "nope" must not be read as "no"; fall through to token-sniffing');
+  });
+
   test('#2150 a hint line without yes/no is stripped (bare UI token does not fire)', () => {
     // A malformed hint (`UI hint: maybe`) must not false-positive on the bare
     // `UI` token in the line itself; other UI tokens elsewhere still detect.