diff --git a/.github/workflows/coverage-ut.yaml b/.github/workflows/coverage-ut.yaml
index 86f5ed5..12c2e0d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/coverage-ut.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/coverage-ut.yaml
@@ -308,7 +308,8 @@ jobs:
                 fi
               } > "${timeout_diagnostics}"
             elif { [ "${phase_name}" = 'discover_packages' ] && [ "${phase_status}" != '0' ]; } || \
-              { [ "${phase_name}" = 'prepare_cgo' ] && [ "${phase_status}" != '0' ]; }; then
+              { [ "${phase_name}" = 'prepare_cgo' ] && [ "${phase_status}" != '0' ]; } || \
+              { [ "${phase_name}" = 'build_coverage_scope' ] && [ "${phase_status}" != '0' ]; }; then
               {
                 echo "Coverage UT phase failed: ${phase_name}"
                 echo "phase=${phase_name} status=${phase_status}"
@@ -345,14 +346,21 @@ jobs:
           set -e
           phase_end "${phase_status}" "${COVERAGE_UT_DISCOVERY_TIMEOUT_SECONDS}"
           (( phase_status == 0 )) || exit "${phase_status}"
-          cover_pkgs=$(printf '%s\n' "${test_scope}" | paste -sd, -)
-          if [ -z "${cover_pkgs}" ]; then
-            echo 'Coverage UT package scope is empty after exclusions.' > "${phase_failure}"
-            echo 'phase=build_scope status=1 elapsed_seconds=0' >> "${phase_timing}"
-            exit 1
-          fi
+          # Use the existing profile policy before instrumentation too. Test
+          # selection stays complete, including tests in excluded packages.
+          phase_start build_coverage_scope
+          coverage_helper="${RUNNER_TEMP}/compact-coverage-profile"
+          set +e
+          timeout --kill-after=30s "${COVERAGE_UT_DISCOVERY_TIMEOUT_SECONDS}s" \
+            go build -o "${coverage_helper}" "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.ci-workflow/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go" && \
+            cover_pkgs=$(printf '%s\n' "${test_scope}" | "${coverage_helper}" -packages)
+          phase_status=$?
+          set -e
+          phase_end "${phase_status}" "${COVERAGE_UT_DISCOVERY_TIMEOUT_SECONDS}"
+          (( phase_status == 0 )) || exit "${phase_status}"
           package_count=$(printf '%s\n' "${test_scope}" | awk 'NF { count++ } END { print count + 0 }')
-          echo "coverage_ut package_count=${package_count} package_parallelism=${COVERAGE_UT_PACKAGE_PARALLELISM}" | tee -a "${phase_timing}"
+          instrumented_package_count=$(printf '%s\n' "${cover_pkgs}" | awk -F, '{ print NF }')
+          echo "coverage_ut package_count=${package_count} package_parallelism=${COVERAGE_UT_PACKAGE_PARALLELISM} instrumented_package_count=${instrumented_package_count}" | tee -a "${phase_timing}"
 
           phase_start prepare_cgo
           set +e
@@ -533,7 +541,7 @@ jobs:
           # Go helper ORs exact block hits with memory proportional to unique
           # blocks, then atomically replaces the raw profile after success.
           set +e
-          go run "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.ci-workflow/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go" "${coverage_profile}"
+          "${coverage_helper}" "${coverage_profile}"
           phase_status=$?
           set -e
           phase_end "${phase_status}"
diff --git a/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go b/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go
index b1df6a6..c7b3ce3 100644
--- a/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go
+++ b/scripts/compact_coverage_profile.go
@@ -23,6 +23,44 @@ var excludedPaths = [][]byte{
 	[]byte("yaccpar"),
 }
 
+func excludedCoveragePath(path []byte) bool {
+	for _, fragment := range excludedPaths {
+		if bytes.Contains(path, fragment) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+// coveragePackages applies the report's exclusions before instrumentation.
+// This only selects counters; the workflow still executes every test package.
+func coveragePackages(in io.Reader, out io.Writer) error {
+	reader := bufio.NewScanner(in)
+	var packages bytes.Buffer
+	for reader.Scan() {
+		name := reader.Bytes()
+		if len(name) == 0 || bytes.ContainsAny(name, " ,\t\r\\") {
+			return errors.New("invalid coverage package name")
+		}
+		if excludedCoveragePath(name) {
+			continue
+		}
+		if packages.Len() > 0 {
+			packages.WriteByte(',')
+		}
+		packages.Write(name)
+	}
+	if err := reader.Err(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if packages.Len() == 0 {
+		return errors.New("empty coverage instrumentation scope")
+	}
+	packages.WriteByte('\n')
+	_, err := packages.WriteTo(out)
+	return err
+}
+
 // compact retains one key per distinct (source range, statement count), not
 // one key per input row. The common duplicate lookup does not retain a copy of
 // the reader's buffer.
@@ -62,15 +100,7 @@ func compact(in io.Reader, out io.Writer) (int, error) {
 			return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid hit count on coverage line %d", lineNumber)
 		}
 
-		path := line[:firstSpace]
-		excluded := false
-		for _, fragment := range excludedPaths {
-			if bytes.Contains(path, fragment) {
-				excluded = true
-				break
-			}
-		}
-		if excluded {
+		if excludedCoveragePath(line[:firstSpace]) {
 			continue
 		}
 		keyBytes := line[:secondSpace]
@@ -202,11 +232,17 @@ func compactFile(path string) error {
 
 func main() {
 	if len(os.Args) != 2 {
-		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "usage: compact_coverage_profile.go COVERAGE_PROFILE")
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "usage: compact_coverage_profile COVERAGE_PROFILE | -packages < PACKAGE_LIST")
 		os.Exit(2)
 	}
-	if err := compactFile(os.Args[1]); err != nil {
-		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "coverage profile compaction failed: %v\n", err)
+	var err error
+	if os.Args[1] == "-packages" {
+		err = coveragePackages(os.Stdin, os.Stdout)
+	} else {
+		err = compactFile(os.Args[1])
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "coverage profile processing failed: %v\n", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/scripts/compact_coverage_profile_test.go b/scripts/compact_coverage_profile_test.go
index d059d7d..ae04ffb 100644
--- a/scripts/compact_coverage_profile_test.go
+++ b/scripts/compact_coverage_profile_test.go
@@ -2,16 +2,110 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"context"
 	"errors"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"os/exec"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 )
 
 const coverageHeader = "mode: set\n"
 
+func TestCoveragePackagesKeepsReportScopeAndRejectsIncompleteInput(t *testing.T) {
+	input := "example.com/pkg/work\nexample.com/pkg/pb/model\nexample.com/pkg/sql/parsers/goyacc\nexample.com/pkg/untested\n"
+	var output bytes.Buffer
+	if err := coveragePackages(strings.NewReader(input), &output); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got, want := output.String(), "example.com/pkg/work,example.com/pkg/untested\n"; got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("instrumentation scope=%q, want %q", got, want)
+	}
+	for _, input := range []string{"", "example.com/pkg/pb/model\n", "example.com/a,example.com/b\n", "example.com/a\n\n"} {
+		output.Reset()
+		if err := coveragePackages(strings.NewReader(input), &output); err == nil || output.Len() != 0 {
+			t.Fatalf("invalid scope %q: error=%v output=%q", input, err, output.String())
+		}
+	}
+	if err := coveragePackages(failureReader{}, &output); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("lost scope read failure")
+	}
+	if err := coveragePackages(strings.NewReader("example.com/a\n"), failureWriter{}); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("lost scope write failure")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestCoveragePackagesPreservesCrossPackageHitsAndUntestedBlocks(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	files := map[string]string{
+		"go.mod":                     "module example.com\n\ngo 1.23.0\n",
+		"pkg/pb/model/model.go":      "package model\nfunc Normalize(n int) int { if n < 0 { return -n }; return n }\n",
+		"pkg/work/work.go":           "package work\nimport \"example.com/pkg/pb/model\"\nfunc Process(n int) int { if n == 0 { return 0 }; return model.Normalize(n)+1 }\n",
+		"pkg/work/work_test.go":      "package work\nimport \"testing\"\nfunc TestZero(t *testing.T) { if Process(0) != 0 { t.Fatal(\"zero\") } }\n",
+		"pkg/pb/model/model_test.go": "package model_test\nimport (\"testing\"; \"example.com/pkg/work\")\nfunc TestDependencyFromExcludedPackage(t *testing.T) { if work.Process(-2) != 3 { t.Fatal(\"dependency\") } }\n",
+		"pkg/pb/plain/plain.go":      "package plain\nfunc Value() int { return 7 }\n",
+		"pkg/pb/plain/plain_test.go": "package plain\nimport \"testing\"\nfunc TestExcludedOnly(t *testing.T) { if Value() != 7 { t.Fatal(\"value\") } }\n",
+		"pkg/untested/u.go":          "package untested\nfunc Uncalled() int { return 42 }\n",
+	}
+	for name, data := range files {
+		path := filepath.Join(dir, name)
+		if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(path), 0700); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(data), 0600); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 45*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+	var scope bytes.Buffer
+	if err := coveragePackages(strings.NewReader("example.com/pkg/pb/model\nexample.com/pkg/pb/plain\nexample.com/pkg/untested\nexample.com/pkg/work\n"), &scope); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var profiles []string
+	for _, coverpkg := range []string{"./...", strings.TrimSpace(scope.String())} {
+		profile := filepath.Join(dir, "coverage.out")
+		cmd := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "go", "test", "-count=1", "-v", "-covermode=set", "-coverpkg="+coverpkg, "-coverprofile="+profile, "./...")
+		cmd.Dir = dir
+		cmd.Env = append(os.Environ(), "GOWORK=off", "GOFLAGS=")
+		cmd.WaitDelay = time.Second
+		output, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("go test: %v\n%s", err, output)
+		}
+		if !bytes.Contains(output, []byte("--- PASS: TestDependencyFromExcludedPackage")) {
+			t.Fatalf("excluded-package test did not execute:\n%s", output)
+		}
+		if !bytes.Contains(output, []byte("--- PASS: TestExcludedOnly")) {
+			t.Fatalf("excluded-only package test did not execute:\n%s", output)
+		}
+		raw, err := os.ReadFile(profile)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		var result bytes.Buffer
+		if _, err := compact(bytes.NewReader(raw), &result); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		profiles = append(profiles, result.String())
+	}
+	if profiles[0] != profiles[1] {
+		t.Fatalf("published blocks/hits changed:\nbaseline:\n%scandidate:\n%s", profiles[0], profiles[1])
+	}
+	retainedZero := false
+	for _, line := range strings.Split(profiles[1], "\n") {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "example.com/pkg/untested/u.go:") && strings.HasSuffix(line, " 1 0") {
+			retainedZero = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !retainedZero {
+		t.Fatalf("lost untested-package denominator:\n%s", profiles[1])
+	}
+}
+
 func TestCompactUnionsExactBlocksAndExclusions(t *testing.T) {
 	input := coverageHeader +
 		"example.com/a.go:1.1,1.2 1 0\n" +