diff --git a/.github/workflows/alert.yml b/.github/workflows/alert.yml
index b822dfebae0..78c616c6937 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/alert.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/alert.yml
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ on:
       - Platform
       - Quest
       - release-brew
-      - Release C++
+      - Release Cpp
       - Release Dart
       - Release Dart FFI
       - Release Go
diff --git a/.github/workflows/nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
index d0c080c1fbb..df96ff12ef4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/nightly.yml
@@ -385,7 +385,7 @@ jobs:
       contents: write
 
   release-cpp:
-    name: Release C++
+    name: Release Cpp
     uses: ./.github/workflows/release-cpp.yml
     permissions:
       contents: write
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-cpp.yml b/.github/workflows/release-cpp.yml
index 4d34c99a10f..f75d88d5428 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-cpp.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-cpp.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: Release C++
+name: Release Cpp
 
 # Builds the moq C++ package (cpp/moq) for every target and publishes one archive per
 # target to a cpp-v<version> GitHub release. The vcpkg and Conan packages fetch these.
diff --git a/sh/gh/alert.sh b/sh/gh/alert.sh
index ee95b2d7e39..5d4e812bf15 100755
--- a/sh/gh/alert.sh
+++ b/sh/gh/alert.sh
@@ -155,6 +155,14 @@ if (!Array.isArray(list)) {
     console.error("alert.sh: alert.yml has no on.workflow_run.workflows list");
     process.exit(2);
 }
+// GitHub reads each entry as a glob, so a literal name like "C++" is an invalid
+// pattern and GitHub refuses to load alert.yml at all: every watched run then
+// spawns a startup failure instead of an alert. Name workflows without these.
+const glob = list.filter((name) => /[*?+\[\]!]/.test(name));
+if (glob.length) {
+    console.error("alert.sh: glob characters in alert.yml workflow names: " + glob.join(", "));
+    process.exit(2);
+}
 if (list.length) console.log(list.join("\n"));
 '
 }