diff --git a/.github/workflows/formatting.yaml b/.github/workflows/formatting.yaml
index 765c523..e473ee3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/formatting.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/formatting.yaml
@@ -27,5 +27,22 @@ jobs:
           cache: true
           cache-dependency-path: go.sum
 
+      # `gofmt -l` walks the filesystem rather than Go's package wildcard, so
+      # unlike `go vet ./...` it has to be told which files are the module's own.
+      # scripts/go_files.sh is the one place that answers, here and locally, by
+      # asking the toolchain — which is what keeps vendor/ and testdata/ out.
+      #
+      # pipefail matters more than usual: without it, go_files.sh failing
+      # mid-pipeline is masked by xargs exiting 0 on no input, and the step
+      # passes having checked nothing at all.
       - name: check formatting
-        run: if [ $(gofmt -l . | grep -Ev '^vendor\/' | head -c1 | wc -c) -ne 0 ]; then exit 1; fi
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+
+          unformatted=$(scripts/go_files.sh . | xargs -0 gofmt -l)
+
+          if [ -n "${unformatted}" ]; then
+            echo "::error::gofmt reports these files as unformatted:"
+            echo "${unformatted}"
+            exit 1
+          fi
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index e406e42..9dfe0d3 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -55,6 +55,20 @@ This template does **not** vendor dependencies (platform-go's dependency tree is
 tests run against the module cache. Vendoring targets (`make vendor` / `make revendor`) exist for
 consumers who want them.
 
+`scripts/go_files.sh` is the one place that decides which Go files the formatters see, and
+`format_golang.sh`, `format_imports.sh`, `goimports.sh`, and the `gofmt` check in
+`.github/workflows/formatting.yaml` all take their list from it. It asks the Go toolchain
+(`go list -e -f '{{.Dir}}' ./...`, then `find -maxdepth 1`) rather than writing out an exclusion
+list, so `vendor/`, `testdata/`, and any `_`- or `.`-prefixed directory are skipped for the same
+reason `go test ./...` skips them. Point new filesystem-walking tooling at it rather than adding a
+fourth spelling of the same exclusion.
+
+Two things about it are load-bearing. It **fails loudly rather than emitting an empty list** — an
+out-of-sync `vendor/modules.txt` makes `go list` exit non-zero, and a formatter that quietly formats
+nothing (or a CI check that quietly checks nothing) is worse than a stop. And its callers read it
+**through a file, not `< <(...)`**, because process substitution discards the exit status of what it
+runs, which is exactly how that empty list would go unnoticed.
+
 ## Import Ordering
 
 Import ordering uses `gci` with four sections, separated by blank lines:
diff --git a/scripts/format_golang.sh b/scripts/format_golang.sh
index cf51bb9..dde80b8 100755
--- a/scripts/format_golang.sh
+++ b/scripts/format_golang.sh
@@ -3,11 +3,22 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 # Format all Go files using gofmt
 # Usage: format_golang.sh <project_root> <gofmt_command>
+#
+# Which files those are is go_files.sh's question, not this one's.
 
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 PROJECT_ROOT="${1:-$(pwd)}"
 
+# Through a file rather than `< <(go_files.sh)`: process substitution discards
+# the exit status of what it runs, so a failure to produce the list would read
+# here as a list of no files, and formatting nothing would look like success.
+file_list="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "${file_list}"' EXIT
+
+"${SCRIPT_DIR}/go_files.sh" "${PROJECT_ROOT}" >"${file_list}"
+
 while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
   # GO_FORMAT contains a command with arguments, so we use eval
   # shellcheck disable=SC2086
   eval "gofmt -s -w \"${file}\""
-done < <(find "${PROJECT_ROOT}" -type f -not -path '*/vendor/*' -name "*.go" -print0)
+done <"${file_list}"
diff --git a/scripts/format_imports.sh b/scripts/format_imports.sh
index 8d4c518..dbdb31c 100755
--- a/scripts/format_imports.sh
+++ b/scripts/format_imports.sh
@@ -3,15 +3,26 @@ set -euo pipefail
 
 # Format Go imports using gci
 # Usage: format_imports.sh <package_prefix> <project_root>
+#
+# Which files those are is go_files.sh's question, not this one's.
 
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 PACKAGE_PREFIX="${1:-github.com/primandproper/template-go}"
 PROJECT_ROOT="${2:-$(pwd)}"
 
-# Find all Go files and pass them to gci
+# Through a file rather than `< <(go_files.sh)`: process substitution discards
+# the exit status of what it runs, so a failure to produce the list would read
+# here as a list of no files, and formatting nothing would look like success.
+file_list="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "${file_list}"' EXIT
+
+"${SCRIPT_DIR}/go_files.sh" "${PROJECT_ROOT}" >"${file_list}"
+
+# Every Go file the module owns, passed to gci
 go_files=()
 while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
   go_files+=("${file}")
-done < <(find "${PROJECT_ROOT}" -type f -not -path '*/vendor/*' -name "*.go" -print0)
+done <"${file_list}"
 
 if [ ${#go_files[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
   go tool gci write \
diff --git a/scripts/go_files.sh b/scripts/go_files.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..5d3d99f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/go_files.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Emit every Go file this module owns, NUL-separated, for the formatters to
+# consume with `read -r -d ''`.
+# Usage: go_files.sh [project_root]
+#
+# The list comes from the Go toolchain rather than from a find(1) exclusion
+# list, because the toolchain already knows the answer. `./...` does not
+# descend into vendor/ or testdata/, nor into any directory whose name begins
+# with _ or . — which is why every wildcard-driven target here (test, lint,
+# go fix, fieldalignment, tagalign) needs no exclusions at all, and only the
+# tools that walk the filesystem ever did.
+#
+# Those tools used to answer the question themselves, three different ways:
+# format_golang.sh and format_imports.sh each carried their own
+# `-not -path '*/vendor/*'`, the formatting workflow filtered gofmt's output
+# with `grep -Ev '^vendor\/'`, and goimports.sh ran `goimports -w .` with no
+# exclusion whatsoever — which rewrote every vendored file in the tree. One
+# question deserves one answer, and this is it.
+#
+# -e keeps a package that does not compile in the list. Formatting a file is
+# most useful exactly when it is still broken, so a syntax error somewhere in
+# the module must not empty the whole list.
+#
+# -maxdepth 1 because what go list names are package directories, and a package
+# is entitled to a testdata directory of its own.
+
+PROJECT_ROOT="${1:-$(pwd)}"
+
+cd "${PROJECT_ROOT}"
+
+# go list is asked for the directories separately from walking them, so that a
+# failure to list is a failure of this script rather than an empty answer.
+# `go list` exits non-zero for module-level problems that -e does not cover — an
+# out-of-sync vendor/modules.txt being the one to expect — and a formatter that
+# quietly formats nothing, or a CI check that quietly checks nothing, is a worse
+# outcome than either a wrong file list or a loud stop.
+package_dirs="$(go list -e -f '{{.Dir}}' ./...)"
+
+if [ -z "${package_dirs}" ]; then
+  echo "go_files.sh: go list named no packages under ${PROJECT_ROOT}" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+printf '%s\n' "${package_dirs}" | while IFS= read -r dir; do
+  # A package with no directory on disk is not something to walk; -e means the
+  # list can carry entries the loader could not resolve.
+  [ -n "${dir}" ] && [ -d "${dir}" ] || continue
+
+  find "${dir}" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.go' -print0
+done
diff --git a/scripts/goimports.sh b/scripts/goimports.sh
index 4555c47..d99f3ab 100755
--- a/scripts/goimports.sh
+++ b/scripts/goimports.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,29 @@
 set -euo pipefail
 
 # Format Go imports using goimports
-# Usage: goimports.sh
+# Usage: goimports.sh [project_root]
+#
+# This used to be `go tool goimports -w .`, which walks the filesystem from the
+# working directory and so rewrote every vendored file in the tree whenever one
+# was present. It takes its file list from go_files.sh now, like the other
+# formatters.
 
-go tool goimports -w .
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+PROJECT_ROOT="${1:-$(pwd)}"
+
+# Through a file rather than `< <(go_files.sh)`: process substitution discards
+# the exit status of what it runs, so a failure to produce the list would read
+# here as a list of no files, and formatting nothing would look like success.
+file_list="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "${file_list}"' EXIT
+
+"${SCRIPT_DIR}/go_files.sh" "${PROJECT_ROOT}" >"${file_list}"
+
+go_files=()
+while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
+  go_files+=("${file}")
+done <"${file_list}"
+
+if [ ${#go_files[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
+  go tool goimports -w "${go_files[@]}"
+fi