diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate-org-template.yml b/.github/workflows/validate-org-template.yml
index 5820481..d0baa28 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate-org-template.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate-org-template.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           repository: molecule-ai/molecule-ci
           path: .molecule-ci-canonical
+          # Force anonymous; see validate-plugin.yml note. molecule-ci is public.
+          token: ''
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate-plugin.yml b/.github/workflows/validate-plugin.yml
index 21051f8..d99c058 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate-plugin.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate-plugin.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@ jobs:
         with:
           repository: molecule-ai/molecule-ci
           path: .molecule-ci-canonical
+          # Force anonymous fetch. molecule-ci is a public repo. On Gitea,
+          # actions/checkout@v4 sends the per-job ${{ github.token }} which
+          # is scoped to the calling repo only — Gitea 404s the cross-repo
+          # request instead of falling back to anon-public-read (different
+          # from GitHub's behaviour). Empty token bypasses auth entirely.
+          # See molecule-ci#1 commit + the post-public-flip CI run on
+          # plugin-molecule-careful-bash@663bf72 for the exact failure shape.
+          token: ''
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate-workspace-template.yml b/.github/workflows/validate-workspace-template.yml
index 3b7e47c..bbc8fce 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate-workspace-template.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate-workspace-template.yml
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           repository: molecule-ai/molecule-ci
           path: .molecule-ci-canonical
+          # Force anonymous; see validate-plugin.yml note. molecule-ci is public.
+          token: ''
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"
@@ -137,6 +139,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           repository: molecule-ai/molecule-ci
           path: .molecule-ci-canonical
+          # Force anonymous; see validate-plugin.yml note. molecule-ci is public.
+          token: ''
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"