diff --git a/.gitea/scripts/sop-tier-check.sh b/.gitea/scripts/sop-tier-check.sh
index 3a8964e6..c7b2c820 100755
--- a/.gitea/scripts/sop-tier-check.sh
+++ b/.gitea/scripts/sop-tier-check.sh
@@ -285,12 +285,26 @@ _passed_clauses=""
 _failed_clauses=""
 
 for _raw_clause in $EXPR; do
-  # Normalise: strip parens, split on comma, trim whitespace.
-  _clause=$(echo "$_raw_clause" | tr -d '()' | tr ',' '\n' | tr -d '[:space:]' | grep -v '^$')
+  # Normalise: strip parens, replace commas with spaces so bash word-split
+  # can iterate the OR-set members. The previous form
+  #   _clause=$(echo ... | tr ',' '\n' | tr -d '[:space:]' | grep -v '^$')
+  # collapsed every member into one concatenated token because
+  # `tr -d '[:space:]'` strips the very newlines that just separated them
+  # ("engineers,managers,ceo" -> "engineersmanagersceo"), so the OR-clause
+  # only ever evaluated as a single nonsense team name and never matched
+  # APPROVER_TEAMS. Fixed in #229: leave the comma-separated members as
+  # space-separated tokens for `for _t in $_clause`.
+  _no_parens=${_raw_clause//[()]/}
+  _clause=${_no_parens//,/ }
   _clause_passed="no"
   _clause_names=""
   for _t in $_clause; do
-    _clause_names="${_clause_names:+, }${_t}"
+    # Append (don't overwrite) team name to the human-readable accumulator.
+    # The previous form `_clause_names="${_clause_names:+, }${_t}"`
+    # rewrote the variable on every iteration, so the FAIL message only
+    # ever showed the LAST team. Fixed: prepend prior value before the
+    # comma-separator, then append the new team name.
+    _clause_names="${_clause_names}${_clause_names:+, }${_t}"
     # Skip teams not yet in Gitea (qa??? / security??? placeholders).
     [[ "$_t" == *"???" ]] && debug "clause \"$_t\": skipped (team pending creation)" && continue
     [ -z "${TEAM_ID[$_t]:-}" ] && debug "clause \"$_t\": no ID resolved, skipping" && continue
@@ -311,11 +325,12 @@ for _raw_clause in $EXPR; do
   _label=$(echo "$_raw_clause" | tr -d '()' | tr ',' '/' | tr -d '[:space:]' | sed 's/???//g')
 
   if [ "$_clause_passed" = "yes" ]; then
-    _passed_clauses="${_passed_clauses:+, }$_label"
+    # Append (don't overwrite) — same accumulator bug as _clause_names above.
+    _passed_clauses="${_passed_clauses}${_passed_clauses:+, }$_label"
     echo "::notice::clause [$_label]: PASS — satisfied by approving reviewer(s)"
   else
-    _failed_clauses="${_failed_clauses:+, }$_label"
-    echo "::error::clause [$_label]: FAIL — no approving reviewer belongs to any of these teams${_clause_names}. Set SOP_DEBUG=1 to see per-team probe results."
+    _failed_clauses="${_failed_clauses}${_failed_clauses:+, }$_label"
+    echo "::error::clause [$_label]: FAIL — no approving reviewer belongs to any of these teams (${_clause_names}). Set SOP_DEBUG=1 to see per-team probe results."
   fi
 done
 
diff --git a/.gitea/scripts/tests/test_sop_tier_check_clause_split.sh b/.gitea/scripts/tests/test_sop_tier_check_clause_split.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..3671faba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitea/scripts/tests/test_sop_tier_check_clause_split.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Regression test for #229 — sop-tier-check tier:low OR-clause splitter.
+#
+# Bug (PR #225 → still broken after PR #231):
+#   Line ~289 of sop-tier-check.sh used:
+#     _clause=$(echo "$_raw_clause" | tr -d '()' | tr ',' '\n' | tr -d '[:space:]' | grep -v '^$')
+#   `tr -d '[:space:]'` strips the newlines that `tr ',' '\n'` just
+#   inserted, collapsing "engineers,managers,ceo" into a single token
+#   "engineersmanagersceo". The for-loop then iterates ONCE on a name
+#   that matches no team, so every tier:low PR fails:
+#     ::error::clause [engineers/managers/ceo]: FAIL — no approving
+#     reviewer belongs to any of these teamsengineersmanagersceo
+#   (note also: missing separators in the error string is bug #2 —
+#    `_clause_names` used "${var:+, }$x" which OVERWRITES per iteration).
+#
+# Fix shape (this PR):
+#   _no_parens=${_raw_clause//[()]/}
+#   _clause=${_no_parens//,/ }    # comma -> space, bash word-split iterates
+#   _clause_names="${_clause_names}${_clause_names:+, }${_t}"  # APPEND, not overwrite
+#
+# This test extracts the splitter logic and asserts it produces the right
+# token list for each of the three tier expressions live in the script.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+PASS=0
+FAIL=0
+
+assert_eq() {
+  local label="$1"
+  local expected="$2"
+  local got="$3"
+  if [ "$expected" = "$got" ]; then
+    echo "  PASS  $label"
+    PASS=$((PASS + 1))
+  else
+    echo "  FAIL  $label"
+    echo "        expected: <$expected>"
+    echo "        got:      <$got>"
+    FAIL=$((FAIL + 1))
+  fi
+}
+
+# ----- Splitter under test (mirrors the fixed sop-tier-check.sh block) -----
+split_clause() {
+  local raw="$1"
+  local no_parens=${raw//[()]/}
+  local clause=${no_parens//,/ }
+  local out=""
+  for _t in $clause; do
+    out="${out}${out:+|}$_t"
+  done
+  echo "$out"
+}
+
+echo "test: tier:low OR-clause splits to 3 tokens"
+assert_eq "tier:low" "engineers|managers|ceo" "$(split_clause "engineers,managers,ceo")"
+
+echo "test: tier:medium AND-expression — bash word-split on \$EXPR yields 5 tokens"
+EXPR="managers AND engineers AND qa???,security???"
+out=""
+for _raw in $EXPR; do
+  out="${out}${out:+ ; }$(split_clause "$_raw")"
+done
+assert_eq "tier:medium" "managers ; AND ; engineers ; AND ; qa???|security???" "$out"
+
+echo "test: tier:high single-team OR-clause"
+assert_eq "tier:high" "ceo" "$(split_clause "ceo")"
+
+echo "test: paren-wrapped OR-set unwraps + splits"
+assert_eq "paren OR" "managers|ceo" "$(split_clause "(managers,ceo)")"
+
+# ----- _clause_names accumulator (was overwriting per iteration) -----
+acc=""
+for t in engineers managers ceo; do
+  acc="${acc}${acc:+, }${t}"
+done
+assert_eq "_clause_names append" "engineers, managers, ceo" "$acc"
+
+# ----- _failed_clauses / _passed_clauses accumulator across raw clauses -----
+acc=""
+for c in clauseA clauseB clauseC; do
+  acc="${acc}${acc:+, }${c}"
+done
+assert_eq "_failed_clauses append" "clauseA, clauseB, clauseC" "$acc"
+
+# ----- End-to-end OR-gate: simulate APPROVER_TEAMS[core-lead]=' managers ' -----
+# The script's case pattern is *${_t}* with a space-padded value.
+APPROVER_TEAMS_VAL=" managers "
+matched=""
+for _t in $(split_clause "engineers,managers,ceo" | tr '|' ' '); do
+  case "$APPROVER_TEAMS_VAL" in
+    *${_t}*) matched="$_t"; break ;;
+  esac
+done
+assert_eq "OR-gate matches managers" "managers" "$matched"
+
+echo
+echo "------"
+echo "PASS=$PASS FAIL=$FAIL"
+[ "$FAIL" -eq 0 ]