diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/manifest-entry-existence-check.yml b/.gitea/workflows/manifest-entry-existence-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..928ac83d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/manifest-entry-existence-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+name: manifest-entry-existence-check
+
+# Gitea Actions port of the manual "GET /api/v1/repos/<name> for each
+# manifest entry" audit that the engineer-b identity ran on 2026-06-04 to
+# fix #2183 (main-red on 0b91c18031 — publish-workspace-server-image
+# failed at the Pre-clone manifest deps step because manifest.json
+# referenced 2 non-existent repos: free-beats-all + medo-smoke).
+#
+# The bug class is "latent 404 in manifest.json only surfaces on the
+# next push to main, which is too late". This workflow moves the check
+# to PR-review time so the bad entry never reaches main.
+#
+# Trigger: only on PRs that modify manifest.json. The `paths:` filter
+# keeps the workflow out of the PR-CI test matrix for every other PR.
+#
+# Auth: anonymous Gitea API. Per the 2026-05-08 OSS-surface contract
+# (commit 15935143c8d2 _comment), every entry in manifest.json is
+# public on git.moleculesai.app. No new secrets required.
+#
+# Failure surface: each broken entry is named in an ::error:: annotation
+# so the PR author sees exactly which line to fix. Mirrors the
+# `Pre-clone manifest deps` step's per-entry error format in
+# publish-workspace-server-image.yml.
+#
+# NOT a required status check today. Open design question tracked in
+# #2185 — making it required is a CTO ruling (admin-only branch-protection
+# config). Watchdog + post-merge RCA is the current backstop.
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    paths:
+      - manifest.json
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  # Design question: whether this should be a hard required check.
+  # The PR-time emit is asymmetric until the CTO rules. Tracking: #2185.
+  # bp-required: pending #2185 — do NOT flip to yes until BP lists the context.
+  check-entries:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6.0.2
+
+      - name: Verify each manifest entry resolves on Gitea
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          # Strip JSON5 // comments first to match the publish workflow's
+          # `Pre-clone manifest deps` parsing path — Integration Tester
+          # appends `// Triggered by ...` which breaks `jq` otherwise.
+          sed '/^[[:space:]]*\/\//d' manifest.json > /tmp/manifest.json
+          # Anonymous API is enough: per the 2026-05-08 OSS-surface contract
+          # (15935143c8d2 _comment), every entry is public on Gitea.
+          count=$(jq -r '(.plugins + .workspace_templates + .org_templates) | length' /tmp/manifest.json)
+          echo "Checking $count manifest entries against Gitea..."
+          missing=()
+          for i in $(seq 0 $((count-1))); do
+            name=$(jq -r "(.plugins + .workspace_templates + .org_templates)[$i].name" /tmp/manifest.json)
+            repo=$(jq -r "(.plugins + .workspace_templates + .org_templates)[$i].repo" /tmp/manifest.json)
+            for attempt in 1 2 3; do
+              http_code=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "https://git.moleculesai.app/api/v1/repos/${repo}")
+              if [ "$http_code" = "200" ]; then
+                echo "  OK   $name -> $repo"
+                break
+              elif [ "$http_code" = "404" ]; then
+                echo "::error::manifest entry '$name' points at '$repo' which does not exist on Gitea (404)"
+                missing+=("$name:$repo")
+                break
+              else
+                echo "  attempt $attempt: $name -> $repo returned HTTP $http_code, retrying in $((attempt * 2))s"
+                sleep $((attempt * 2))
+              fi
+            done
+          done
+          if [ "${#missing[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
+            echo "::error::${#missing[@]} manifest entries are broken:"
+            printf '  - %s\n' "${missing[@]}"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "All $count manifest entries resolve on Gitea."