diff --git a/local/scripts/verify-fork-functions.sh b/local/scripts/verify-fork-functions.sh
index b1e8caed6b..65fb1cb10c 100755
--- a/local/scripts/verify-fork-functions.sh
+++ b/local/scripts/verify-fork-functions.sh
@@ -113,16 +113,26 @@ for fork in "${TARGET_FORKS[@]}"; do
     declare -a missing_details=()
 
     for f in "${shared_files[@]}"; do
-        # Extract function names from upstream version of the file
+        # Extract BARE function names (no visibility/async/unsafe/const
+        # modifiers) from the upstream version of the file.
+        #
+        # The key must be the bare name. The previous pattern kept whatever
+        # modifier it happened to match as part of the key ('pub foo' vs
+        # 'foo'), so merely changing a function's visibility in the fork —
+        # or upstream using 'pub(crate)', which the old pattern did not
+        # match at all — made an existing function look deleted. That is
+        # what produced report lines like "fn pub socket" and flagged
+        # functions the fork demonstrably still has. Visibility changes are
+        # not dropped code; only the name's presence is what this gate is
+        # meant to assert.
         upstream_fns=$(cd "$fork_dir" && git show "${upstream_ref}:${f}" 2>/dev/null | \
-            grep -oP '(?:pub )?(?:async )?(?:unsafe )?fn \w+' | \
-            sed 's/fn //' | sed 's/ *$//' | sort -u)
+            grep -oP '\bfn\s+\w+' | sed -E 's/^fn[[:space:]]+//' | sort -u)
 
         [[ -z "$upstream_fns" ]] && continue
 
         # Extract function names from our version of the file
-        local_fns=$(cd "$fork_dir" && grep -oP '(?:pub )?(?:async )?(?:unsafe )?fn \w+' "$f" 2>/dev/null | \
-            sed 's/fn //' | sed 's/ *$//' | sort -u)
+        local_fns=$(cd "$fork_dir" && grep -oP '\bfn\s+\w+' "$f" 2>/dev/null | \
+            sed -E 's/^fn[[:space:]]+//' | sort -u)
 
         # Load per-fork exclusion list for intentionally removed/replaced functions
         exclude_file="${fork_dir}/.verify-fork-functions.exclude"
@@ -131,7 +141,16 @@ for fork in "${TARGET_FORKS[@]}"; do
             while IFS= read -r line; do
                 [[ "$line" =~ ^# ]] && continue
                 [[ -z "$line" ]] && continue
-                excluded["$line"]=1
+                # Existing exclude files were written against the old
+                # modifier-carrying key format (and often list the same
+                # function twice, e.g. 'foo' and 'pub foo', to work around
+                # it). Normalize the function half to the bare name so both
+                # spellings keep matching now that keys are bare.
+                ex_path="${line%%:*}"
+                ex_fn="${line#*:}"
+                ex_fn="$(printf '%s' "$ex_fn" | \
+                    sed -E 's/^(pub(\([^)]*\))?[[:space:]]+|async[[:space:]]+|unsafe[[:space:]]+|const[[:space:]]+)+//')"
+                excluded["${ex_path}:${ex_fn}"]=1
             done < "$exclude_file"
         fi