diff --git a/changelog.d/+sdkharness-leaves-skip-pycache.infrastructure.md b/changelog.d/+sdkharness-leaves-skip-pycache.infrastructure.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4d74b425
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/+sdkharness-leaves-skip-pycache.infrastructure.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Make the sdkharness leaf-check unit tests ignore `__pycache__` and other non-leaf entries.
diff --git a/test/unit/test_sdkharness_conformance_resilience_contract.py b/test/unit/test_sdkharness_conformance_resilience_contract.py
index e133e44f..15d59f77 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_sdkharness_conformance_resilience_contract.py
+++ b/test/unit/test_sdkharness_conformance_resilience_contract.py
@@ -110,10 +110,18 @@ def test_child_environment_scrubs_real_b2_credentials_and_pins_checkout():
 
 LEAF_ROOT = Path(__file__).parents[2] / '.sdkharness' / 'tests'
 LEAVES = sorted(
-    path for level in ('conformance', 'resilience') for path in (LEAF_ROOT / level).iterdir()
+    path
+    for level in ('conformance', 'resilience')
+    for path in (LEAF_ROOT / level).iterdir()
+    if path.is_file() and not path.name.startswith(('__', '.'))
 )
 
 
+def test_leaves_are_regular_files_only():
+    assert LEAVES
+    assert all(path.is_file() and not path.name.startswith('__') for path in LEAVES)
+
+
 def run_leaf(path, extra_environment):
     import os
     import subprocess