diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 328018e..7bdc988 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ summary: Timeline of guardrail helper changes mirrored from Sweetistics and rela
 
 # Changelog
 
+## 2026-07-22 — Validator UTF-8 Fix
+- `scripts/validate-skills` reads `SKILL.md` as UTF-8 instead of inheriting the process locale, so validation and the pre-commit hook stop failing with `invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII` in shells without `LANG` set.
+
 ## 2026-07-22 — Remove Legacy Maintainer Loop
 - Removed the legacy current-repository `bram-maintainer-loop` skill and project-loop prompt; maintainer orchestration now routes only through `bram-maintainer-loop-v2`.
 
diff --git a/scripts/validate-skills b/scripts/validate-skills
index 4d8e1fc..6e4904c 100755
--- a/scripts/validate-skills
+++ b/scripts/validate-skills
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ errors = []
 names = {}
 
 skill_files.each do |path|
-  text = File.read(path)
+  text = File.read(path, encoding: "UTF-8")
   data, error = load_front_matter(path, text)
 
   if error