diff --git a/src/shell/grep-core.ts b/src/shell/grep-core.ts
index 02709ba9..ec111464 100644
--- a/src/shell/grep-core.ts
+++ b/src/shell/grep-core.ts
@@ -623,6 +623,18 @@ export function extractRegexAlternationPrefilters(pattern: string): string[] | n
 }
 
 export function buildGrepSearchOptions(params: GrepMatchParams, targetPath: string): SearchOptions {
+  // `grep -v` wants the lines that do NOT match, so a row that never contains
+  // the pattern is exactly the one it must keep. Skip every content prefilter
+  // and let the line-by-line refinement do the inversion.
+  if (params.invertMatch) {
+    return {
+      pathFilter: buildPathFilter(targetPath),
+      contentScanOnly: true,
+      likeOp: process.env.HIVEMIND_GREP_LIKE === "case-sensitive" ? "LIKE" : "ILIKE",
+      escapedPattern: sqlLike(params.pattern),
+    };
+  }
+
   const hasRegexMeta = !params.fixedString && /[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/.test(params.pattern);
   const literalPrefilter = hasRegexMeta ? extractRegexLiteralPrefilter(params.pattern) : null;
   const alternationPrefilters = hasRegexMeta ? extractRegexAlternationPrefilters(params.pattern) : null;
diff --git a/tests/claude-code/grep-core.test.ts b/tests/claude-code/grep-core.test.ts
index 995ad1b5..6c5f34de 100644
--- a/tests/claude-code/grep-core.test.ts
+++ b/tests/claude-code/grep-core.test.ts
@@ -950,6 +950,24 @@ describe("grepBothTables", () => {
     expect(out).toContain("/summaries/a.md:trailing");
   });
 
+  it("grep -v keeps files that never contain the pattern", async () => {
+    // Fake backend that applies the ILIKE content filter the way the server does:
+    // with `summary::text ILIKE '%foo%'` in the SQL, only rows containing foo return.
+    const stored = [
+      { path: "/summaries/a.md", content: "foo line\nkeep a" },
+      { path: "/summaries/b.md", content: "only b" },
+    ];
+    const api = {
+      query: vi.fn(async (sql: string) =>
+        sql.includes("ILIKE '%foo%'")
+          ? stored.filter((r) => r.content.toLowerCase().includes("foo"))
+          : stored),
+    } as any;
+    const out = await grepBothTables(api, "m", "s", { ...baseParams, invertMatch: true }, "/summaries");
+    // `grep -v foo` prints every line without foo, including all of b.md.
+    expect(out).toEqual(["/summaries/a.md:keep a", "/summaries/b.md:only b"]);
+  });
+
   it("falls back to refined output when HIVEMIND_SEMANTIC_EMIT_ALL=false even with an embedding", async () => {
     const prev = process.env.HIVEMIND_SEMANTIC_EMIT_ALL;
     process.env.HIVEMIND_SEMANTIC_EMIT_ALL = "false";