diff --git a/internal/cbm/helpers.c b/internal/cbm/helpers.c
index 1a6e16068..2abdb7ad7 100644
--- a/internal/cbm/helpers.c
+++ b/internal/cbm/helpers.c
@@ -399,6 +399,21 @@ bool cbm_kind_in_set(TSNode node, const char **types) {
     return kind_in_set_strcmp(node, (const char *const *)types);
 }
 
+/* Free the calling thread's node-type bitset cache (the calloc'd `bits` arrays
+ * that cbm_kind_in_set builds lazily). The cache is thread-local, so each worker
+ * thread and the main thread must call this at teardown (worker exit / process
+ * exit) for LeakSanitizer to report no leak. Safe if no cache was ever built. */
+void cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache(void) {
+    for (int i = 0; i < KS_SLOTS; i++) {
+        free(ks_cache[i].bits);
+        ks_cache[i].bits = NULL;
+        ks_cache[i].lang = NULL;
+        ks_cache[i].types = NULL;
+        ks_cache[i].nsyms = 0;
+        ks_cache[i].exact = false;
+    }
+}
+
 bool cbm_has_ancestor_kind(TSNode node, const char *kind, int max_depth) {
     TSNode cur = node;
     for (int i = 0; i < max_depth; i++) {
diff --git a/internal/cbm/helpers.h b/internal/cbm/helpers.h
index c1d158005..ea8154d4c 100644
--- a/internal/cbm/helpers.h
+++ b/internal/cbm/helpers.h
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ TSNode cbm_find_child_by_kind(TSNode parent, const char *kind);
 // Check if node kind matches a set of types (NULL-terminated array of strings).
 bool cbm_kind_in_set(TSNode node, const char **types);
 
+// Free the calling thread's cbm_kind_in_set bitset cache (call at thread/process
+// teardown so the thread-local cache is not reported as a leak).
+void cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache(void);
+
 // Check if node has an ancestor of the given kind, within max_depth levels.
 bool cbm_has_ancestor_kind(TSNode node, const char *kind, int max_depth);
 
diff --git a/src/pipeline/pass_parallel.c b/src/pipeline/pass_parallel.c
index daec7a661..4b5e0b884 100644
--- a/src/pipeline/pass_parallel.c
+++ b/src/pipeline/pass_parallel.c
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ enum { PP_CSHARP_M_PREFIX_LEN = 2 };
 #include "pipeline/pipeline_internal.h"
 #include "pipeline/pass_lsp_cross.h" /* cbm_pxc_* helpers for fused cross-file LSP */
 #include "pipeline/lsp_resolve.h"
+#include "helpers.h" /* cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache — per-worker-thread cache teardown */
 #include "pipeline/worker_pool.h"
 #include "foundation/compat.h"
 #include "foundation/compat_thread.h"
@@ -635,6 +636,7 @@ static void extract_worker(int worker_id, void *ctx_ptr) {
 
     /* Final cleanup (parser already destroyed in loop, just slab state) */
     cbm_slab_destroy_thread();
+    cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache(); /* free this worker thread's node-type bitset cache */
 }
 
 static void merge_pkg_entries(cbm_pipeline_ctx_t *ctx, cbm_pkg_entries_t *pkg_entries,
diff --git a/tests/test_main.c b/tests/test_main.c
index a30964b49..51c0b03cc 100644
--- a/tests/test_main.c
+++ b/tests/test_main.c
@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@ extern void suite_incremental(void);
 extern void suite_simhash(void);
 extern void suite_stack_overflow(void);
 
+/* Free the main thread's thread-local node-type bitset cache before exit so
+ * LeakSanitizer (Linux x64) doesn't report it. Worker threads free their own
+ * caches at thread teardown (pass_parallel.c). */
+extern void cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache(void);
+
 int main(void) {
     printf("\n  codebase-memory-mcp  C test suite\n");
 
@@ -207,7 +212,8 @@ int main(void) {
 
     RUN_SUITE(incremental);
 
-    /* Release sqlite3 internal caches so ASan doesn't report them as leaks */
+    /* Release process-lifetime caches so LeakSanitizer reports no leaks. */
+    cbm_kind_in_set_free_cache();
     sqlite3_shutdown();
     TEST_SUMMARY();
 }