diff --git a/.cargo/config.toml b/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5a9134515
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[build]
+warnings = "deny"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index a79470298..8cca16f40 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ permissions:
 
 env:
   CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always
-  RUSTFLAGS: "-D warnings"
   RUSTC_WRAPPER: ""
   CARGO_INCREMENTAL: "0"
 
@@ -438,13 +437,16 @@ jobs:
     timeout-minutes: 20
     # coverage uses -C instrument-coverage which produces different artifacts than
     # normal builds; sccache still helps for unchanged crates between main pushes.
-    # RUSTFLAGS is reset to empty to prevent -D warnings from promoting workspace
-    # lint warnings to errors during instrumented compilation — linting is enforced
-    # by the dedicated lint-clippy job.
+    # This job also builds with `--features full`, which includes crates (classifiers,
+    # profiling, sandbox, gonka, cocoon) outside the lint-clippy matrix, so a warning
+    # could appear here that lint-clippy never sees. CARGO_BUILD_WARNINGS overrides the
+    # repo-wide `.cargo/config.toml` deny-by-default to prevent that from promoting
+    # workspace lint warnings to errors during instrumented compilation — linting is
+    # enforced by the dedicated lint-clippy job.
     env:
       RUSTC_WRAPPER: sccache
       SCCACHE_GHA_ENABLED: "true"
-      RUSTFLAGS: ""
+      CARGO_BUILD_WARNINGS: "allow"
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7
       - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@4be7066ada62dd38de10e7b70166bc74ed198c30 # stable
@@ -643,8 +645,17 @@ jobs:
     if: needs.detect-changes.outputs.run-full-ci == 'true'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     timeout-minutes: 10
+    # `build.warnings` (repo-wide .cargo/config.toml) denies ALL local-package rustdoc
+    # warnings, not just `rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links` — it independently catches
+    # `rustdoc::private_intra_doc_links` and `rustdoc::redundant_explicit_links` too, which
+    # this job's own RUSTDOCFLAGS never enforced. Pre-existing (unrelated to any single PR)
+    # instances of those two lints exist workspace-wide; overriding to "allow" here keeps
+    # this job's enforcement scoped to exactly what RUSTDOCFLAGS denies, unchanged from
+    # before this migration (#5873) — fixing the pre-existing instances is a separate,
+    # larger doc-cleanup effort, not in scope for a CI-gate-mechanism migration.
     env:
       RUSTDOCFLAGS: "--deny rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links"
+      CARGO_BUILD_WARNINGS: "allow"
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0 # v7
       - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@4be7066ada62dd38de10e7b70166bc74ed198c30 # stable
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 60432de07..f443d5cf4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -107,6 +107,25 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/).
 
 ### Changed
 
+- `ci`: migrate the workspace lint-warning gate from the global `RUSTFLAGS: "-D warnings"`
+  CI env var to Cargo's native `build.warnings = "deny"` (new `.cargo/config.toml`, stabilized
+  in Rust 1.97, cargo PR rust-lang/cargo#16796). Unlike `RUSTFLAGS`, toggling `build.warnings`
+  does not change rustc's invocation fingerprint, so it no longer forces a full recompile of
+  unchanged units when switching between a plain `cargo build` and a warnings-denied one —
+  verified locally via `cargo build -v` fingerprint comparison (`Fresh` in both directions vs.
+  full recompile on `RUSTFLAGS` toggle). Coverage-parity verified for the warning classes the
+  previous gate caught (unused imports, dead code, unused variables); `build.warnings` was also
+  found to independently catch `rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links` and `cargo clippy` lints, wider
+  than expected, but `RUSTDOCFLAGS="--deny rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links"` and clippy's own
+  `-- -D warnings` CLI flag are left unchanged as defense-in-depth (#5873). The `coverage` job's
+  former `RUSTFLAGS: ""` reset (needed because it builds `--features full`, a superset of the
+  `lint-clippy` matrix, and must not fail on lint status — that's `lint-clippy`'s job) is now
+  `CARGO_BUILD_WARNINGS: "allow"`, the per-job env override for the same repo-wide config key.
+  The `rustdoc` job gets the same override: `build.warnings` being wider than `RUSTDOCFLAGS`
+  means it independently denies `rustdoc::private_intra_doc_links`/`redundant_explicit_links`
+  too, and 37 pre-existing instances across 10 crates (unrelated to this change) would have
+  newly failed that job; the override keeps it enforcing exactly what it always has pending a
+  separate doc-cleanup pass.
 - `chore`: raise the workspace MSRV from Rust 1.96 to 1.97 (`Cargo.toml`
   `rust-version`, CI `msrv` job, all crate README badges/notes, `specs/constitution.md`).
   Rust 1.97 (stable 2026-07-07) is now the minimum supported toolchain. This also unifies