diff --git a/src/reference/ReferenceSourceReaderEntries.ts b/src/reference/ReferenceSourceReaderEntries.ts
index 8ec5e9d803..a7ae837e82 100644
--- a/src/reference/ReferenceSourceReaderEntries.ts
+++ b/src/reference/ReferenceSourceReaderEntries.ts
@@ -357,7 +357,7 @@ const readSymlinkTarget = async (
   } catch (cause: unknown) {
     const code =
       cause instanceof Error ? Reflect.get(cause, "code") : undefined;
-    if (code !== "ENOENT") throw cause;
+    if (code !== "ENOENT" && code !== "ENOTDIR") throw cause;
     return {
       status: "read",
       kind: "symlink",
diff --git a/tests/boundary/filesystem/referenceSourceImport.test.ts b/tests/boundary/filesystem/referenceSourceImport.test.ts
index f49ef6ba4c..65c6d4b22d 100644
--- a/tests/boundary/filesystem/referenceSourceImport.test.ts
+++ b/tests/boundary/filesystem/referenceSourceImport.test.ts
@@ -167,10 +167,21 @@ describe("reference source symlink import", () => {
       policy: { secretPatterns: [] },
       excludePaths: ["secret.txt"],
     });
-    expect(result.ok).toBe(false);
-    if (result.ok) return;
-    expect(result.error.code).toBe("parse");
-    expect(result.error.message).toMatch(/recorded exclusion/u);
+    if (!result.ok) throw new Error(result.error.message);
+    expect(result.value.inventory_state).toBe("partial");
+    expect(
+      result.value.entries.find(({ path }) => path === "alias"),
+    ).toMatchObject({
+      kind: "symlink",
+      target: "secret.txt/child",
+      target_state: "missing",
+    });
+    expect(result.value.exclusions).toContainEqual({
+      path: "secret.txt",
+      entry_kind: "file",
+      reason: "caller-excluded",
+      pattern: "secret.txt",
+    });
   });
 
   it("preserves an unreadable target as unknown instead of a synthetic path", () => {