diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 874a51a..e5f930c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -165,6 +165,9 @@ export REPO_PULL="external-auditors"            # Read/pull permissions
 
 # Optional: restrict to repos whose names start with a given prefix
 export REPO_NAME_FILTER="my-service-"
+
+# Optional: skip specific repos for a given permission level (space-separated repo names)
+export REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE="secret-repo internal-tools"   # These repos won't get pull access
 ```
 
 **Usage:**
@@ -178,6 +181,7 @@ cd org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions
 - Filters to repositories whose names start with `REPO_NAME_FILTER` (all repos when unset)
 - Grants permissions to specified teams based on permission level
 - Supports multiple teams per permission level (space-separated)
+- Skips repos listed in the matching `REPO_<LEVEL>_EXCLUDE` variable for that permission level only
 - Processes all five GitHub permission levels: admin, maintain, push, triage, pull
 - Includes 5-second delays between repos to avoid rate limits
 
@@ -190,6 +194,8 @@ cd org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions
 
 > [!NOTE]
 > At least one permission level must be set. Team slugs should be lowercase and hyphenated (e.g., "Platform Team" → `platform-team`).
+>
+> Each permission level has an optional exclusion list: `REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE`, `REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE`, `REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE`, `REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE`, and `REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE`. Each holds space-separated exact repo names that are skipped for that level only.
 
 ---
 
diff --git a/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/action.yml b/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/action.yml
index d6d90c4..3cf9d8d 100644
--- a/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/action.yml
+++ b/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/action.yml
@@ -31,6 +31,26 @@ inputs:
     description: 'Space-separated team slugs to grant pull access'
     required: false
     default: ''
+  repo-admin-exclude:
+    description: 'Space-separated repo names to skip for admin access'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
+  repo-maintain-exclude:
+    description: 'Space-separated repo names to skip for maintain access'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
+  repo-push-exclude:
+    description: 'Space-separated repo names to skip for push access'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
+  repo-triage-exclude:
+    description: 'Space-separated repo names to skip for triage access'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
+  repo-pull-exclude:
+    description: 'Space-separated repo names to skip for pull access'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
   api-url-prefix:
     description: 'GitHub API base URL'
     required: false
@@ -49,5 +69,10 @@ runs:
         REPO_PUSH: ${{ inputs.repo-push }}
         REPO_TRIAGE: ${{ inputs.repo-triage }}
         REPO_PULL: ${{ inputs.repo-pull }}
+        REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE: ${{ inputs.repo-admin-exclude }}
+        REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE: ${{ inputs.repo-maintain-exclude }}
+        REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE: ${{ inputs.repo-push-exclude }}
+        REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE: ${{ inputs.repo-triage-exclude }}
+        REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE: ${{ inputs.repo-pull-exclude }}
         API_URL_PREFIX: ${{ inputs.api-url-prefix }}
       run: ${{ github.action_path }}/github-add-repo-permissions.sh
diff --git a/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh b/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh
index fa40f8e..6be4bea 100755
--- a/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh
+++ b/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh
@@ -15,18 +15,24 @@
 #   ./github-add-repo-permissions.sh
 #
 # Environment variables:
-#   GITHUB_TOKEN       Required. PAT with admin:org scope
-#   ORG                Required. GitHub organization name
-#   REPO_NAME_FILTER   Optional. Prefix filter for repository names (default: all repos)
-#   REPO_ADMIN         Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant admin access
-#   REPO_MAINTAIN      Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant maintain access
-#   REPO_PUSH          Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant push access
-#   REPO_TRIAGE        Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant triage access
-#   REPO_PULL          Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant pull access
-#   API_URL_PREFIX     Optional. GitHub API base URL (default: https://api.github.com)
+#   GITHUB_TOKEN          Required. PAT with admin:org scope
+#   ORG                   Required. GitHub organization name
+#   REPO_NAME_FILTER      Optional. Prefix filter for repository names (default: all repos)
+#   REPO_ADMIN            Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant admin access
+#   REPO_MAINTAIN         Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant maintain access
+#   REPO_PUSH             Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant push access
+#   REPO_TRIAGE           Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant triage access
+#   REPO_PULL             Optional. Space-separated team slugs to grant pull access
+#   REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE    Optional. Space-separated repo names to skip for admin access
+#   REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE Optional. Space-separated repo names to skip for maintain access
+#   REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE     Optional. Space-separated repo names to skip for push access
+#   REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE   Optional. Space-separated repo names to skip for triage access
+#   REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE     Optional. Space-separated repo names to skip for pull access
+#   API_URL_PREFIX        Optional. GitHub API base URL (default: https://api.github.com)
 #
 # Note: At least one of REPO_ADMIN, REPO_MAINTAIN, REPO_PUSH, REPO_TRIAGE,
-#       or REPO_PULL must be set.
+#       or REPO_PULL must be set. Each REPO_*_EXCLUDE list names repositories
+#       that are skipped for that permission level only.
 #
 # Requirements:
 #   - curl
@@ -52,6 +58,13 @@ REPO_PUSH=${REPO_PUSH:-''}
 REPO_TRIAGE=${REPO_TRIAGE:-''}
 REPO_PULL=${REPO_PULL:-''}
 
+# Permission-specific exclusion lists (space-separated repo names to skip)
+REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE=${REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE:-''}
+REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE=${REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE:-''}
+REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE=${REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE:-''}
+REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE=${REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE:-''}
+REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE=${REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE:-''}
+
 require_env_var GITHUB_TOKEN "GitHub token"
 require_env_var ORG "GitHub organization"
 require_command jq
@@ -68,6 +81,35 @@ if [ -n "${REPO_NAME_FILTER}" ]; then
   print_status "Repository filter: ${REPO_NAME_FILTER}*"
 fi
 
+is_excluded () {
+  local REPO_NAME=$1
+  local EXCLUDE_LIST=$2
+  local EXCLUDED
+
+  for EXCLUDED in ${EXCLUDE_LIST}; do
+    if [ "${EXCLUDED}" = "${REPO_NAME}" ]; then
+      return 0
+    fi
+  done
+  return 1
+}
+
+apply_level () {
+  local REPO_NAME=$1
+  local PERMISSION=$2
+  local TEAM_SLUGS=$3
+  local EXCLUDE_LIST=$4
+
+  [ -z "${TEAM_SLUGS}" ] && return 0
+
+  if is_excluded "${REPO_NAME}" "${EXCLUDE_LIST}"; then
+    print_status "  Skipping ${PERMISSION} on ${REPO_NAME} (excluded)"
+    return 0
+  fi
+
+  apply_team_permissions "${REPO_NAME}" "${PERMISSION}" "${TEAM_SLUGS}"
+}
+
 apply_team_permissions () {
   local REPO_NAME=$1
   local PERMISSION=$2
@@ -107,32 +149,13 @@ process_repos () {
     while IFS= read -r REPO; do
       [ -z "${REPO}" ] && continue
       print_status "Processing repo ${REPO}"
-      
-      # Apply admin permissions
-      if [ -n "${REPO_ADMIN}" ]; then
-        apply_team_permissions "${REPO}" "admin" "${REPO_ADMIN}"
-      fi
-      
-      # Apply maintain permissions
-      if [ -n "${REPO_MAINTAIN}" ]; then
-        apply_team_permissions "${REPO}" "maintain" "${REPO_MAINTAIN}"
-      fi
-      
-      # Apply push (write) permissions
-      if [ -n "${REPO_PUSH}" ]; then
-        apply_team_permissions "${REPO}" "push" "${REPO_PUSH}"
-      fi
-      
-      # Apply triage permissions
-      if [ -n "${REPO_TRIAGE}" ]; then
-        apply_team_permissions "${REPO}" "triage" "${REPO_TRIAGE}"
-      fi
-      
-      # Apply pull (read) permissions
-      if [ -n "${REPO_PULL}" ]; then
-        apply_team_permissions "${REPO}" "pull" "${REPO_PULL}"
-      fi
-      
+
+      apply_level "${REPO}" "admin" "${REPO_ADMIN}" "${REPO_ADMIN_EXCLUDE}"
+      apply_level "${REPO}" "maintain" "${REPO_MAINTAIN}" "${REPO_MAINTAIN_EXCLUDE}"
+      apply_level "${REPO}" "push" "${REPO_PUSH}" "${REPO_PUSH_EXCLUDE}"
+      apply_level "${REPO}" "triage" "${REPO_TRIAGE}" "${REPO_TRIAGE_EXCLUDE}"
+      apply_level "${REPO}" "pull" "${REPO_PULL}" "${REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE}"
+
       # Add delay to prevent hitting GitHub rate limit
       sleep 5
     done < <(echo "${repos_json}" | jq -r --arg filter "${REPO_NAME_FILTER}" 'sort_by(.name) | .[] | select(.name | startswith($filter)) | .name')
diff --git a/tests/mock_curl_permissions.sh b/tests/mock_curl_permissions.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45a4da8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/mock_curl_permissions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# =============================================================================
+# mock_curl_permissions.sh
+#
+# Purpose-built curl mock for github-add-repo-permissions tests. Unlike the
+# universal mock_curl.sh, this variant returns endpoint-specific responses so
+# the full repo-processing flow can be exercised:
+#
+#   HEAD request (-I)          page-count probe -> single page (no next header)
+#   GET .../user (-o target)   token validation -> HTTP 200
+#   PUT team permissions       -> HTTP 204
+#   GET .../repos              repo list -> JSON array from MOCK_REPOS_JSON
+#
+# MOCK_REPOS_JSON overrides the repo list body (default: two repos).
+# =============================================================================
+
+is_put=0
+is_head=0
+ofile=""
+prev=""
+for arg in "$@"; do
+  case "${arg}" in
+    PUT) is_put=1 ;;
+    -I)  is_head=1 ;;
+  esac
+  [ "${prev}" = "-o" ] && ofile="${arg}"
+  prev="${arg}"
+done
+
+if [ "${is_put}" = 1 ]; then
+  printf '204'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ "${is_head}" = 1 ]; then
+  printf 'HTTP/1.1 200\r\n'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ -n "${ofile}" ]; then
+  : > "${ofile}"
+  printf '200'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+DEFAULT_REPOS='[{"name":"repo-keep"},{"name":"repo-skip"}]'
+printf '%s' "${MOCK_REPOS_JSON:-${DEFAULT_REPOS}}"
diff --git a/tests/test_script_validation.bats b/tests/test_script_validation.bats
index 46e00e1..fbc8f6c 100644
--- a/tests/test_script_validation.bats
+++ b/tests/test_script_validation.bats
@@ -86,10 +86,35 @@ _run_script() {
 }
 
 @test "github-add-repo-permissions: exits 1 when ORG is not set" {
-  _run_script "${REPO_ROOT}/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh" "export GITHUB_TOKEN=fake; unset ORG;"
+  _run_script "${REPO_ROOT}/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh" "export GITHUB_TOKEN=fake; export REPO_PULL=read-team; unset ORG;"
   [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
 }
 
+@test "github-add-repo-permissions: exits 1 when no permission level is set" {
+  _run_script "${REPO_ROOT}/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh" "export GITHUB_TOKEN=fake; export ORG=test;"
+  [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
+}
+
+@test "github-add-repo-permissions: skips repo listed in REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE for pull only" {
+  cp "${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/mock_curl_permissions.sh" "$MOCK_BIN/curl"
+  chmod +x "$MOCK_BIN/curl"
+  _run_script "${REPO_ROOT}/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh" \
+    "export GITHUB_TOKEN=fake; export ORG=test; export REPO_PULL=read-team; export REPO_PULL_EXCLUDE=repo-skip;"
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"Skipping pull on repo-skip (excluded)"* ]]
+  [[ "$output" == *"Applied pull to read-team on repo-keep"* ]]
+}
+
+@test "github-add-repo-permissions: applies to all repos when exclude list is empty" {
+  cp "${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/mock_curl_permissions.sh" "$MOCK_BIN/curl"
+  chmod +x "$MOCK_BIN/curl"
+  _run_script "${REPO_ROOT}/org-admin/github-add-repo-permissions/github-add-repo-permissions.sh" \
+    "export GITHUB_TOKEN=fake; export ORG=test; export REPO_PULL=read-team;"
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"Applied pull to read-team on repo-keep"* ]]
+  [[ "$output" == *"Applied pull to read-team on repo-skip"* ]]
+}
+
 # ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 # org-admin/github-archive-old-repos
 # ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════