diff --git a/crates/core/src/parser/level.rs b/crates/core/src/parser/level.rs
index 3c0c610..9634e0b 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/parser/level.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/parser/level.rs
@@ -100,13 +100,21 @@ fn detect_level_from_text(line: &str) -> Option<LogLevel> {
     )
 }
 
+// ─── is_ident_char ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+/// Whether a byte looks like an ASCII identifier continuation character
+/// (letter / digit / underscore). Log-level keywords must NOT be adjacent to
+/// such characters to count as a valid word boundary.
+fn is_ident_char(b: u8) -> bool {
+    b.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || b == b'_'
+}
+
 // ─── is_word_boundary ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-/// Check that the match at `start..start+len` is surrounded by non-alphabetic
+/// Check that the match at `start..start+len` is surrounded by non-identifier
 /// characters (or the string edge).
 fn is_word_boundary(text: &str, start: usize, len: usize) -> bool {
-    let before_ok = start == 0 || !text.as_bytes()[start - 1].is_ascii_alphabetic();
+    let before_ok = start == 0 || !is_ident_char(text.as_bytes()[start - 1]);
     let after_idx = start + len;
-    let after_ok = after_idx >= text.len() || !text.as_bytes()[after_idx].is_ascii_alphabetic();
+    let after_ok = after_idx >= text.len() || !is_ident_char(text.as_bytes()[after_idx]);
     before_ok && after_ok
 }
 
@@ -209,4 +217,36 @@ mod tests {
         let line = format!("{prefix} ERROR something");
         assert_eq!(detect_level(&line), Some(LogLevel::Error));
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_boundary_rejects_trailing_digits() {
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("ERROR123"), None);
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("WARN2: bad"), None);
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("ERR2"), None);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_boundary_rejects_underscore() {
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("INFO_foo"), None);
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("DBG_value=5"), None);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_boundary_rejects_leading_digits_and_underscore() {
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("123ERROR: fail"), None);
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("foo_ERROR: fail"), None);
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("1WRN"), None);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_boundary_accepts_valid_suffixes() {
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("ERROR: fail"), Some(LogLevel::Error));
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("[ERROR] fail"), Some(LogLevel::Error));
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("ERROR fail"), Some(LogLevel::Error));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_boundary_camel_case_regression() {
+        assert_eq!(detect_level("errorLevel"), None);
+    }
 }