diff --git a/tests/run_examples.sh b/tests/run_examples.sh
index 4829aa4..264cb33 100755
--- a/tests/run_examples.sh
+++ b/tests/run_examples.sh
@@ -31,8 +31,16 @@ if [[ "${1:-}" == "--update" ]]; then
     UPDATE=1
 fi
 
+# Normalize stdout/stderr for snapshot diffing. Applied identically to both
+# expected and actual, so it can only reconcile location/host noise — never
+# desync an otherwise-matching pair. The path rule collapses any absolute
+# `.../examples/` or `.../issues/` prefix (diagnostics embed the source path)
+# down to the repo-relative form, so snapshots are checkout-location independent
+# (canonical tree vs. a git worktree).
 normalize() {
-    sed 's/0x[0-9a-f]\{4,\}/0xADDR/g'
+    sed -E \
+        -e 's/0x[0-9a-f]{4,}/0xADDR/g' \
+        -e 's#(/[^[:space:]]*)?/(examples|issues)/#\2/#g'
 }
 
 # Normalize `sx ir` output for snapshot diffing (host-specific noise + LLVM