diff --git a/Sources/ShellKit/IO/InputSource.swift b/Sources/ShellKit/IO/InputSource.swift
index 8c2ffa6..e5bf9b9 100644
--- a/Sources/ShellKit/IO/InputSource.swift
+++ b/Sources/ShellKit/IO/InputSource.swift
@@ -43,6 +43,25 @@ public struct InputSource: Sendable {
         await cursor.readLine()
     }
 
+    /// True when this source is the canonical ``empty`` instance —
+    /// the marker a shell binds when no pipe or redirect feeds a
+    /// command.
+    ///
+    /// Commands that emulate tools with "read stdin OR walk the cwd"
+    /// behaviour (ripgrep's no-path default) need to know whether
+    /// the embedder attached real input. The host process's fd 0
+    /// can't answer that for an embedded shell; the binding can:
+    /// `.empty` means "nothing attached", anything else was bound
+    /// on purpose.
+    ///
+    /// Identity-based: only the shared ``empty`` instance (and its
+    /// copies) answer true. A manually built zero-byte stream is
+    /// still "attached input that happens to be empty" — matching
+    /// bash, where `true | cmd` hands `cmd` a real (empty) pipe.
+    public var isCanonicalEmpty: Bool {
+        cursor === Self.empty.cursor
+    }
+
     // MARK: Factories
 
     /// An already-finished stream with no data.
diff --git a/Tests/ShellKitTests/InputSourceCanonicalEmptyTests.swift b/Tests/ShellKitTests/InputSourceCanonicalEmptyTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e601457
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/ShellKitTests/InputSourceCanonicalEmptyTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import Foundation
+import Testing
+@testable import ShellKit
+
+/// ``InputSource/isCanonicalEmpty`` — the "did the shell attach real
+/// input?" probe used by commands with read-stdin-or-walk-cwd
+/// behaviour (rg's no-path default).
+@Suite struct InputSourceCanonicalEmptyTests {
+
+    @Test func canonicalEmptyAnswersTrue() {
+        #expect(InputSource.empty.isCanonicalEmpty)
+        // Copies share the cursor, so the marker survives passing
+        // the source around by value.
+        let copy = InputSource.empty
+        #expect(copy.isCanonicalEmpty)
+    }
+
+    @Test func attachedSourcesAnswerFalse() {
+        #expect(!InputSource.string("x").isCanonicalEmpty)
+        // Deliberately attached zero-byte input is NOT canonical —
+        // bash's `true | cmd` hands cmd a real (empty) pipe, and a
+        // command must read it (and see EOF), not walk the cwd.
+        #expect(!InputSource.string("").isCanonicalEmpty)
+        #expect(!InputSource.data(Data()).isCanonicalEmpty)
+        let (stream, continuation) = AsyncStream<Data>.makeStream()
+        continuation.finish()
+        #expect(!InputSource(bytes: stream).isCanonicalEmpty)
+    }
+}