diff --git a/services/memory/skill_extractor.py b/services/memory/skill_extractor.py
index 520ea5748..e763bca4c 100644
--- a/services/memory/skill_extractor.py
+++ b/services/memory/skill_extractor.py
@@ -210,8 +210,10 @@ async def maybe_extract_skill(
             pass
 
         # Parse JSON. The object may be wrapped in code fences or surrounded by
-        # commentary (and may contain a stray brace before the real object), so
-        # use a tolerant extractor that tries each '{' candidate.
+        # commentary (and may contain a stray/invalid brace fragment before
+        # the real object — including one that makes the response itself look
+        # like it starts with '{'), so use a tolerant extractor that tries the
+        # whole string first and then each '{' candidate left-to-right.
         data = _extract_json_object(response)
         if not data:
             logger.debug("[skill-extract] no JSON object found in response, dropping")
diff --git a/tests/test_skill_extractor_stray_brace.py b/tests/test_skill_extractor_stray_brace.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42128328a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_skill_extractor_stray_brace.py
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+import pytest
+
+from services.memory import skill_extractor
+
+
+class _FakeSession:
+    session_id = "s1"
+
+    def get_context_messages(self):
+        return [
+            {"role": "user", "content": "Walk me through deploying the service"},
+            {"role": "assistant", "content": "Sure, here's the runbook..."},
+        ]
+
+
+class _FakeSkillsManager:
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.added = []
+
+    def load(self, owner=None):
+        return []
+
+    def add_skill(self, **kwargs):
+        self.added.append(kwargs)
+        return {"id": "skill-1", **kwargs}
+
+
+# Stray '{' in prose ("uses {a} then ...") before the real JSON object —
+# the bug this fix addresses: slicing from the FIRST '{' to the LAST '}'
+# produced invalid JSON and the whole extraction was silently dropped.
+_STRAY_BRACE_RESPONSE = (
+    'Sure thing — note this uses {a} as a placeholder, then the actual skill is:\n'
+    '{"title": "Deploy runbook", "problem": "manual deploys are error-prone", '
+    '"solution": "use the deploy script", "steps": ["build", "push", "restart"], '
+    '"tags": ["deploy"], "confidence": 0.9}'
+)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("response", [_STRAY_BRACE_RESPONSE])
+async def test_maybe_extract_skill_recovers_json_past_stray_braces(monkeypatch, response):
+    async def fake_llm_call_async(*args, **kwargs):
+        return response
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr("src.llm_core.llm_call_async", fake_llm_call_async)
+
+    skills_manager = _FakeSkillsManager()
+    entry = await skill_extractor.maybe_extract_skill(
+        _FakeSession(),
+        skills_manager,
+        endpoint_url="http://endpoint",
+        model="test-model",
+        headers={},
+        round_count=3,
+        tool_count=3,
+        owner="alice",
+    )
+
+    assert entry is not None
+    assert entry["title"] == "Deploy runbook"
+    assert skills_manager.added and skills_manager.added[0]["title"] == "Deploy runbook"
+
+
+# Response *starts* with a brace, but it's an invalid fragment — the valid
+# skill JSON only appears on a later line. `json.loads(text)` fails on the
+# first attempt even though `text[0] == "{"`, so the candidate walk must run
+# regardless of whether the response starts with '{'.
+_LEADING_INVALID_BRACE_RESPONSE = (
+    '{not json}\n'
+    '{"title": "Valid later", "problem": "p", "solution": "s", '
+    '"steps": ["one", "two", "three"], "tags": ["test"], "confidence": 0.9}'
+)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("response", [_LEADING_INVALID_BRACE_RESPONSE])
+async def test_maybe_extract_skill_recovers_json_after_leading_invalid_brace(monkeypatch, response):
+    async def fake_llm_call_async(*args, **kwargs):
+        return response
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr("src.llm_core.llm_call_async", fake_llm_call_async)
+
+    skills_manager = _FakeSkillsManager()
+    entry = await skill_extractor.maybe_extract_skill(
+        _FakeSession(),
+        skills_manager,
+        endpoint_url="http://endpoint",
+        model="test-model",
+        headers={},
+        round_count=3,
+        tool_count=3,
+        owner="alice",
+    )
+
+    assert entry is not None
+    assert entry["title"] == "Valid later"
+    assert skills_manager.added and skills_manager.added[0]["title"] == "Valid later"
+
+
+async def test_maybe_extract_skill_drops_when_no_candidate_parses(monkeypatch):
+    async def fake_llm_call_async(*args, **kwargs):
+        return 'Some commentary with {unbalanced and { nested } braces } but no real JSON object'
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr("src.llm_core.llm_call_async", fake_llm_call_async)
+
+    skills_manager = _FakeSkillsManager()
+    entry = await skill_extractor.maybe_extract_skill(
+        _FakeSession(),
+        skills_manager,
+        endpoint_url="http://endpoint",
+        model="test-model",
+        headers={},
+        round_count=3,
+        tool_count=3,
+        owner="alice",
+    )
+
+    assert entry is None
+    assert not skills_manager.added