diff --git a/.github/workflows/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.yml b/.github/workflows/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.yml
index e2d00b8e..b900c212 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.yml
@@ -145,7 +145,14 @@ jobs:
               summary: 'No changed external plugin entries were detected in this PR.',
             };
 
-            if (shouldRun) {
+            if ('${{ needs.detect-changed-plugins.result }}' === 'failure' || '${{ needs.detect-changed-plugins.result }}' === 'cancelled') {
+              qualityResult = {
+                overall_status: 'infra_error',
+                failure_class: 'infra',
+                checked_plugins: [],
+                summary: 'External plugin PR change detection failed unexpectedly. Re-run this workflow.',
+              };
+            } else if (shouldRun) {
               if (qualityJobResult === 'failure' || qualityJobResult === 'cancelled') {
                 qualityResult = {
                   overall_status: 'infra_error',
@@ -167,7 +174,7 @@ jobs:
 
             const stateLabel = qualityResult.failure_class === 'submitter_fixes'
               ? 'requires-submitter-fixes'
-              : qualityResult.overall_status === 'pass'
+              : qualityResult.overall_status === 'pass' || !shouldRun
                 ? 'ready-for-review'
                 : 'awaiting-review';
 
diff --git a/eng/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.mjs b/eng/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.mjs
index 9cd1bfbe..be948abe 100644
--- a/eng/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.mjs
+++ b/eng/external-plugin-pr-quality-gates.mjs
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@ export function buildSourceTreeUrl(plugin) {
     return `https://github.com/${sourceRepo}/tree/${encodedLocator}`;
   }
 
-  return `https://github.com/${sourceRepo}/tree/${encodedLocator}/${normalizedPath}`;
+  const encodedPath = encodePathLikeValue(normalizedPath);
+  return `https://github.com/${sourceRepo}/tree/${encodedLocator}/${encodedPath}`;
 }
 
 function aggregateResultStatus(pluginResults) {