diff --git a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/workers/parse-worker.ts b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/workers/parse-worker.ts
index f982788ae..c123a9d90 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/workers/parse-worker.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/workers/parse-worker.ts
@@ -1706,7 +1706,7 @@ const processFileGroup = (
                 captureMap['call']!,
                 { filePath: file.path, language },
               );
-              if (heritageItems && heritageItems.length > 0) {
+              if (heritageItems !== null) {
                 for (const item of heritageItems) {
                   result.heritage.push({
                     filePath: file.path,
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/heritage-extraction.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/heritage-extraction.test.ts
index 77ed930a1..787971f07 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/heritage-extraction.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/heritage-extraction.test.ts
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ interface MockNode {
 }
 
 /** Create a minimal mock SyntaxNode for capture map entries. */
-function makeNode(text: string, type = 'identifier', parent?: MockNode | null): MockNode {
+function makeNode(text: string, type = 'identifier', parent?: MockNode): MockNode {
   return { type, text, parent: parent ?? null };
 }