diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b027d3b4..65dc2bd0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 .PHONY: test test-extras test-extras-sustained test-extras-fuzz test-extras-fuzz-kmsg test-extras-fuzz-journald test-extras-fuzz-nccl-fr test-extras-race bench bench-check bench-allocs-check bench-baseline bench-detectors bench-detectors-check bench-detectors-baseline bench-cv-report helm-install-rolling-report
 
 # Format + tidy
-.PHONY: fmt fmt-fix vet lint lint-fix tidy tidy-check mod-verify bump-otel
+.PHONY: fmt fmt-fix vet lint lint-fix lint-unused-module tidy tidy-check mod-verify bump-otel
 
 # Code generation
 .PHONY: generate-fixtures generate-fixtures-check verdict-fixtures-check
@@ -140,6 +140,23 @@ lint:  ## Run golangci-lint.
 lint-fix:  ## Run golangci-lint with --fix.
 	go tool golangci-lint run --fix ./...
 
+lint-unused-module:  ## Run the `unused` lint check against module/ (the in-repo Go submodule).
+	@# Workspace mode resolves `./...` only inside the current module, so
+	@# `make lint` from root NEVER reaches module/ — the in-repo submodule
+	@# is a separate Go module under go.work. The `unused` linter is
+	@# enabled in .golangci.yml but was silently skipped against module/
+	@# until this gate landed (chore/dead-code-sweep-2026-06 found 3
+	@# unused functions accumulated this way). Scoped to `unused` only
+	@# because the broader lint pass has pre-existing module/ findings
+	@# (errorlint, exhaustive, forcetypeassert, etc.) that need their
+	@# own dedicated cleanup PRs — bundling them here would balloon
+	@# scope. Promote to full `make lint` coverage once those land.
+	@# `--no-config` is required: the repo `.golangci.yml` v2 schema
+	@# enables a broad linter set; without `--no-config` that set wins
+	@# over the `--enable=unused` filter and we'd lint everything in
+	@# module/ (199+ pre-existing findings) instead of just unused.
+	cd module && go tool golangci-lint run --no-config --default=none --enable=unused ./...
+
 tidy:  ## Tidy go.mod / go.sum.
 	go mod tidy
 
@@ -264,7 +281,7 @@ coverage:  ## Run all tests under the race detector with coverage profiling; emi
 coverage-check: coverage  ## Fail if any internal/* package <70% or components/* package <60%.
 	@go run ./tools/coverage-check -profile=coverage.out
 
-check: fmt tidy-check lint vet mod-verify attribute-namespace-check  ## Pre-commit gate. Fast (<10s); no test, no build. Catches typos, format, deps drift.
+check: fmt tidy-check lint lint-unused-module vet mod-verify attribute-namespace-check  ## Pre-commit gate. Fast (<10s); no test, no build. Catches typos, format, deps drift.
 
 attribute-namespace-check:  ## Binding drift gate for the customer-stable attribute namespace declared in docs/ATTRIBUTES.md (v1.0-rc1 cut criterion 3). Fails on any attribute literal in code that is missing from ATTRIBUTES.md.
 	@bash scripts/attribute-namespace-check.sh
diff --git a/module/pkg/patterns/pod_evicted.go b/module/pkg/patterns/pod_evicted.go
index 6add3760..0fcade0d 100644
--- a/module/pkg/patterns/pod_evicted.go
+++ b/module/pkg/patterns/pod_evicted.go
@@ -375,25 +375,6 @@ func nodeConditionDescription(cond NodeRecord, scratch *[]byte) string {
 	return string(buf)
 }
 
-// displayPodName returns "namespace/name" for a Pod-shaped Record;
-// falls back to just the name (or "<unknown>") otherwise. Retained
-// as a package-level helper (external callers, e.g. xid_correlation,
-// may use it); pod_evicted's hot path inlines this logic into
-// renderHeadline.
-func displayPodName(ev Record) string {
-	if ev.Regarding.Namespace != "" && ev.Regarding.Name != "" {
-		buf := make([]byte, 0, len(ev.Regarding.Namespace)+len(ev.Regarding.Name)+1)
-		buf = append(buf, ev.Regarding.Namespace...)
-		buf = append(buf, '/')
-		buf = append(buf, ev.Regarding.Name...)
-		return string(buf)
-	}
-	if ev.Regarding.Name != "" {
-		return ev.Regarding.Name
-	}
-	return "<unknown>"
-}
-
 // appendTimestamp appends an EventTime in RFC3339 UTC to buf in
 // place. Zero time renders as "<unknown>" so the headline regex
 // still matches the /at .*/ shape.
@@ -408,16 +389,6 @@ func appendTimestamp(buf []byte, t time.Time) []byte {
 	return t.UTC().AppendFormat(buf, time.RFC3339)
 }
 
-// formatTimestamp renders an EventTime in RFC3339 UTC. Retained for
-// external callers (test helpers); hot-path callers in this file use
-// appendTimestamp directly to share a buffer.
-func formatTimestamp(t time.Time) string {
-	if t.IsZero() {
-		return "<unknown>"
-	}
-	return t.UTC().Format(time.RFC3339)
-}
-
 // pressureFromNote heuristically extracts a pressure kind from the
 // kubelet Note body when the structured NodeRecord join fails. The
 // pressureMatchers table tracks upstream pkg/kubelet/eviction/helpers.go
diff --git a/module/receiver/ncclfrreceiver/nccl_fr_test.go b/module/receiver/ncclfrreceiver/nccl_fr_test.go
index 7b8ecf42..e86118f1 100644
--- a/module/receiver/ncclfrreceiver/nccl_fr_test.go
+++ b/module/receiver/ncclfrreceiver/nccl_fr_test.go
@@ -453,15 +453,6 @@ func (s *logsSink) recordCount() int {
 	return total
 }
 
-func (s *logsSink) first() plog.Logs {
-	s.mu.Lock()
-	defer s.mu.Unlock()
-	if len(s.pushed) == 0 {
-		return plog.NewLogs()
-	}
-	return s.pushed[0]
-}
-
 // fakeSelfTelemetry records every selfTelemetry call so tests can
 // assert IncEmissions is invoked with the correct record count on the
 // success path and NOT invoked on the error path. Implements the
diff --git a/scripts/validator-recipe.sh b/scripts/validator-recipe.sh
index e55d4243..131fdcf8 100755
--- a/scripts/validator-recipe.sh
+++ b/scripts/validator-recipe.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ set -euo pipefail
 BIN="${BIN:-./_build/tracecore}"
 CACHE_DIR="${CACHE_DIR:-/tmp/otelcol-contrib-cache}"
 INTEGRATIONS_DIR="docs/integrations"
-EXAMPLES_DIR="$INTEGRATIONS_DIR/examples"
 MODULE_DIR="${MODULE_DIR:-module}"
 
 if [[ ! -x "$BIN" ]]; then