diff --git a/github/conformance_test.go b/github/conformance_test.go
index 4dfa195..666bcab 100644
--- a/github/conformance_test.go
+++ b/github/conformance_test.go
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 package github_test
 
-import "gitea.weiker.me/rodin/review-bot/vcs"
+import (
+	"gitea.weiker.me/rodin/review-bot/github"
+	"gitea.weiker.me/rodin/review-bot/vcs"
+)
 
-var _ vcs.PRReader = (*Client)(nil)
+// Compile-time interface conformance assertion.
+// Verifies github.Client satisfies vcs.PRReader.
+var _ vcs.PRReader = (*github.Client)(nil)
diff --git a/github/files.go b/github/files.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7d415d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/github/files.go
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+package github
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/base64"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"net/url"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// GetFileContentAtRef fetches a file at a specific ref from a repo.
+// If ref is empty, the query parameter is omitted (uses default branch).
+//
+// Note: dot-segments ("." and "..") in the path are silently removed to
+// prevent path traversal. This means a path like "foo/../bar" resolves
+// to "foo/bar" rather than "bar".
+func (c *Client) GetFileContentAtRef(ctx context.Context, owner, repo, path, ref string) (string, error) {
+	reqURL := fmt.Sprintf("%s/repos/%s/%s/contents/%s",
+		c.baseURL, url.PathEscape(owner), url.PathEscape(repo), escapePath(path))
+	if ref != "" {
+		reqURL += "?ref=" + url.QueryEscape(ref)
+	}
+	body, err := c.doGet(ctx, reqURL)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("fetch file %s: %w", path, err)
+	}
+	var resp struct {
+		Content  string `json:"content"`
+		Encoding string `json:"encoding"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, &resp); err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("parse file content JSON: %w", err)
+	}
+	if resp.Encoding != "base64" {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("unexpected encoding %q for file %s", resp.Encoding, path)
+	}
+	decoded, err := decodeBase64Content(resp.Content)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("decode base64 content for %s: %w", path, err)
+	}
+	return decoded, nil
+}
+
+// escapePath encodes each segment of a slash-separated path, stripping
+// dot-segments to prevent path traversal.
+func escapePath(p string) string {
+	parts := strings.Split(p, "/")
+	var clean []string
+	for _, part := range parts {
+		if part == "." || part == ".." || part == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		clean = append(clean, url.PathEscape(part))
+	}
+	return strings.Join(clean, "/")
+}
+
+// decodeBase64Content decodes base64-encoded content from the GitHub contents API.
+// GitHub returns base64 content with line breaks for formatting; we strip \r and \n before decoding.
+func decodeBase64Content(encoded string) (string, error) {
+	cleaned := strings.NewReplacer("\n", "", "\r", "").Replace(encoded)
+	decoded, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(cleaned)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return string(decoded), nil
+}