diff --git a/reggie-runtime/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/RuntimeCompiler.java b/reggie-runtime/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/RuntimeCompiler.java
index e2adbf11..67ea9ccb 100644
--- a/reggie-runtime/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/RuntimeCompiler.java
+++ b/reggie-runtime/src/main/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/RuntimeCompiler.java
@@ -676,7 +676,10 @@ public static ReggieMatcher compilePikeVm(String pattern, String encodedNames) {
       }
       Map<String, Integer> nameMap = decodeNameMap(encodedNames);
       int groupCount = countGroups(pattern);
-      NFA nfa = new ThompsonBuilder().build(ast, groupCount);
+      // lazyAware: lazy quantifiers must compile with lazy (shortest-first) priority, or the
+      // extracted capture spans take the greedy split and diverge from the JDK (group spans of
+      // both match() and findMatch*()). Every other PikeVM compile site builds lazy-aware.
+      NFA nfa = new ThompsonBuilder(true).build(ast, groupCount);
       PIKEVM_NFA_CACHE.putIfAbsent(pattern, new PikeVMEntry(nfa, nameMap));
       return PIKEVM_NFA_CACHE.get(pattern).newMatcher(pattern);
     } catch (RegexParser.ParseException e) {
diff --git a/reggie-runtime/src/test/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/PikeVMLazyGroupParityTest.java b/reggie-runtime/src/test/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/PikeVMLazyGroupParityTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..730c543a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/reggie-runtime/src/test/java/com/datadoghq/reggie/runtime/PikeVMLazyGroupParityTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2026-Present Datadog, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package com.datadoghq.reggie.runtime;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.MethodSource;
+
+/**
+ * Differential parity for lazy-quantifier capture-group spans on the PikeVM capture route ({@link
+ * RuntimeCompiler#compilePikeVm}, the fallback the annotation processor emits for patterns its
+ * native strategies refuse).
+ *
+ * <p>The bug: compilePikeVm built its NFA with a non-lazy-aware {@code ThompsonBuilder}, so lazy
+ * quantifiers ({@code +?}, {@code *?}, {@code ??}) were compiled with greedy priority and the
+ * extracted group spans took the longest split instead of the lazy (shortest) one — e.g. for {@code
+ * ^(.+?)\.([^/]+)} on {@code net/http.(*ServeMux).ServeHTTP} the JDK yields group1 = {@code
+ * net/http} but the PikeVM yielded {@code net/http.(*ServeMux)}. Boolean matches()/find() are
+ * priority-independent and were never affected.
+ */
+class PikeVMLazyGroupParityTest {
+  static List<String> patterns() {
+    return List.of(
+        "^(.+?)\\.([^/]+)",
+        "^(a+?)b",
+        "(.+?)-(.+?)-",
+        "^(\\w+?)/(\\w+?)$",
+        "a(.*?)b",
+        "^(.+?)([^/]+)");
+  }
+
+  static List<String> inputs() {
+    return List.of(
+        "net/http.(*ServeMux).ServeHTTP", "aaab", "a-b-c-d", "foo/bar", "xaaxbbx", "pkg/file.go");
+  }
+
+  private static String groups(MatchResult result) {
+    if (result == null) {
+      return null;
+    }
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("[");
+    for (int i = 0; i <= result.groupCount(); i++) {
+      if (i > 0) {
+        sb.append(',');
+      }
+      sb.append(result.group(i));
+    }
+    return sb.append(']').toString();
+  }
+
+  private static String jdkGroups(Matcher matcher) {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("[");
+    for (int i = 0; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) {
+      if (i > 0) {
+        sb.append(',');
+      }
+      sb.append(matcher.group(i));
+    }
+    return sb.append(']').toString();
+  }
+
+  @ParameterizedTest
+  @MethodSource("patterns")
+  void matchGroupParityOnPikeVmRoute(String pattern) {
+    Pattern jdk = Pattern.compile(pattern);
+    for (String input : inputs()) {
+      Matcher jm = jdk.matcher(input);
+      ReggieMatcher reggie = RuntimeCompiler.compilePikeVm(pattern, "");
+      MatchResult result = reggie.match(input);
+      if (!jm.matches()) {
+        assertEquals(null, result, "unexpected match for /" + pattern + "/ on \"" + input + "\"");
+        continue;
+      }
+      assertEquals(
+          jdkGroups(jm),
+          groups(result),
+          "match() group divergence for /" + pattern + "/ on \"" + input + "\"");
+    }
+  }
+
+  @ParameterizedTest
+  @MethodSource("patterns")
+  void findGroupParityOnPikeVmRoute(String pattern) {
+    Pattern jdk = Pattern.compile(pattern);
+    for (String input : inputs()) {
+      Matcher jm = jdk.matcher(input);
+      List<String> expected = new ArrayList<>();
+      while (jm.find()) {
+        expected.add(spans(jm));
+      }
+      ReggieMatcher reggie = RuntimeCompiler.compilePikeVm(pattern, "");
+      int from = 0;
+      List<String> actual = new ArrayList<>();
+      while (true) {
+        MatchResult result = reggie.findMatchFrom(input, from);
+        if (result == null) {
+          break;
+        }
+        actual.add(spans(result));
+        from = result.end() == result.start() ? result.end() + 1 : result.end();
+        if (from > input.length()) {
+          break;
+        }
+      }
+      assertEquals(
+          expected, actual, "find() group divergence for /" + pattern + "/ on \"" + input + "\"");
+    }
+  }
+
+  /** Every group's half-open span {@code [start,end)} — spans, not just group strings. */
+  private static String spans(MatchResult result) {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    for (int i = 0; i <= result.groupCount(); i++) {
+      if (i > 0) {
+        sb.append(',');
+      }
+      sb.append('[').append(result.start(i)).append(',').append(result.end(i)).append(')');
+    }
+    return sb.toString();
+  }
+
+  private static String spans(Matcher matcher) {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    for (int i = 0; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) {
+      if (i > 0) {
+        sb.append(',');
+      }
+      sb.append('[').append(matcher.start(i)).append(',').append(matcher.end(i)).append(')');
+    }
+    return sb.toString();
+  }
+}