diff --git a/.changeset/protect-pattern-error-handling.md b/.changeset/protect-pattern-error-handling.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..acb556c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/protect-pattern-error-handling.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@naverpay/commithelper-go': patch
+---
+
+Return error for invalid protect patterns instead of silently ignoring them
diff --git a/packages/commithelper-go/README.md b/packages/commithelper-go/README.md
index ff5a5f2..76f636d 100644
--- a/packages/commithelper-go/README.md
+++ b/packages/commithelper-go/README.md
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ This is Basic rule of `.commithelperrc.json`.
   - `*` matches any sequence of characters except `/`
   - `?` matches any single character except `/`
   - `[...]` matches any character in the set
-- `main`, `master`, `develop` branch is blocked by default.
+  - Note: `*` does not match across `/`, so `release/*` matches `release/1.0` but not `release/1.0/hotfix`. Use `release/*/*` for nested branches.
 
 ```json
 {
diff --git a/packages/commithelper-go/main.go b/packages/commithelper-go/main.go
index f78c9d4..7830bc2 100644
--- a/packages/commithelper-go/main.go
+++ b/packages/commithelper-go/main.go
@@ -69,7 +69,12 @@ func main() {
 	config := loadConfig()
 
 	// Check if current branch is protected
-	if isProtectedBranch(branchName, config.Protect) {
+	protected, err := isProtectedBranch(branchName, config.Protect)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("Error: %v\n", err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	if protected {
 		fmt.Printf("Error: Cannot commit to protected branch '%s'\n", branchName)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
@@ -215,13 +220,17 @@ func applyTemplate(config Config, data *TemplateData) string {
 	return buf.String()
 }
 
-func isProtectedBranch(branchName string, protectedBranches []string) bool {
+func isProtectedBranch(branchName string, protectedBranches []string) (bool, error) {
 	for _, pattern := range protectedBranches {
-		if matched, _ := path.Match(pattern, branchName); matched {
-			return true
+		matched, err := path.Match(pattern, branchName)
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, fmt.Errorf("invalid protect pattern %q: %w", pattern, err)
+		}
+		if matched {
+			return true, nil
 		}
 	}
-	return false
+	return false, nil
 }
 
 func isAlreadyTagged(commitMessage string) bool {
diff --git a/packages/commithelper-go/main_test.go b/packages/commithelper-go/main_test.go
index 5655737..aef4ebf 100644
--- a/packages/commithelper-go/main_test.go
+++ b/packages/commithelper-go/main_test.go
@@ -18,9 +18,21 @@ func TestIsProtectedBranch(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {
-		got := isProtectedBranch(tt.branch, protected)
-		if got != tt.want {
-			t.Errorf("isProtectedBranch(%q) = %v, want %v", tt.branch, got, tt.want)
-		}
+		t.Run(tt.branch, func(t *testing.T) {
+			got, err := isProtectedBranch(tt.branch, protected)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+			}
+			if got != tt.want {
+				t.Errorf("got %v, want %v", got, tt.want)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestIsProtectedBranch_InvalidPattern(t *testing.T) {
+	_, err := isProtectedBranch("main", []string{"["})
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Error("expected error for invalid pattern, got nil")
 	}
 }