Abstract:We use the theory of singular foliations to study N = 1 compactifications of eleven-dimensional supergravity on eight-manifolds M down to AdS 3 spaces, allowing for the possibility that the internal part ξ of the supersymmetry generator is chiral on some locus W which does not coincide with M . We show that the complement M \ W must be a dense open subset of M and that M admits a singular foliationF endowed with a longitudinal G 2 structure and defined by a closed one-form ω, whose geometry is determined by the supersymmetry conditions. The singular leaves are those leaves which meet W. When ω is a Morse form, the chiral locus is a finite set of points, consisting of isolated zero-dimensional leaves and of conical singularities of seven-dimensional leaves. In that case, we describe the topology ofF using results from Novikov theory. We also show how this description fits in with previous formulas which were extracted by exploiting the Spin(7) ± structures which exist on the complement of W.