diff --git a/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml b/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
index 2fd552b..524452e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
@@ -3,8 +3,20 @@
 on:
   push:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
   pull_request:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
 
 name: R-CMD-check
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-fast.yaml b/.github/workflows/test-fast.yaml
index ea1cf69..d1afde6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-fast.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-fast.yaml
@@ -3,8 +3,20 @@ name: test-fast
 on:
   push:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
   pull_request:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
@@ -38,4 +50,6 @@ jobs:
                               reporter = reporter)
           testthat::test_file("tests/testthat/test-core-api-contract.R",
                               reporter = reporter)
+          testthat::test_file("tests/testthat/test-workflow-path-contract.R",
+                              reporter = reporter)
           RSCRIPT
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-suite.yaml b/.github/workflows/test-suite.yaml
index 439b9b7..eda8b99 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-suite.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-suite.yaml
@@ -10,8 +10,20 @@ name: test-suite
 on:
   push:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
   pull_request:
     branches: [main, master, develop]
+    paths:
+      - "**"
+      - "!docs/**"
+      - "!*.md"
+      - "!**/*.md"
+      - "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
   schedule:
     - cron: '17 3 * * 1'
   workflow_dispatch:
diff --git a/ARCHITECTURE.md b/ARCHITECTURE.md
index 6ddd063..e85d685 100644
--- a/ARCHITECTURE.md
+++ b/ARCHITECTURE.md
@@ -57,9 +57,16 @@ explicitly requires vendored source integration.
 ## Quality and Security Gates
 
 - PR merge requires review approval and resolved conversations.
-- Required checks include R-CMD-check matrix and dependency review.
-- If code scanning is enabled later, alerts can be tracked via GitHub code
-  scanning APIs.
+- Organization-owned required review and security gates run on every PR through
+  reusable workflows in `ContextualWisdomLab/.github`.
+- Local `R-CMD-check`, `test-fast`, and `test-suite` workflows run for runtime,
+  package, workflow, `README.Rmd`, and public API contract changes. Plain
+  Markdown changes are excluded, except
+  `docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md`, because
+  `tests/testthat/test-core-api-contract.R` consumes that file as executable
+  contract input.
+- `tests/testthat/test-workflow-path-contract.R` prevents the API-contract
+  exception from silently disappearing when the trigger paths change.
 
 ## Change Rule
 
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 38399b7..ad99fce 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+# kaefa (development version)
+
+* Reduced local R workflow load for prose-only Markdown changes while keeping
+  `docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md` inside the package contract checks.
+* Added a regression contract for the local workflow path filters and aligned
+  the architecture documentation with the live central/local gate boundary.
+
 # kaefa 0.1.428.1
 
 ## New Features
@@ -24,4 +31,3 @@ This update addresses the need to set theta priors based on empirical raw score
 * Added a `NEWS.md` file to track changes to the package.
 
 
-
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-workflow-path-contract.R b/tests/testthat/test-workflow-path-contract.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd43aca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-workflow-path-contract.R
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+workflow_lines <- function(name) {
+  readLines(
+    .kaefa_repo_file(".github", "workflows", name),
+    warn = FALSE
+  )
+}
+
+workflow_event_paths <- function(content, event_name) {
+  event_line <- match(paste0("  ", event_name, ":"), content)
+  if (is.na(event_line)) {
+    stop("Missing workflow event: ", event_name)
+  }
+
+  remaining <- content[seq.int(event_line + 1L, length(content))]
+  paths_offset <- match("    paths:", remaining)
+  if (is.na(paths_offset)) {
+    stop("Missing paths list for workflow event: ", event_name)
+  }
+
+  entries <- content[seq.int(event_line + paths_offset + 1L, length(content))]
+  entry_count <- rle(grepl('^      - "', entries))$lengths[1L]
+  if (!grepl('^      - "', entries[1L])) {
+    stop("Empty paths list for workflow event: ", event_name)
+  }
+
+  sub('^      - "(.*)"$', "\\1", entries[seq_len(entry_count)])
+}
+
+test_that("runtime workflows keep the public API contract in scope", {
+  workflows <- c("R-CMD-check.yaml", "test-fast.yaml", "test-suite.yaml")
+  expected_paths <- c(
+    "**",
+    "!docs/**",
+    "!*.md",
+    "!**/*.md",
+    "docs/product/kaefa-core-api-contract.md"
+  )
+
+  for (workflow in workflows) {
+    content <- workflow_lines(workflow)
+
+    expect_identical(workflow_event_paths(content, "push"), expected_paths)
+    expect_identical(
+      workflow_event_paths(content, "pull_request"),
+      expected_paths
+    )
+  }
+})