diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index e58733a..92640d8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -1,127 +1,179 @@
-name: CI/CD
-
-env:
-  GO_VERSION: "1.26"
+name: CI
 
+# One workflow holds everything that gates a merge, so there is one file to
+# read and one check to require. Splitting pre-commit or tests into their own
+# workflow bought nothing and cost a second place to keep in sync.
 on:
-  push:
-    branches: [ main ]
   pull_request:
-    branches: [ main ]
-
-jobs:
-  test:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
-
-    - name: Set up Go
-      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
-      with:
-        go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
-        check-latest: true # setup-go's manifest lags fresh Go patch releases; resolve via go.dev
-        cache: true
-
-    - name: Run tests
-      run: make test
-
-  lint:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+    # `synchronize` is every push to a branch with an open pull request, which
+    # is the feedback that matters. A draft is treated exactly like any other
+    # pull request: the distinction bought a little runner time and cost a
+    # second set of rules to hold in your head.
+    types: [opened, reopened, synchronize, ready_for_review]
+  push:
+    # Everything runs here too, not just pre-commit. A squash merge lands a
+    # tree no pull request ever built — the branch was tested before the
+    # squash, and `main` may have moved under it since — so the merge result
+    # gets its own run rather than inheriting the branch's green tick.
+    branches: [main]
 
-    - name: Set up Go
-      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
-      with:
-        go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
-        check-latest: true # setup-go's manifest lags fresh Go patch releases; resolve via go.dev
-        cache: true
+permissions:
+  contents: read
 
-    - name: Run golangci-lint
-      uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v9
-      with:
-        version: v2.12.2
-        args: --timeout=10m
+concurrency:
+  # A superseded push is not worth finishing; only the newest commit matters.
+  group: ci-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
 
+jobs:
+  # Runs for every commit that reaches GitHub — every push to a pull request,
+  # draft or not, and every push to main. It is the only job that looks at
+  # *every* file rather than at Go: trailing whitespace, licence headers,
+  # secrets, the toolchain pin. None of that is worth detecting changes for,
+  # and a secret committed to a draft is committed.
   pre-commit:
+    name: Pre-commit
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v6
-
-    - name: Set up Go
-      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+    - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
       with:
-        go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
-        check-latest: true # setup-go's manifest lags fresh Go patch releases; resolve via go.dev
-        cache: true
-
-    - name: Install gofumpt
-      run: go install mvdan.cc/gofumpt
-
+        go-version-file: go.mod
+        check-latest: true
+        cache: true # go-mod-tidy-repo resolves the whole graph; uncached it is slow and flaky
     - name: Run pre-commit hooks
+      # Nothing is skipped here, unlike every other repo, which skips the
+      # HEAD-relative `golangci-lint`. Building a `language: golang` hook is
+      # this project's product, and the hook reporting nothing against a clean
+      # checkout is beside the point — that it *builds and runs* is the thing
+      # under test, and this is the one job that runs the action from the
+      # checkout. The Lint job still gates the change itself.
       uses: ./
 
-  build:
+  # Gating happens inside the jobs, never with a workflow-level `paths:`
+  # filter: a required check that never runs reports as *pending forever*
+  # rather than as passed, which makes a docs-only pull request unmergeable.
+  # Anything unrecognised counts as code, so when this is wrong it is wrong in
+  # the direction of running the tests.
+  # Only after the cheap universal checks have passed is it worth asking the
+  # expensive question, so this waits on pre-commit.
+  changes:
+    name: Detect changed files
+    needs: pre-commit
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs: [ test, lint ]
+    outputs:
+      code: ${{ steps.filter.outputs.code }}
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v6
       with:
-        fetch-depth: 0
+        fetch-depth: 0 # the diff needs the base commit, not just HEAD
+    - id: filter
+      name: Is any of this code?
+      env:
+        # On a merge to main there is no pull request; `before` is the commit
+        # main pointed at, which makes the diff the merge itself.
+        BASE: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.pull_request.base.sha || github.event.before }}
+      run: |
+        code=false
+        if [ "$GITHUB_EVENT_NAME" != pull_request ]; then
+          # A merge runs everything. Not because the merge itself changed code
+          # — it may be pure prose — but because this is the first time this
+          # tree is tested *as main*, and what it protects against is an
+          # earlier merge that broke something nobody has run since.
+          echo "push to $GITHUB_REF_NAME — running everything"
+          code=true
+        elif ! git cat-file -e "$BASE" 2>/dev/null; then
+          # No usable base commit — a force push, or a shallow fetch that did
+          # not reach it. `git diff` would fail here and print nothing, and an
+          # empty diff is indistinguishable from "only prose changed", so this
+          # would silently skip every test. The safe answer is to run them.
+          echo "base commit $BASE is not present — running everything"
+          code=true
+        else
+          while IFS= read -r f; do
+            [ -n "$f" ] || continue
+            case "$f" in
+              docs/*|*.md|LICENSE|LICENSE.*|*.png|*.jpg|*.gif|*.svg) ;; # prose
+              *) code=true; break ;;
+            esac
+          done <<<"$(git diff --name-only "$BASE"...HEAD)"
+        fi
+        echo "code=$code" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        echo "changed files are $([ "$code" = true ] && echo 'code — full run' || echo 'prose only — skipping the code jobs')"
 
-    - name: Set up Go
-      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+  test:
+    name: Build and test
+    needs: changes
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
+    - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       with:
-        go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
-        check-latest: true # setup-go's manifest lags fresh Go patch releases; resolve via go.dev
+        go-version-file: go.mod
+        check-latest: true
         cache: true
+    - run: make test
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
 
-    - name: Build
-      run: make build
 
+  # Parity is this project's entire claim, so a change that breaks it fails
+  # before review rather than after a merge to main.
   language-integration:
+    name: Parity with Python pre-commit
+    needs: changes
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs: [ test ]
-    # Runs on every PR. Parity is this project's entire claim, so a change that
-    # breaks it should fail before review, not after a merge to main.
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       with:
         fetch-depth: 0
-
-    - name: Set up Go
-      uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+    - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       with:
-        go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
-        check-latest: true # setup-go's manifest lags fresh Go patch releases; resolve via go.dev
+        go-version-file: go.mod
+        check-latest: true
         cache: true
-
-    - name: Set up Python
-      uses: actions/setup-python@v6
+    - uses: actions/setup-python@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       with:
         python-version: '3.13'
-
-    - name: Set up Node.js
-      uses: actions/setup-node@v6
-      with:
-        node-version: '22'
-
     - name: Install Python pre-commit
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       # Pinned to the line our version number claims parity with. The harness
       # rejects any other line, so a bump here is a deliberate parity decision.
       run: pip install 'pre-commit==4.6.2'
-
     - name: Run parity tests
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
       # PARITY_REQUIRE turns "no Python found" and "zero checks ran" from a
       # green skip into a failure. This job exists to make the comparison; a
       # run that makes no comparison has not done its job.
       env:
         PARITY_REQUIRE: '1'
       run: go test -v -tags=integration -timeout=600s ./test/integration/
-
     - name: Upload parity report
       if: always()
       uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
       with:
         name: parity-report
         path: test/integration/parity_report.json
+
+  # No `if:` needed: a job that `needs` a skipped job is itself skipped.
+  build:
+    name: Build
+    needs: [changes, test]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
+      with:
+        fetch-depth: 0
+    - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
+      with:
+        go-version-file: go.mod
+        check-latest: true
+        cache: true
+    - run: make build
+      if: needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index de5133e..0d62148 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -42,6 +42,16 @@ repos:
     hooks:
       - id: golangci-lint-fmt
 
+      # The diff-scoped hook (`--new-from-rev HEAD`), deliberately: this runs on
+
+      # every commit and should report what you just wrote, not the
+
+      # repository's whole backlog. CI lints the change against its base.
+
+      #
+
+      # Keep `rev` in lockstep with go.mod's tool pin.
+
       - id: golangci-lint
   # Secret scanning
   - repo: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks