diff --git a/.githooks/pre-push b/.githooks/pre-push
index 8aa31a67d..6ba4a4cba 100755
--- a/.githooks/pre-push
+++ b/.githooks/pre-push
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # Agent-only ship gate (humans: no-op). See scripts/agent-pre-push.mjs.
-# Draft / no PR: free push. Ready PR: check + lint + test.
+# Every push (draft included): check + lint + test. No browser/API suite exists
+# here, so there is nothing a draft could usefully defer.
 # Publish: pnpm pr:ready, or raw `gh pr ready` — the shim runs the same gate first.
 #
 # Humans: SKIP_AGENT_PREPUSH=1 git push
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 61bcf99c5..0ca05556b 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ This is the Effect App library repository, focusing on functional programming pa
 
 Always open a PR for agent work that changes the repo — do not leave finished work only on a local branch.
 
-- **Draft early**: open a draft PR as soon as there is a meaningful commit (or when starting multi-step work that will land), so review/CI can track progress while local validation is still in flight. Pushes to a draft are free — the gate does not run on them.
+- **Draft early**: open a draft PR as soon as there is a meaningful commit (or when starting multi-step work that will land), so review/CI can track progress while the rest of the work continues. Pushes to a draft run the same gate as any other push — the draft is about review status, not about skipping checks.
 - **Keep the PR current**: push commits as you go; update the PR body if scope shifts.
 - **Ready when done**: publish with `pnpm pr:ready`, or with plain `gh pr ready` — both run the ship gate first and undraft only if it passes. Do not hand-run the checks beforehand and do not leave a finished, validated change as draft.
 - **Base**: target `main` unless the work is explicitly stacked on another branch.
@@ -22,16 +22,14 @@ Always open a PR for agent work that changes the repo — do not leave finished
 fires only for coding agents (`GROK_AGENT` / `T3_AGENT` / `AI_AGENT` / Claude /
 Cursor / Codex env markers).
 
-| Branch PR state         | Agent pre-push                    |
-| ----------------------- | --------------------------------- |
-| No open PR              | **skip** — free push              |
-| **Draft**               | **skip** — free push, share early |
-| **Ready** for review    | full ship gate                    |
-| `gh` / PR lookup failed | full ship gate (**fail closed**)  |
+It runs on **every** agent push — draft, ready, or no PR at all. There is no
+browser or API suite here that a draft could usefully defer, and a pushed commit
+that does not compile or whose tests fail is worth nothing to a reviewer whatever
+the PR says.
 
 The gate is `pnpm check` → `pnpm lint` → `pnpm test`, which is what CI runs and
 nothing more. This is a library monorepo — no application to stand up, no browser
-suite — so the unit run *is* the gate. It caches the validated HEAD SHA in
+suite — so the unit run _is_ the gate. It caches the validated HEAD SHA in
 `.run/agent-ship-gate.json`, so **one commit is validated once** however many
 times you push or publish it. Force a re-run with `AGENT_SHIP_GATE_FORCE=1`.
 
@@ -79,11 +77,11 @@ Anti-patterns that mean you skipped the checklist:
 
 ### Validation
 
-The ship gate owns validation — see *The gate runs the checks — you do not*. It
-runs `pnpm check` → `pnpm lint` → `pnpm test` on publish and on pushes to a ready
-PR, once per commit.
+The ship gate owns validation — see _The gate runs the checks — you do not_. It
+runs `pnpm check` → `pnpm lint` → `pnpm test` on every push and on publish, once
+per commit.
 
-`pnpm lint-fix` is the one thing worth running by hand, because it *writes*: it
+`pnpm lint-fix` is the one thing worth running by hand, because it _writes_: it
 formats and auto-fixes across packages, and the gate only reports what it would
 have fixed. Run it when you are done editing, stage what it changes, then push.
 
@@ -186,14 +184,14 @@ context. On an HTTP server, that MemoMap lives on the server fiber and is
 shared by every request that server handles. The first request to build a
 stateful layer (anything using `Layer.effect` / `Effect.acquireRelease`)
 memoizes the resulting value onto the server fiber; every subsequent request
-then receives the *same instance* — including its `clear()` / dispose
+then receives the _same instance_ — including its `clear()` / dispose
 finalizer, which now fires at the wrong time.
 
 When you call `Effect.provide(layer)` (or `Stream.provide(layer)`) inside a
 per-request hot path:
 
 - Pass `{ local: true }` if the layer is pure / stateless or you genuinely
-  want it scoped to *this* effect only, or
+  want it scoped to _this_ effect only, or
 - Build it explicitly against the request scope with a fresh `MemoMap`
   (`Layer.makeMemoMap` + `Layer.buildWithMemoMap(layer, memoMap, requestScope)`)
   — see `provideOnRequestScope` in `packages/infra/src/setupRequest.ts`.
diff --git a/scripts/agent-pre-push.mjs b/scripts/agent-pre-push.mjs
index 0d73b93b5..06bd125b0 100644
--- a/scripts/agent-pre-push.mjs
+++ b/scripts/agent-pre-push.mjs
@@ -4,11 +4,9 @@
  *
  * Humans: no-op (exit 0) — self-responsible; not forced by the hook.
  *
- * Agents:
- *   - Draft PR or no open PR: free push (open a draft early, push freely).
- *   - Ready-for-review PR (or unknown PR state): ship gate below.
- *   - Publishing runs the same gate whichever way it is reached: `pnpm pr:ready`
- *     explicitly, or raw `gh pr ready`, which the shim gates rather than refuses.
+ * Agents: every push runs the gate — draft, ready, or no PR at all. Publishing
+ * runs the same gate whichever way it is reached: `pnpm pr:ready` explicitly, or
+ * raw `gh pr ready`, which the shim gates rather than refuses.
  *
  * Ship gate — the JS quality path CI runs, and nothing else:
  *   1. `pnpm check`  — tsgo --build ./tsconfig.all.json
@@ -18,7 +16,10 @@
  * This is a library monorepo: there is no application to stand up and no browser
  * suite, so the unit run is the whole story. That keeps the gate honest about
  * being the same thing CI runs (`ci.yml` runs `pnpm lint` and `pnpm test`)
- * rather than a superset nobody else executes.
+ * rather than a superset nobody else executes — and it is why draft pushes are
+ * not exempted here: there is no expensive half to defer, only the checks that
+ * decide whether the pushed commit is worth anyone's attention. The SHA cache
+ * below keeps that from being paid twice.
  *
  * Checks run **once**, at the right moment: the validated HEAD SHA is cached
  * under `.run/`, so a commit is never re-validated because it was pushed twice.
@@ -33,14 +34,7 @@ import path from "node:path"
 import process from "node:process"
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url"
 import { isCodingAgent } from "./lib/agent-env.mjs"
-import { resolveOpenPrState, shouldRunShipGateOnPush } from "./lib/agent-pr-state.mjs"
-import {
-  isShipGateForce,
-  isShipGateShaCached,
-  readHeadSha,
-  readShipGateCache,
-  writeShipGateCache
-} from "./lib/agent-ship-gate-cache.mjs"
+import { isShipGateForce, isShipGateShaCached, readHeadSha, readShipGateCache, writeShipGateCache } from "./lib/agent-ship-gate-cache.mjs"
 
 export { isCodingAgent }
 
@@ -84,8 +78,8 @@ export const isWorktreeClean = (root = process.cwd(), opts = {}) => {
 }
 
 /**
- * Shared by pre-push (ready PRs) and `pnpm pr:ready`. Caches the validated HEAD
- * SHA so push + publish never double-run for the same commit.
+ * Shared by pre-push (every agent push) and `pnpm pr:ready`. Caches the
+ * validated HEAD SHA so push + publish never double-run for the same commit.
  * Force: AGENT_SHIP_GATE_FORCE=1.
  *
  * @param {{ root?: string, force?: boolean, env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv }} [opts]
@@ -139,23 +133,8 @@ const invokedAs = process.argv[1] ? path.resolve(process.argv[1]) : ""
 if (invokedAs === thisFile) {
   if (!isCodingAgent()) process.exit(0)
 
-  const root = process.cwd()
-  const prState = resolveOpenPrState({ cwd: root })
-
-  if (!shouldRunShipGateOnPush(prState.mode)) {
-    const why = prState.mode === "draft"
-      ? `draft PR${prState.pr?.number != null ? ` #${prState.pr.number}` : ""} — free push`
-      : "no open PR — free push (open a draft to share)"
-    console.error(`agent pre-push: skip ship gate (${why})`)
-    process.exit(0)
-  }
-
-  if (prState.mode === "unknown") {
-    console.error(
-      `agent pre-push: PR state unknown (${prState.detail ?? "gh failed"}) — fail closed, running ship gate`
-    )
-  }
-
-  await runAgentShipGate({ root })
+  // No PR-state lookup: the gate runs on every push, so what `gh` would say
+  // cannot change the outcome.
+  await runAgentShipGate({ root: process.cwd() })
   process.exit(0)
 }
diff --git a/scripts/lib/agent-pr-state.mjs b/scripts/lib/agent-pr-state.mjs
index 976934679..5ea91a21d 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/agent-pr-state.mjs
+++ b/scripts/lib/agent-pr-state.mjs
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 /**
- * Resolve whether the current branch's open PR should enforce the agent ship gate.
+ * Resolve the current branch's open PR state, for the publish path (`pnpm
+ * pr:ready` / the `gh` shim). Pushes do not consult it: the gate runs on all of
+ * them.
  *
  * Modes:
- *   none    — no open PR (or closed/merged): free agent push
- *   draft   — open draft PR: free agent push (GitHub Diff UI)
- *   ready   — open non-draft PR: ship gate on every agent push
- *   unknown — gh missing / failed: fail closed (run the gate)
+ *   none    — no open PR (or closed/merged)
+ *   draft   — open draft PR: publishing undrafts it after the gate
+ *   ready   — open non-draft PR
+ *   unknown — gh missing / failed: fail closed
  */
 import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process"
 import process from "node:process"
@@ -22,12 +24,6 @@ export const classifyPrPayload = (pr) => {
   return "ready"
 }
 
-/**
- * @param {"none" | "draft" | "ready" | "unknown"} mode
- * @returns {boolean}
- */
-export const shouldRunShipGateOnPush = (mode) => mode === "ready" || mode === "unknown"
-
 /**
  * @param {{
  *   cwd?: string