diff --git a/scripts/bench-source-map.mjs b/scripts/bench-source-map.mjs
index 2e1d062..ac66097 100644
--- a/scripts/bench-source-map.mjs
+++ b/scripts/bench-source-map.mjs
@@ -12,10 +12,24 @@
 // Smoke (CI): node scripts/bench-source-map.mjs --smoke
 import { performance } from 'node:perf_hooks';
 import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
+import { build } from 'esbuild';
 
 const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
 const { parseMdWithSourceMap } = require('../dist/lint-md-parser.cjs');
 
+// Build the internal entry in memory. This keeps benchmark-only exports out of
+// the package bundle.
+const [{ text: codeSegmentsModule }] = (await build({
+  entryPoints: ['src/source-map/code-segments.ts'],
+  bundle: true,
+  format: 'esm',
+  platform: 'node',
+  write: false,
+})).outputFiles;
+const { buildCodeSegments } = await import(
+  `data:text/javascript;base64,${Buffer.from(codeSegmentsModule).toString('base64')}`
+);
+
 const UNIT = '&\\('; // one character reference + one escape => 2 segments
 const SMOKE = process.argv.includes('--smoke');
 // On the 256 KiB alternating-atomic input, the binary-search lookup finishes
@@ -27,6 +41,10 @@ const URL_BUILD_SIZES_KIB = [16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512];
 // search grows beyond 6× from 128 KiB to 512 KiB; this larger interval makes
 // the quadratic term dominate while leaving headroom for CI scheduling noise.
 const SMOKE_URL_BUILD_RATIO_MAX = 6;
+const INDENTED_CODE_SIZES_KIB = [1, 16, 64, 256];
+// A 4x prefix grows close to 4x after the suffix lookup becomes linear. The
+// old repeated-slice search grows close to 16x.
+const SMOKE_INDENTED_CODE_RATIO_MAX = 10;
 
 /** Build an input of roughly `kib` kibibytes made of repeated UNIT. */
 function makeInput(kib) {
@@ -40,6 +58,22 @@ function makeUrlInput(kib) {
   return '[x](' + '&'.repeat(kib * 1024) + ')';
 }
 
+/** Build the fallback shape produced by a tab-based list continuation. */
+function makeIndentedCodeFallbackFixture(kib) {
+  const prefixLength = kib * 1024;
+  const md = `${' \t'.repeat(Math.ceil(prefixLength / 2)).slice(0, prefixLength)}x`;
+  return {
+    md,
+    node: {
+      value: 'x',
+      position: {
+        start: { line: 1, column: prefixLength + 1, offset: prefixLength },
+        end: { line: 1, column: prefixLength + 2, offset: md.length },
+      },
+    },
+  };
+}
+
 /** The first (and only) text node of the parsed document. */
 function firstTextNode(root) {
   let found;
@@ -194,3 +228,29 @@ if (SMOKE) {
     );
   }
 }
+
+console.log('\n=== Indented code fallback construction ===');
+const indentedCodeResults = [];
+for (const kib of INDENTED_CODE_SIZES_KIB) {
+  const { md, node } = makeIndentedCodeFallbackFixture(kib);
+  const result = timeMedian(`${kib} KiB whitespace prefix`, () => {
+    const mapping = buildCodeSegments(md, node);
+    if (!mapping)
+      throw new Error('indented code benchmark did not produce a mapping');
+  });
+  indentedCodeResults.push(result);
+  console.log(`  ${result.label.padEnd(28)} ${fmt(result.ms)}`);
+}
+
+if (SMOKE) {
+  const smaller = indentedCodeResults[2]; // 64 KiB
+  const larger = indentedCodeResults[3]; // 256 KiB
+  const ratio = larger.ms / smaller.ms;
+  console.log(`  ${'64 → 256 KiB growth'.padEnd(28)} ${ratio.toFixed(2)}x`);
+  if (ratio > SMOKE_INDENTED_CODE_RATIO_MAX) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `benchmark smoke failed: indented code construction grew ${ratio.toFixed(2)}x `
+      + `from 64 KiB to 256 KiB (budget ${SMOKE_INDENTED_CODE_RATIO_MAX}x)`,
+    );
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/source-map/code-segments.ts b/src/source-map/code-segments.ts
index a188d1b..dc1eda0 100644
--- a/src/source-map/code-segments.ts
+++ b/src/source-map/code-segments.ts
@@ -373,7 +373,6 @@ function buildIndentedCodeSegmentsFromValueLines(
       valueOffset,
       valueLineEnd,
     );
-    const valueLine = node.value.slice(valueOffset, valueContentEnd);
     const endOfLine = lineEnd(md, offset, end);
     const contentStart = quoteDepth === 0
       ? offset
@@ -381,17 +380,17 @@ function buildIndentedCodeSegmentsFromValueLines(
     if (contentStart === undefined)
       return undefined;
     const contentEnd = lineContentEnd(md, contentStart, endOfLine);
-    let sourceStart = contentStart;
-    while (
-      sourceStart <= contentEnd
-      && md.slice(sourceStart, contentEnd) !== valueLine
-    ) {
-      const char = md.charCodeAt(sourceStart);
+    // The parsed value line must be a literal suffix of the physical source line.
+    const valueLength = valueContentEnd - valueOffset;
+    const sourceStart = contentEnd - valueLength;
+    if (sourceStart < contentStart)
+      return undefined;
+    for (let prefixOffset = contentStart; prefixOffset < sourceStart; prefixOffset++) {
+      const char = md.charCodeAt(prefixOffset);
       if (char !== 32 && char !== 9)
         return undefined;
-      sourceStart++;
     }
-    if (sourceStart > contentEnd)
+    if (!equalRange(md, sourceStart, node.value, valueOffset, valueLength))
       return undefined;
     spans.push({ start: sourceStart, end: endOfLine });
     offset = endOfLine;