diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0ebeaec1..2d28841d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -296,6 +296,14 @@ Detailed per-release notes are on the
   unknown type; before it answered that no verifier was configured.
 
 ### Changed
+- **`pilotctl send-message` asks the daemon for its `info` reply once, not
+  twice.** The auto-handshake read the daemon's `features` from a second
+  `info` request, although the command had fetched one a moment earlier for
+  its first-contact check. The reply lists every peer and connection: on a
+  node with 5,400 peers it is several hundred KB, and parsing it costs the
+  CLI 7.5 ms of CPU and 2.9 MB of allocations, more than the rest of a send.
+  The second request happened on every send to an agent in the trusted list
+  (`list-agents`, `pilot-mom`) and to any public peer not yet trusted.
 - **The tunnel socket asks the kernel for 4 MB buffers** in each direction
   instead of the default (about 200 KB on Linux). Every tunnel shares the one
   socket, and several streams sending at once overflowed it. The kernel caps
diff --git a/cmd/pilotctl/firstcontact.go b/cmd/pilotctl/firstcontact.go
index b97bddaf..52b6efb4 100644
--- a/cmd/pilotctl/firstcontact.go
+++ b/cmd/pilotctl/firstcontact.go
@@ -54,14 +54,21 @@ func daemonHasFeature(d *driver.Driver, feature string) bool {
 	if daemonFeatureSet == nil {
 		daemonFeatureSet = map[string]bool{}
 		if info, err := d.Info(); err == nil {
-			for f := range featuresOf(info) {
-				daemonFeatureSet[f] = true
-			}
+			noteDaemonFeatures(info)
 		}
 	}
 	return daemonFeatureSet[feature]
 }
 
+// noteDaemonFeatures fills the feature cache from an info reply the
+// command already holds, so daemonHasFeature does not ask for another.
+// The reply lists every peer and connection: on a node with a few
+// thousand peers it is several hundred KB, and parsing it costs pilotctl
+// more CPU than the rest of a send.
+func noteDaemonFeatures(info map[string]interface{}) {
+	daemonFeatureSet = featuresOf(info)
+}
+
 func featuresOf(info map[string]interface{}) map[string]bool {
 	out := map[string]bool{}
 	list, _ := info["features"].([]interface{})
diff --git a/cmd/pilotctl/main.go b/cmd/pilotctl/main.go
index 153be469..7eab060f 100644
--- a/cmd/pilotctl/main.go
+++ b/cmd/pilotctl/main.go
@@ -5009,6 +5009,7 @@ func cmdSendMessage(args []string) {
 	firstContact := false
 	if info, err := d.Info(); err == nil {
 		firstContact = !peerSessionUp(info, target.Node)
+		noteDaemonFeatures(info) // maybeAutoHandshake needs them next
 	}
 
 	// Auto-handshake to peers in the embedded trusted-agents list.
diff --git a/cmd/pilotctl/zz_firstcontact_test.go b/cmd/pilotctl/zz_firstcontact_test.go
index 52a9ffde..a09bbdf2 100644
--- a/cmd/pilotctl/zz_firstcontact_test.go
+++ b/cmd/pilotctl/zz_firstcontact_test.go
@@ -300,3 +300,40 @@ func TestAutoHandshakeKeepsHandshakeForOlderDaemon(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("older daemon: the trusted-agent handshake request must still be sent")
 	}
 }
+
+// A send asks the daemon for its info reply once. The features the
+// auto-handshake checks come from the reply already fetched for the
+// first-contact check: the reply lists every peer and connection, so on a
+// busy node a second one cost more than the rest of the send.
+func TestSendMessageAsksForInfoOnce(t *testing.T) {
+	sd := newStreamDaemon(t)
+	sd.useDaemonNoRegistry(t)
+	daemonFeatureSet = nil
+	t.Cleanup(func() { daemonFeatureSet = nil })
+	sd.onJSON(tdCmdInfo, tdCmdInfoOK, `{"node_id":1,"features":["reply_window"]}`)
+	// Not trusted yet, so the auto-handshake goes on to check features.
+	sd.onJSON(tdCmdHandshake, tdCmdHandshakeOK, `{"trusted":false}`)
+
+	out := captureStdout(t, func() {
+		withJSON(func() {
+			cmdSendMessage([]string{"0:0000.0002.BBE4", "--data", "hello"}) // 179172, a trusted agent
+		})
+	})
+	if !strings.Contains(out, `"status":"ok"`) {
+		t.Fatalf("send failed: %s", out)
+	}
+	sd.mu.Lock()
+	defer sd.mu.Unlock()
+	infos := 0
+	for _, f := range sd.received {
+		if f[0] == tdCmdInfo {
+			infos++
+		}
+	}
+	if infos != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("info requests = %d, want 1", infos)
+	}
+	if !daemonFeatureSet["reply_window"] {
+		t.Fatal("features from the first info reply were not kept")
+	}
+}