The spec-metadata check now looks at the specs you touched, so finishing a work loop takes about two seconds instead of about thirty. It used to re-read all 423 specs and start a Git process for each one. Two checks still cover every spec regardless: the dangling-reference scan, and the one that resolves each deferral marker — because retiring a tracked follow-up can invalidate a marker in a spec you never opened. The remaining per-spec checks cover what you changed, and --all runs the full audit — wire that into a gate.