diff --git a/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/SKILL.md b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/SKILL.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4d7b44bf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/SKILL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+---
+name: rea-ci-tests-audit
+description: Audit REA CI and test suites for correctness, fixture drift, false passes, and measured performance; use for suite or workflow investigations and efficiency changes, rather than ordinary feature testing or a single test failure.
+---
+
+# REA CI and tests audit
+
+Establish which checks still catch real regressions and which costs can be
+removed without losing that protection. The outcome may be a verified fix,
+an evidence-backed recommendation, or an explicit decision to stop.
+
+Follow the checkout's `AGENTS.md`, [testing guide](../../../docs/testing.md),
+and [contribution rules](../../../CONTRIBUTING.md). Use their current commands
+and pinned toolchain, rather than commands remembered from an earlier audit.
+Preserve the requested scope: investigation alone does not authorize edits;
+this skill does not grant permission to publish issues, push, or merge. Existing
+user authorization still applies. Keep audit notes and raw results outside the
+tracked tree, normally in a task-specific `/tmp` directory.
+
+## Establish the executed baseline
+
+Fetch when the user asks for latest main. Pin the baseline SHA and inspected
+workflow revision; use an isolated worktree when changing or comparing code.
+Do not modify another task's checkout. Record dirty changes and the exact
+command, toolchain, host, selected tests, instrumentation, and prerequisites.
+An old run is evidence for its executed revision, even if main advances.
+
+Trace workflow triggers, changed-path selection, job dependencies, reusable
+actions, package scripts, test discovery, artifact producers, and report gates
+through to the commands that actually execute. Include scripts, generated data,
+runtime registration, and subprocess boundaries missing from import graphs.
+Check positive and negative selection paths: required files must be discovered
+once per intended test configuration; deliberate platform/configuration repeats
+are separate coverage. A missing explicit test or missing required report must
+not turn green. Optional lanes may skip; preserve their stated prerequisites.
+
+Use existing timing and failure artifacts to select suspicious families. Run
+relevant checks to establish a baseline; reserve a full local suite for broad
+CI diagnosis or uncertainty that focused checks cannot resolve. Do not rebuild
+or rerun an unchanged complete suite after every documentation edit.
+
+## Prove the failure or protection
+
+For each candidate, state the expected observable behavior and its owner,
+then construct the smallest reproduction against production behavior. Follow
+the producer and affected consumers before deciding where to fix it.
+
+- For drift, compare fixtures with current admission requirements, protocol
+  replies, named contracts, tool versions, and actual public entrypoints. A
+  plausible-looking mock can fail before the behavior its test claims to cover.
+  Search the whole affected fixture family, including other version strings.
+  Preserve intentionally malformed fixtures and test their intended rejection.
+- For a suspicious green test, perturb the relevant behavior in an isolated
+  copy or inject a controlled failure. Verify that the existing assertion or
+  gate detects it. A test may merely repeat its mock, import abandoned code,
+  or hide a subprocess/checker failure. Restore mutations after the experiment.
+- For shared setup or pruning, map distinct assertions to their retained
+  scenarios. Preserve malformed inputs, cancellation, cleanup failure,
+  permissions, capacity, identity, and meaningful concurrency interactions.
+  A faster run that skips a case or weakens its oracle is not an improvement.
+- For provider coverage, separate fake-producer, boundary, and actual-engine
+  evidence. Inspect named skips and prerequisites; fixtures do not establish
+  real Ghidra, LLDB, browser, or other provider behavior.
+
+Classify findings as reproduced defects, supported costs, hypotheses, or
+unavailable evidence. Record the baseline command, observed output/exit status,
+expected result, affected scope, and competing explanation. A failure on main
+may be pre-existing; that does not by itself make it irrelevant to a CI audit.
+Attribute PR failures using the executed revision and a clean baseline, not
+just their resemblance to a previous failure. Retry only to test a specific
+transient explanation; retain the original failure and stop when repetition
+adds no evidence. A passing retry does not establish a root cause or a fix.
+
+## Assess efficiency without losing the gate
+
+Read [measurement and CI checks](references/measurement-and-ci.md) when
+investigating slowness, caching, runner waits, shared artifacts, or log noise.
+Compare equivalent completed work before claiming a speedup. Distinguish
+setup/build time, test execution, coverage instrumentation, dependency waits,
+and runner scheduling; state which costs remain unmeasured.
+
+Prefer removing proven duplicate preparation, reusing immutable setup, and
+reducing repeated subprocess work before shrinking correctness coverage.
+Preserve independent sessions where lifecycle or concurrency is the oracle.
+Keep live tests fresh; a cached previous pass cannot validate current host,
+installed provider contents, permissions, or external state.
+
+## Fix, verify, and hand off within scope
+
+If implementation is authorized, make the smallest structural change at the
+owning boundary and add a regression that fails on the baseline for the right
+reason. Retest affected consumers and meaningful negative paths; verify cache
+invalidation or discovery when those mechanisms change. Read the installed
+Turbo documentation before changing its configuration or commands.
+
+Run the repository's applicable checks and inspect complete current-head CI
+results before an authorized merge. Preserve required coverage and discovery
+gates. Do not suppress a failure, add blanket retries, raise timeouts, or delete
+distinct assertions solely to make CI green. Changes to these controls need
+their own demonstrated reason and retained failure detection.
+
+Report each confirmed issue with exact revision, reproduction, consequence,
+proposed correction, and validation limits. Report performance with workload
+and measurements, not just a percentage. Use English issue/PR records when
+requested; follow the user's assignment, commit identity, review, and merge
+preferences without assuming them for other users. Open ready-for-review PRs
+only when that lifecycle is authorized. Resolve necessary review findings and
+check final main against the tested tree after merging.
+
+Stop when the authorized work is verified, remaining benefits are unproven,
+or further changes would trade correctness for speculative speed. List genuine
+uncertainties without turning them into additional optimization rounds.
diff --git a/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/agents/openai.yaml b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/agents/openai.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..366dd1229
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/agents/openai.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+interface:
+  display_name: "REA CI and tests audit"
+  short_description: "Audit CI/test correctness and measured performance"
+  default_prompt: "Use $rea-ci-tests-audit to investigate CI and test correctness, drift, and performance before proposing changes."
diff --git a/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/references/measurement-and-ci.md b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/references/measurement-and-ci.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e86ba9a4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/references/measurement-and-ci.md
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Measurement and CI checks
+
+## Equivalent completed work
+
+Record the source/workflow SHA, command, test identities and counts, skips,
+assertions or output contract, exit status, coverage scope and thresholds,
+toolchain/provider versions, host resources, and prepared artifacts. Inspect
+both the child result and its report: a profiling wrapper may exit successfully
+after the measured command failed. Focused tests can pass while global coverage
+thresholds fail; describe both rather than calling the command green.
+
+Measure wall time, user/system CPU, and peak process-family memory for relevant
+completed tasks. Parent-only RSS misses workers and their children. On Linux,
+summed RSS can double-count shared pages; report RSS/PSS semantics, sampling
+interval, missing samples, and observed cleanup limits. Use equivalent host
+tools elsewhere. State unknown costs, including agent tokens; fewer log bytes
+alone prove neither fewer tokens nor faster tests.
+
+Separate cold execution, warm build/file caches, and warm runtime caches.
+Use repeated or alternating runs when variance affects the decision, with
+enough observations to distinguish the proposed benefit from noise. Keep
+workload, instrumentation, and host conditions comparable; record interference.
+A run with fewer tests, early rejection, lost coverage, or a different runner
+does not prove suite acceleration. CI-wide claims need end-to-end measurements,
+not an extrapolation from one improved family.
+
+## Workflow, caches, and shared artifacts
+
+Trace each reused result from producer to consumers and identify its lifetime.
+Check key/input coverage against the actual file inventory and result-affecting
+configuration, environment, generated data, tool versions, and host state.
+Exercise an affected input change to prove invalidation; exercise an irrelevant
+change to support reuse where useful. Cache deterministic preparation and
+static analysis only when their inputs fully describe the result.
+
+Verify downloaded artifacts match the expected revision, platform, runtime,
+and schema. Check restore misses, failed/partial producers, stale reports,
+removed output files, and consumers after producer failures. Shared writers
+need output ownership or locks; tests need isolated state, not an unnecessary
+global lock. Worker counts do not bound children spawned within each test.
+Preserve intentionally concurrent scenarios while bounding unrelated batches.
+
+Check matrix expansion and all job pages before saying CI passed. Inspect
+required gates after failed, cancelled, and skipped dependencies. `always()`
+alone does not preserve failures; inspect the aggregation logic. Test/report
+uploads should retain available diagnostics after failure, while absent or
+malformed required results must fail closed. Do not demand an optional report
+from a lane intentionally excluded by the selector.
+
+## Runner waits and console noise
+
+Use per-job and per-step timestamps where available. Workflow creation to job
+start includes dependencies and other delays; it is not necessarily runner
+queue time. Identify when the job became eligible before attributing waits to
+runner capacity. If eligibility/queue timestamps are unavailable, report the
+combined delay and unknown split. Compare equivalent lanes and runner types
+across enough runs; a single busy runner is not a workflow regression.
+
+For console reductions, retain checker exit codes, actionable errors, useful
+summary counts, and complete machine-readable artifacts. Verify authored code
+remains in the actual checker inventory when excluding generated outputs.
+Introduce an authored error as a control; it must still fail. An ignore pattern
+can hide real source as well as noise. Show that cached reports are restored,
+stale successful reports cannot mask current failures, and report parse errors
+remain failures. Measure readability or byte reduction separately from runtime.
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 50674afa7..28e8788bd 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -202,6 +202,10 @@ CI diagnosis. Packaging/setup/distribution changes additionally require
 `npm run verify:package` and `npm pack --dry-run`; provider changes require the
 matching real-provider lane. State which host/provider workflows ran.
 
+For CI/test correctness, drift, or performance investigations, use the
+[`rea-ci-tests-audit` contributor skill](.agents/skills/rea-ci-tests-audit/SKILL.md).
+It guides reproduction and comparable measurements before changing checks.
+
 `check:pr` reuses build and static-check outputs while executing the test suite
 fresh, including the fast Python producer checks. `docs:check` also runs the
 onboarding example consistency suite for README-only changes.
diff --git a/src/domain/webBundleAnalyzer.test.ts b/src/domain/webBundleAnalyzer.test.ts
index ad82b5730..3361cc366 100644
--- a/src/domain/webBundleAnalyzer.test.ts
+++ b/src/domain/webBundleAnalyzer.test.ts
@@ -320,7 +320,9 @@ describe("web bundle API classification parity", () => {
       "users",
     ]);
   });
+});
 
+describe("web bundle configuration and navigation parity", () => {
   it("keeps configuration setting reads out of endpoints in both analyzers", () => {
     const source = `
       import vscodeDefault from "vscode";
diff --git a/src/ghidra/GhidraFunctionValues.test.ts b/src/ghidra/GhidraFunctionValues.test.ts
index e54692840..e7e5d8e9d 100644
--- a/src/ghidra/GhidraFunctionValues.test.ts
+++ b/src/ghidra/GhidraFunctionValues.test.ts
@@ -117,7 +117,9 @@ describe("Ghidra function-analysis result values", () => {
       });
     },
   );
+});
 
+describe("Ghidra reference and value-flow completeness", () => {
   it.each(["reference_kinds_available", "unresolved_calls"])(
     "rejects omitted %s instead of inventing complete reference observations",
     (field) => {
diff --git a/src/process/ProviderDeadline.test.ts b/src/process/ProviderDeadline.test.ts
index 0a9448150..2ecd6402c 100644
--- a/src/process/ProviderDeadline.test.ts
+++ b/src/process/ProviderDeadline.test.ts
@@ -34,14 +34,34 @@ it("aborts a bounded wait when its real monotonic deadline expires", async () =>
   }
 });
 
-it("reports no remaining time once its timer fires before the monotonic deadline", () => {
+it("does not expire a future monotonic deadline on an early timer callback", async () => {
   vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
-  const now = vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockReturnValue(1_000);
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
   const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40);
   try {
-    // Timers may fire while the monotonic clock is still just short of the deadline.
-    now.mockReturnValue(1_039.6);
-    vi.advanceTimersByTime(40);
+    monotonic = 39;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(40);
+    expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(1);
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    expect(deadline.interruption).toBeUndefined();
+  } finally {
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
+
+it("aborts when the re-armed timer reaches the absolute deadline", async () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40);
+  try {
+    monotonic = 39;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(40);
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    monotonic = 40;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(1);
     expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(true);
     expect(deadline.interruption).toBe("timeout");
     expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(0);
@@ -50,3 +70,112 @@ it("reports no remaining time once its timer fires before the monotonic deadline
     vi.useRealTimers();
   }
 });
+
+it("reports a wait that resolves at the deadline as aborted, not elapsed", async () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40);
+  try {
+    const pending = deadline.wait(500);
+    monotonic = 40;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(40);
+    await expect(pending).resolves.toBe("aborted");
+  } finally {
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
+
+it("resolves a polling interval shorter than the budget as elapsed", async () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40);
+  try {
+    const pending = deadline.wait(10);
+    monotonic = 10;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(10);
+    await expect(pending).resolves.toBe("elapsed");
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(30);
+  } finally {
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
+
+it("keeps caller cancellation classified without reporting an exhausted budget", () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const caller = new AbortController();
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40, caller.signal);
+  try {
+    monotonic = 20;
+    caller.abort(new Error("caller stopped startup"));
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(true);
+    expect(deadline.interruption).toBe("cancelled");
+    expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(20);
+  } finally {
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
+
+// Probe from issue #2760 review: both the abort timer and the clamped polling
+// timer can fire early at the same monotonic instant. The full-budget wait must
+// stay pending until the absolute deadline expires.
+it("keeps a full-budget wait pending when both timers fire early", async () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const caller = new AbortController();
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40, caller.signal);
+  let outcome: string | undefined;
+  const pending = deadline.wait(500).then((result) => {
+    outcome = result;
+    return result;
+  });
+  try {
+    monotonic = 39;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(40);
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(1);
+    expect(outcome).toBeUndefined();
+    monotonic = 40;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(1);
+    await expect(pending).resolves.toBe("aborted");
+    expect(deadline.remainingMs()).toBe(0);
+  } finally {
+    caller.abort();
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
+
+it("releases the timer and listener on dispose with a pending wait", async () => {
+  vi.useFakeTimers({ toFake: ["setTimeout", "clearTimeout"] });
+  let monotonic = 0;
+  vi.spyOn(performance, "now").mockImplementation(() => monotonic);
+  const caller = new AbortController();
+  const deadline = new ProviderStartupDeadline(40, caller.signal);
+  try {
+    const pending = deadline.wait(500);
+    deadline.dispose();
+    // The external abort listener is removed: caller cancellation after
+    // dispose must not abort the deadline or classify it as cancelled.
+    caller.abort(new Error("caller stopped startup"));
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    expect(deadline.interruption).toBeUndefined();
+    monotonic = 100;
+    await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(100);
+    expect(deadline.signal.aborted).toBe(false);
+    // The deadline expired while disposed, so the clamped wait resolves
+    // "aborted" from the monotonic clock instead of polling past expiry.
+    await expect(pending).resolves.toBe("aborted");
+  } finally {
+    deadline.dispose();
+    vi.useRealTimers();
+  }
+});
diff --git a/src/process/ProviderDeadline.ts b/src/process/ProviderDeadline.ts
index a6f10779a..83e24a807 100644
--- a/src/process/ProviderDeadline.ts
+++ b/src/process/ProviderDeadline.ts
@@ -61,13 +61,7 @@ export class ProviderStartupDeadline {
       return;
     }
     signal?.addEventListener("abort", this.#onExternalAbort, { once: true });
-    this.#timer = setTimeout(() => {
-      if (this.#controller.signal.aborted) return;
-      this.#interruption = "timeout";
-      this.#abort(
-        new DOMException("Provider startup deadline elapsed", "TimeoutError"),
-      );
-    }, timeoutMs);
+    this.#armDeadlineTimer(timeoutMs);
   }
 
   /** Composite signal aborted by either the caller or the absolute deadline. */
@@ -85,18 +79,39 @@ export class ProviderStartupDeadline {
 
   /** Milliseconds still available to the next startup phase. */
   remainingMs(): number {
-    // Node timers can fire a fraction of a millisecond before the monotonic
-    // deadline, so an elapsed timer must not report time left to spend.
-    if (this.#interruption === "timeout") return 0;
     return Math.max(0, Math.ceil(this.#deadlineAt - performance.now()));
   }
 
-  /** Wait for at most one polling interval under the shared deadline signal. */
+  /**
+   * Wait for at most one polling interval under the shared deadline signal.
+   *
+   * Both timers may fire before their monotonic targets. Retain the earlier
+   * of the polling target and deadline, and wait again for any residual time.
+   */
   wait(milliseconds: number): Promise<AbortableWaitResult> {
-    return waitForAbortableDelay(
-      Math.min(milliseconds, this.remainingMs()),
-      this.signal,
-    );
+    const startedAt = performance.now();
+    // Absolute target: the earlier of the requested polling interval and the
+    // absolute monotonic deadline.
+    const targetAt = Math.min(startedAt + milliseconds, this.#deadlineAt);
+    const poll = (): Promise<AbortableWaitResult> => {
+      const budget = this.remainingMs();
+      const residual = Math.max(0, targetAt - performance.now());
+      return waitForAbortableDelay(
+        Math.min(residual, budget),
+        this.signal,
+      ).then((result) => {
+        if (result === "aborted") return "aborted";
+        const now = performance.now();
+        // The monotonic deadline expired: a full-budget wait resolves as an
+        // abort so polling stops at the boundary.
+        if (now >= this.#deadlineAt) return "aborted";
+        // The polling interval elapsed without expiring the deadline.
+        if (now >= targetAt) return "elapsed";
+        // A timer fired before the absolute target; keep waiting.
+        return poll();
+      });
+    };
+    return poll();
   }
 
   /** Release the deadline timer and external abort listener. */
@@ -115,4 +130,25 @@ export class ProviderStartupDeadline {
     if (this.#timer !== undefined) clearTimeout(this.#timer);
     this.#timer = undefined;
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Arm (or re-arm) the timer that expires the absolute monotonic deadline.
+   *
+   * Re-check the clock before classifying expiry, and retain the residual
+   * budget when the timer arrives early.
+   */
+  #armDeadlineTimer(milliseconds: number): void {
+    this.#timer = setTimeout(() => {
+      this.#timer = undefined;
+      if (this.#controller.signal.aborted) return;
+      if (performance.now() >= this.#deadlineAt) {
+        this.#interruption = "timeout";
+        this.#abort(
+          new DOMException("Provider startup deadline elapsed", "TimeoutError"),
+        );
+        return;
+      }
+      this.#armDeadlineTimer(this.remainingMs());
+    }, milliseconds);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/tests/boundary/providers/ghidra/ghidraLauncher.test.ts b/tests/boundary/providers/ghidra/ghidraLauncher.test.ts
index ea8fb964c..98c231240 100644
--- a/tests/boundary/providers/ghidra/ghidraLauncher.test.ts
+++ b/tests/boundary/providers/ghidra/ghidraLauncher.test.ts
@@ -486,7 +486,9 @@ describe("Ghidra Windows launcher", () => {
       }),
     ).toThrow(/metacharacters/u);
   });
+});
 
+describe("Ghidra Windows launcher runtime", () => {
   it.skipIf(process.platform !== "win32").each([
     {
       properties:
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/javaClassFile.ts b/tests/fixtures/javaClassFile.ts
index 30f5ffc37..29fdace98 100644
--- a/tests/fixtures/javaClassFile.ts
+++ b/tests/fixtures/javaClassFile.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 /** Build a valid minimal JVM class file, optionally with an unused UTF-8 constant. */
-export const javaClassFile = (extraUtf8Bytes = 0, fatCpuLookalike = false): Buffer => {
+export const javaClassFile = (
+  extraUtf8Bytes = 0,
+  fatCpuLookalike = false,
+): Buffer => {
   const utf8 = (value: string): Buffer => {
     const bytes = Buffer.from(value, "utf8");
     const entry = Buffer.alloc(3 + bytes.length);