diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 53e289c0b..8423559a8 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -13,12 +13,19 @@ Checks that only fail once tests are compiled, or after a `clean`, slip straight
 Prone rules that fire on test fixtures, formatter tasks that were up to date, dependency upgrades
 that break test code but not main.
 
-The gate is a full build, which is also what CI runs on every push and pull request:
+The gate is `./gradlew build`, the same task CI runs. Let Gradle decide how much of it to re-run:
+a change that reaches nothing finishes in seconds, so there is no need to judge by hand what a diff
+can affect. Add `clean` only to rule out stale output.
 
 ```bash
-./gradlew clean build     # several minutes, must be 0 failures
+./gradlew build     # minutes when it has work to do, seconds when it does not; 0 failures
 ```
 
+A green local build is not a green CI. Pull requests against `master` also run an OpenRewrite check
+that `.github/CONTRIBUTING.md` documents, and a wrapper validation. Pushes are weaker than they
+look: the `branches: ['*']` filter in `test.yml` does not match `/`, so pushing a branch named
+`docs/foo` triggers no build until a pull request exists.
+
 `verifyPublishedPomDependencies` (in `testng/testng-build.gradle.kts`, wired into `check`) pins the
 exact dependency set of the published pom, versions ignored. When it fails, either the change is
 wrong or the expected list needs updating — decide which, do not just update the list.
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 480aec62a..7f09de85b 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ This needs the `java@<N>` alias to point at an installed version; `mise where` f
 
 ## Long-running commands
 
-`./gradlew clean build` takes several minutes — well over the default `Bash` timeout. Pass an
-explicit one:
+`./gradlew build` takes several minutes whenever it has real work to do — well over the default
+`Bash` timeout. Pass an explicit one:
 
 ```text
 timeout: 900000
@@ -29,14 +29,14 @@ without it the pipeline reports grep's status, so a failed build still exits 0:
 
 ```bash
 set -o pipefail
-./gradlew --console=plain clean build 2>&1 | grep -E "^BUILD (SUCCESSFUL|FAILED)|[1-9][0-9]* failed"
+./gradlew --console=plain build 2>&1 | grep -E "^BUILD (SUCCESSFUL|FAILED)|[1-9][0-9]* failed"
 ```
 
 For a failure, extract the useful part instead of scrolling:
 
 ```bash
 set -o pipefail
-./gradlew --console=plain clean build 2>&1 | grep -A15 "What went wrong"
+./gradlew --console=plain build 2>&1 | grep -A15 "What went wrong"
 ```
 
 Gradle names the HTML report on failure, but locating the failing test is quicker from the result