- Import-light unit tests from agents, commands, plugins, auto-reply helpers, `plugin-sdk`, and similar pure utility areas route through the `unit-fast` lane, which skips `test/setup-openclaw-runtime.ts`; stateful/runtime-heavy files stay on the existing lanes.

- Selected `plugin-sdk` and `commands` helper source files also map changed-mode runs to explicit sibling tests in those light lanes, so helper edits avoid rerunning the full heavy suite for that directory.

- `auto-reply` has dedicated buckets for top-level core helpers, top-level `reply.*` integration tests, and the `src/auto-reply/reply/**` subtree. CI further splits the reply subtree into agent-runner, dispatch, and commands/state-routing shards so one import-heavy bucket does not own the full Node tail.

- Normal PR/main CI intentionally skips the extension batch sweep and release-only `agentic-plugins` shard. Full Release Validation dispatches the CI child with `full_release_validation=true`, which turns those plugin/extension-heavy suites back on for release candidates.

</Accordion>