diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index a2437596..63d16264 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,15 @@ name: CI
 on:
   push:
     branches: [main]
+    # Docs-only pushes change nothing a test can fail on, and each gate run is
+    # ~7 minutes of clean build + 14k tests + a 121 MB release. Skip them; a
+    # code push (or manual dispatch) still runs everything from scratch —
+    # deliberately uncached, so the gate keeps proving a from-nothing build.
+    paths-ignore:
+      - 'docs/**'
+      - 'claude-memory/**'
+      - 'memory/**'
+      - '**.md'
   workflow_dispatch:
 
 jobs: