diff --git a/.asf.yaml b/.asf.yaml
index abb77a54e5..afff5f4c74 100644
--- a/.asf.yaml
+++ b/.asf.yaml
@@ -67,12 +67,12 @@ github:
         # Storybook. Renaming it there, or adding a paths filter that stops
         # ci.yml from running, freezes every pull request: the check never
         # reports and no committer can override it.
+        # A required context must report on every pull request, so a lane
+        # behind a paths filter cannot be listed here: the filter would keep
+        # the workflow from starting and the check would stay pending forever.
+        # windows_recovery is filtered and therefore deliberately absent.
         contexts:
           - test
-          # Windows recovery is a separate native crash/owner-death boundary.
-          # The workflow runs on every PR and main push so this context can be
-          # required without leaving unrelated pull requests pending forever.
-          - windows_recovery
 
   rulesets:
     - name: Immutable release tags
diff --git a/.github/workflows/windows-baseline.yml b/.github/workflows/windows-baseline.yml
index a2f812c7a3..06f2dafaaa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/windows-baseline.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/windows-baseline.yml
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ jobs:
 
       # Full packages/storage test:dist is ~10 minutes on windows-latest and
       # mostly duplicates the Linux unit lane. Baseline keeps process/path/
-      # lock-sensitive gates here. Release-blocking crash evidence belongs to
+      # lock-sensitive gates here. Crash and owner-death evidence belongs to
       # windows-recovery.yml, so this diagnostic lane does not duplicate it.
       # Bump concurrency carefully — several suites spawn child processes and
       # fight for disk under high fan-out.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml b/.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml
index 91de576062..8f5c4966bf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml
@@ -17,16 +17,73 @@
 
 name: Windows recovery
 
+# The paths below are a pre-filter, not this lane's real input. The real input
+# is the import closure of the crash and owner-death recovery authorities in
+# storage, runtime and Runtime Host, which reaches well past any list worth
+# hand-maintaining. So they name those workspaces and every workspace they hold
+# a TypeScript project reference to, plus the manifests, patches and scripts
+# the unconditional install and clean steps consume. That keeps a change there
+# reported before merge, and the nightly run covers the transitive edits the
+# list cannot match.
+#
+# GitHub evaluates a path filter against the first 300 files of the diff only,
+# so a pull request wider than that can skip the filter outright. A repository-wide sweep is exactly the change that touches every
+# recovery authority at once, which is one more reason the main push below
+# carries no filter at all.
 on:
   pull_request:
     branches: [main]
+    paths:
+      - 'package.json'
+      - 'package-lock.json'
+      - 'patches/**'
+      - 'scripts/apply-dependency-patches.mjs'
+      - 'scripts/install-electron-with-retry.mjs'
+      - 'scripts/run-electron-installer.cjs'
+      - 'scripts/clean-build.mjs'
+      - 'scripts/clean-paths.mjs'
+      - 'scripts/windows-runtime-host-local-ipc-trust.ps1'
+      - 'tsconfig.base.json'
+      - 'tsconfig.lib.json'
+      - 'packages/core/package.json'
+      - 'packages/core/tsconfig.json'
+      - 'packages/core/src/**'
+      - 'packages/storage/package.json'
+      - 'packages/storage/tsconfig.json'
+      - 'packages/storage/src/**'
+      - 'packages/runtime/package.json'
+      - 'packages/runtime/tsconfig.json'
+      - 'packages/runtime/src/**'
+      - 'packages/runtime/scripts/**'
+      - 'packages/runtime-host/package.json'
+      - 'packages/runtime-host/tsconfig.json'
+      - 'packages/runtime-host/src/**'
+      - '.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml'
+  # Unfiltered on purpose: required_status_checks is `strict: false`, so a pull
+  # request goes green against a stale base and only the merged result proves
+  # two independently green halves still agree. It is also the backstop for the
+  # 300-file case above. The nightly alone would find either a day later,
+  # against a batch of commits instead of one.
   push:
     branches: [main]
+  schedule:
+    # Offset from windows-sandbox-w0 so the Windows lanes do not overlap.
+    - cron: '17 8 * * *'
   workflow_dispatch:
 
+# Pull request pushes supersede each other, keyed on the pull request number
+# because github.head_ref is a bare branch name two forks can share: a second
+# contributor pushing to their own `main` would otherwise cancel the first
+# contributor's run, and a cancelled check is not a failed one.
+# Scheduled, manual and main-push runs fall back to the run id, since
+# github.ref is refs/heads/main for all three and one shared group would let a
+# dispatch queue behind the nightly and then be discarded while still pending.
+# That deliberately stops main pushes from superseding each other: this lane is
+# the only place a merged Windows regression is observed, so every merge needs
+# its own evidence rather than only the newest one surviving.
 concurrency:
-  group: windows-recovery-${{ github.ref }}
-  cancel-in-progress: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
+  group: windows-recovery-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.run_id }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
diff --git a/scripts/ci-test-plan.test.mjs b/scripts/ci-test-plan.test.mjs
index e0e9e9c852..974b4c24c4 100644
--- a/scripts/ci-test-plan.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/ci-test-plan.test.mjs
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
 import { readdirSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import test from 'node:test';
 
-import { formatGitHubOutputs, planTests } from './ci-test-plan.mjs';
+import { formatGitHubOutputs, loadWorkspaceGraph, planTests } from './ci-test-plan.mjs';
 
 const dirs = [
   'packages/core',
@@ -352,14 +352,113 @@ test('pull request triggers stay on an explicit allowlist', () => {
   ]);
 });
 
-test('Windows recovery publishes one stable PR and main check for ruleset enforcement', () => {
+test('the recovery lane pairs its path filter with a nightly run and a main push', () => {
+  // Read from the `on:` block with comments stripped, so documenting a trigger
+  // cannot break its contract.
+  const triggers = triggerBlock('windows-recovery.yml');
+
+  // Same contract as the sandbox lane: the filter is a pre-filter, not the
+  // lane's import closure, so dropping the schedule would silently lose every
+  // transitive edit it cannot match, and dropping the filter would put every
+  // Windows recovery run back on every pull request. The main push carries no
+  // filter because `strict: false` lets a stale-base pull request go green,
+  // and because a paths filter only sees the first 300 files of a diff.
+  // Stripped comment lines survive as blank ones, so the gap between the
+  // trigger and its list is any mix of blank and four-space lines.
+  assert.match(triggers, /\n {2}pull_request:\n(?:(?: {4}[^\n]*)?\n)* {4}paths:/u);
+  assert.match(triggers, /\n {2}push:\n {4}branches: \[main\]\n/u);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(
+    triggers.match(/\n {2}push:\n(?:(?: {4}[^\n]*)?\n)*/u)?.[0] ?? '',
+    /\bpaths(-ignore)?:/u,
+  );
+  assert.match(triggers, /\n {2}schedule:\n/u);
+  assert.match(triggers, /\n {2}workflow_dispatch:/u);
+  assert.match(readWorkflow('windows-recovery.yml'), /\n {4}name: windows_recovery/u);
+});
+
+test('the recovery lane keeps every run kind out of one shared concurrency group', () => {
+  const workflow = readWorkflow('windows-recovery.yml');
+
+  // github.head_ref is a bare branch name, so two forks pushing their own
+  // `main` would share a group and cancel each other; github.ref is
+  // refs/heads/main for the nightly, a dispatch and a main push alike, so a
+  // ref-keyed group made a dispatch queue behind the nightly and let the next
+  // dispatch discard it while pending.
+  assert.match(
+    workflow,
+    /group: windows-recovery-\$\{\{ github\.event\.pull_request\.number \|\| github\.run_id \}\}/u,
+  );
+  assert.match(workflow, /\n {2}cancel-in-progress: true/u);
+});
+
+test('the recovery lane filters pull requests by the workspaces its steps execute', () => {
   const workflow = readWorkflow('windows-recovery.yml');
+  const filtered = new Set(pullRequestPathFilter('windows-recovery.yml'));
+
+  // Derived from the dist paths the steps run, then widened along the workspace
+  // dependency graph the planner selects with. The separator class matches the
+  // backslash form too, because these steps run under pwsh where both are
+  // legal. A new workspace on this lane, or a new dependency under one of them,
+  // fails here until the filter admits its sources and project file.
+  const executed = [
+    ...new Set(
+      [...workflow.matchAll(/packages[/\\]([^/\\]+)[/\\]dist[/\\]/gu)].map((match) => match[1]),
+    ),
+  ].sort();
+  assert.deepEqual(executed, ['runtime', 'runtime-host', 'storage']);
+
+  const closure = dependencyClosure(executed.map((workspace) => `packages/${workspace}`));
+  assert.ok(closure.includes('packages/core'), 'dependency closure must reach core');
+  for (const dir of closure) {
+    assert.ok(filtered.has(`${dir}/src/**`), `${dir}: sources`);
+    assert.ok(filtered.has(`${dir}/tsconfig.json`), `${dir}: project file`);
+    assert.ok(filtered.has(`${dir}/package.json`), `${dir}: manifest`);
+  }
+});
+
+test('the recovery lane filter follows the postinstall launcher chain', () => {
+  const filtered = new Set(pullRequestPathFilter('windows-recovery.yml'));
+  const manifest = JSON.parse(readFileSync(new URL('../package.json', import.meta.url), 'utf8'));
+  // Derived from postinstall itself, then one hop into whatever those entry
+  // points launch, because a launcher the filter cannot see still decides what
+  // `npm ci` produces on Windows. A restated list missed exactly that hop.
+  const entrypoints = [...manifest.scripts.postinstall.matchAll(/node (scripts\/[\w.-]+)/gu)].map(
+    (match) => match[1],
+  );
+  assert.ok(entrypoints.length > 0, 'postinstall runs no script');
+
+  for (const entrypoint of entrypoints) {
+    assert.ok(filtered.has(entrypoint), entrypoint);
+    const source = readFileSync(new URL(`../${entrypoint}`, import.meta.url), 'utf8');
+    for (const launched of source.matchAll(/new URL\('\.\/([\w.-]+)'/gu)) {
+      assert.ok(filtered.has(`scripts/${launched[1]}`), `${entrypoint} launches ${launched[1]}`);
+    }
+  }
+});
+
+test('the recovery lane filters pull requests by what its install and clean steps consume', () => {
+  const filtered = new Set(pullRequestPathFilter('windows-recovery.yml'));
 
-  assert.match(workflow, /\n {2}pull_request:\n {4}branches: \[main\]/u);
-  assert.match(workflow, /\n {2}push:\n {4}branches: \[main\]/u);
-  assert.match(workflow, /\n {2}workflow_dispatch:/u);
-  assert.match(workflow, /\n {4}name: windows_recovery/u);
-  assert.match(workflow, /cancel-in-progress: \$\{\{ github\.event_name == 'pull_request' \}\}/u);
+  // `npm.cmd ci` and `npm.cmd run build:test` run unconditionally, so these are
+  // first-class inputs of the lane rather than transitive edits the nightly can
+  // be left to cover. A grouped dependabot bump touches only the manifests, and
+  // the crash gates sit on a native file lock the Linux `test` lane never sees.
+  for (const path of [
+    'package.json',
+    'package-lock.json',
+    'patches/**',
+    'scripts/apply-dependency-patches.mjs',
+    'scripts/install-electron-with-retry.mjs',
+    'scripts/clean-build.mjs',
+    'scripts/clean-paths.mjs',
+    'scripts/windows-runtime-host-local-ipc-trust.ps1',
+    'tsconfig.base.json',
+    'tsconfig.lib.json',
+    'packages/runtime/scripts/**',
+    '.github/workflows/windows-recovery.yml',
+  ]) {
+    assert.ok(filtered.has(path), path);
+  }
 });
 
 test('the sandbox lane pairs its path filter with a nightly run', () => {
@@ -494,6 +593,56 @@ test('core CI runs the live Eval proxy lifecycle when Eval is selected', () => {
 
 const WORKFLOW_DIR = new URL('../.github/workflows/', import.meta.url);
 
+/**
+ * Reads the `paths` list belonging to a workflow's `pull_request` trigger.
+ * Anchoring to the trigger, instead of matching entry text anywhere in the
+ * file, is what makes the filter assertions fail when entries move under
+ * `paths-ignore`, under another trigger, or out of `on:` altogether.
+ */
+function pullRequestPathFilter(name) {
+  // Reads the `on:` block with comments already stripped, so a comment between
+  // the trigger and its list cannot end the scan, and accepts the quoting and
+  // spacing YAML allows, so a legal rewrite reports the entries it really has
+  // instead of an empty list that reads as a missing filter.
+  const lines = triggerBlock(name).split('\n');
+  const start = lines.findIndex((line) => /^ {2}pull_request:\s*$/u.test(line));
+  assert.ok(start >= 0, `${name}: no pull_request trigger`);
+
+  const paths = [];
+  let inPaths = false;
+  for (const line of lines.slice(start + 1)) {
+    if (line.trim() === '') continue;
+    if (/^ {0,2}\S/u.test(line)) break;
+    if (/^ {4}\S/u.test(line)) {
+      inPaths = /^ {4}paths:\s*$/u.test(line);
+      continue;
+    }
+    const entry = inPaths ? /^\s+-\s+['"]?(.+?)['"]?\s*$/u.exec(line) : null;
+    if (entry) paths.push(entry[1]);
+  }
+  return paths;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Workspace dirs `seeds` depend on, transitively, read off the same graph the
+ * planner selects with rather than a second definition of the same edges. The
+ * graph stores dependents, so a dependency is any dir listing one of ours.
+ */
+function dependencyClosure(seeds) {
+  const graph = loadWorkspaceGraph();
+  const selected = new Set(seeds);
+  const pending = [...seeds];
+  while (pending.length > 0) {
+    const dir = pending.shift();
+    for (const [dependency, dependents] of graph.dependents) {
+      if (!dependents.has(dir) || selected.has(dependency)) continue;
+      selected.add(dependency);
+      pending.push(dependency);
+    }
+  }
+  return [...selected].sort();
+}
+
 function readWorkflow(name) {
   return readFileSync(new URL(name, WORKFLOW_DIR), 'utf8');
 }
@@ -502,11 +651,14 @@ function readWorkflow(name) {
  * Reads the `on:` block only, so a workflow cannot escape a trigger contract by
  * writing `on: [pull_request]`, and prose elsewhere in the file cannot fake one.
  */
-function hasPullRequestTrigger(name) {
+function triggerBlock(name) {
   const withoutComments = readWorkflow(name).replaceAll(/^[ \t]*#.*$/gmu, '');
-  const triggers = withoutComments.match(/^on:(.*(?:\n(?![^\s#]).*)*)/mu)?.[1] ?? '';
 
-  return /\bpull_request(_target)?\b/u.test(triggers);
+  return withoutComments.match(/^on:(.*(?:\n(?![^\s#]).*)*)/mu)?.[1] ?? '';
+}
+
+function hasPullRequestTrigger(name) {
+  return /\bpull_request(_target)?\b/u.test(triggerBlock(name));
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/scripts/product-release.test.mjs b/scripts/product-release.test.mjs
index 0a3754e071..4a8bfc4fd6 100644
--- a/scripts/product-release.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/product-release.test.mjs
@@ -724,10 +724,7 @@ test('one product workflow gates one draft release on every required artifact',
 
 test('repository control plane admits only reviewed immutable release tags', async () => {
   const config = parseYaml(await readFile(new URL('../.asf.yaml', import.meta.url), 'utf8'));
-  assert.deepEqual(config.github.protected_branches.main.required_status_checks.contexts, [
-    'test',
-    'windows_recovery',
-  ]);
+  assert.deepEqual(config.github.protected_branches.main.required_status_checks.contexts, ['test']);
   const environments = config.github.environments;
   for (const [name, tagPattern] of [
     ['release', 'v*-incubating-rc*'],