diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/validate.yml b/.gitea/workflows/validate.yml
index fa68938..477d6f7 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/validate.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/validate.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
-# Two gates, neither of which needs a camera or a display: the example dataflow
-# still matches the typed contract in dora-node.yml and still runs end to end,
-# and the node's own unit tests pass.
+# Three gates, none of which needs a camera or a display: the example dataflow
+# still matches the typed contracts in the two dora-node.yml files, it still
+# runs end to end, and the node's own unit tests pass.
+#
+# All three share one job on purpose. The work itself is trivial -- the unit
+# tests take under a second -- and is dwarfed by preparing the runner, so
+# splitting the gates across jobs mostly buys a second checkout and a second
+# OpenCV install. A step that fails is still named in the log.
 name: validate
 
 # A pull request would otherwise run this twice on the same commit: once for
@@ -15,13 +20,15 @@ env:
   DORA_TARGET: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 
 jobs:
-  dataflow:
+  validate:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
       # The opencv-python wheel links against libGL at import time, so cv2
-      # cannot even be imported on the bare runner image.
+      # cannot even be imported on the bare runner image. This is the most
+      # expensive step in the job by a wide margin; see AGENTS.md for the
+      # headless-wheel alternative that would remove it.
       - name: Install the OpenCV shared libraries
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
@@ -31,20 +38,43 @@ jobs:
         with:
           enable-cache: true
 
+      # The CLI is a single static binary pinned to DORA_VERSION, so the cache
+      # hit is exact and the download only happens when the version changes.
+      - name: Cache the dora CLI
+        id: dora-cache
+        uses: actions/cache@v4
+        with:
+          path: ~/.local/bin/dora
+          key: dora-cli-${{ env.DORA_VERSION }}-${{ env.DORA_TARGET }}
+
       - name: Install the dora CLI
+        if: steps.dora-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
         run: |
           curl -fsSL -o dora-cli.tar.gz \
             "https://github.com/dora-rs/dora/releases/download/${DORA_VERSION}/dora-cli-${DORA_TARGET}.tar.gz"
           tar xzf dora-cli.tar.gz
           mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
           install -m 755 "dora-cli-${DORA_TARGET}/dora" "$HOME/.local/bin/dora"
-          echo "$HOME/.local/bin" >> "$GITHUB_PATH"
           rm -rf dora-cli.tar.gz "dora-cli-${DORA_TARGET}"
 
+      - name: Put the dora CLI on PATH
+        run: echo "$HOME/.local/bin" >> "$GITHUB_PATH"
+
       - run: dora --version
 
+      # --locked fails if uv.lock is out of date with pyproject.toml, so a
+      # dependency change that was never locked cannot reach main.
+      - name: Install
+        run: uv sync --locked --group dev
+
+      - run: uv run ruff check .
+
+      - run: uv run pytest -q
+
       # strict_types: true in the dataflow turns a type warning into a non-zero
       # exit, so a mismatched annotation fails here rather than at runtime.
+      # Both nodes are path nodes with a manifest, so both contracts are
+      # injected and compared against each other.
       - name: Validate the dataflow
         run: dora validate dataflow.yml
 
@@ -55,26 +85,3 @@ jobs:
         env:
           SOURCE_FRAMES: 30
         run: dora run dataflow.yml --uv
-
-  test:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
-
-      - name: Install the OpenCV shared libraries
-        run: |
-          sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends libgl1 libglib2.0-0
-
-      - uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v5
-        with:
-          enable-cache: true
-
-      # --locked fails if uv.lock is out of date with pyproject.toml, so a
-      # dependency change that was never locked cannot reach main.
-      - name: Install
-        run: uv sync --locked --group dev
-
-      - run: uv run ruff check .
-
-      - run: uv run pytest -q