@@ -16,11 +16,10 @@ gh label create "$LABEL" \
 existing=$(gh issue list --label "$LABEL" --state open --json number --jq '.[0].number // empty')
 
 if [ -z "$existing" ]; then
-  body=$(printf '%s\n\n%s\n\n%s\n\n%s\n\n%s' \
+  body=$(printf '%s\n\n%s\n\n%s\n\n%s' \
     "The scheduled dependency check failed." \
     "First failing run: ${RUN_URL}" \
     "Likely cause, if a lint or pytest job failed: a dev or lint dependency (ruff, ty, eof-fixer, pytest, typing-extensions) released a breaking change. Reproduce locally with \`just install\` then \`just lint\` and \`just test\`." \
-    "Likely cause, if a lowest-direct job failed: a declared floor in \`pyproject.toml\` no longer installs or bootstraps, usually because an upstream package changed metadata under it. Reproduce with \`uv pip install --resolution lowest-direct '.[<extras>]'\` then \`python scripts/floor_smoke.py <target>\`, reading both off the failing job's matrix." \
     "Close this issue once fixed. The next scheduled failure will open a fresh issue.")
   gh issue create --title "$TITLE" --label "$LABEL" --body "$body"
 else
 
@@ -1,15 +1,6 @@
 name: checks
 on:
-  workflow_call:
-    inputs:
-      lowest-direct:
-        description: >-
-          Run the declared dependency floors. Off for PRs: the job resolves direct dependencies at
-          their floor and transitives at their newest, so a release published upstream today can
-          turn it red for reasons no PR here caused. scheduled.yml turns it on, where that failure
-          opens a tracking issue instead of blocking a merge.
-        type: boolean
-        default: false
+  workflow_call: {}
 
 jobs:
   lint:
@@ -131,7 +122,7 @@ jobs:
           if [ -n "$failed" ]; then echo "::error::extras failed isolated install+import:$failed"; exit 1; fi
           echo "all extras install and import in isolation"
 
-  lowest-direct:
+  floors:
     # Every other job resolves newest, so a declared floor is a claim nothing checks. This one
     # pins each direct dependency to the floor pyproject.toml declares and bootstraps against it.
     # Per framework rather than all-extras at once: a floor declared in one extra pulls the shared
@@ -141,7 +132,7 @@ jobs:
     # deliberately did not install as unresolved. So nothing type-checks at the floor - an
     # annotation naming an optional dependency's internals has to span the declared range, and only
     # a human checks that.
-    if: inputs.lowest-direct
+    if: github.event_name != 'schedule'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
 
@@ -4,42 +4,22 @@ name: Release
 # GitHub Release. Replaces the old `on: release: published` publish.yml — that
 # trigger is removed so the published Release this workflow creates can't re-fire
 # it (double-publish). The tag is the sole entry point; by convention a tag is
-# only cut off a green main, so the sole in-workflow gate is floors-gate below,
-# covering the one check that never runs on pull requests.
+# only cut off a green main, so there is no in-workflow CI gate.
 on:
   push:
     tags:
       - '[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+'               # stable:      2.7.2
       - '[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+[a-z]+[0-9]+'   # pre-release: 2.0.0rc1, 4.0.0a2
 
-permissions: {}
+# contents: write -> create the GitHub Release; id-token: write -> OIDC for PyPI Trusted Publishing.
+permissions:
+  contents: write
+  id-token: write
 
 jobs:
-  # Gates the tag on the dependency floors, which _checks.yml runs only for scheduled.yml, never
-  # for pull requests. A floor break can therefore merge with every check green, which is how the
-  # crash in 1.8.0 reached PyPI (#245). Placed before release so a failure costs nothing.
-  floors-gate:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    # contents: read -> the history the ancestor check walks; actions: read -> list workflow runs.
-    permissions:
-      contents: read
-      actions: read
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0  # the ancestor check needs history, not just the tagged commit
-      - run: .github/scripts/require-floor-run.sh
-        env:
-          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
-
   release:
-    needs: floors-gate
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     environment: pypi  # scopes the PyPI Trusted Publisher; hook for approval rules
-    # contents: write -> create the GitHub Release; id-token: write -> OIDC for PyPI Trusted Publishing.
-    permissions:
-      contents: write
-      id-token: write
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v6
       - uses: extractions/setup-just@v4
 
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name: scheduled-dep-check
 on:
   schedule:
-    # Daily: both resolutions here are unpinned, so an upstream release can break main
+    # Daily: the resolution here is unpinned, so an upstream release can break main
     # between runs. Daily bounds that window at a day and attributes the failure to upstream
     # (a tracking issue) instead of to whichever pull request happens to run next.
     - cron: "0 6 * * *"        # daily 06:00 UTC
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ concurrency:
 jobs:
   checks:
     uses: ./.github/workflows/_checks.yml
-    with:
-      lowest-direct: true
 
   report-failure:
     needs: checks