diff --git a/changelog.d/gsta262-hook-budget.md b/changelog.d/gsta262-hook-budget.md
index 9a0a8afdd..5435ae3a0 100644
--- a/changelog.d/gsta262-hook-budget.md
+++ b/changelog.d/gsta262-hook-budget.md
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 ### Fixed
 
-- **The AskUserQuestion log hook no longer kills a slow first run on Windows, and never outlives Claude Code's 5-second hook limit.** `question-log-hook` gave each `gstack-question-log` call a fixed 3-second timeout. On a cold Windows runner the first call takes just over 3 seconds (3,149 and 3,188 ms in windows-pregate runs 41605458462 and 41406459043), so the hook killed it and logged "exited null" even though Claude Code allows the hook 5 seconds. A fixed timeout per call also let several questions run well past those 5 seconds (six slow calls took 16 s). Now every call gets what is left of the hook's 5-second budget, less a 500 ms exit reserve. When the budget runs out, the hook stops and logs which questions it skipped, and a killed call's log line names the signal and how long it ran.
+- **The AskUserQuestion log hook no longer kills a slow first run on Windows, and its calls now share Claude Code's 5-second hook limit.** `question-log-hook` gave each `gstack-question-log` call a fixed 3-second timeout. On a cold Windows runner the first call takes just over 3 seconds (3,149 and 3,188 ms in windows-pregate runs 41605458462 and 41406459043), so the hook killed it and logged "exited null" even though Claude Code allows the hook 5 seconds. A fixed timeout per call also let several questions run well past those 5 seconds (six slow calls took 16 s). Now the calls share one budget: 5 seconds from when Bun starts the hook, less a 500 ms exit reserve. On Windows the hook finds Git Bash before it reads that budget, so the lookup comes out of the budget instead of adding to a call's time. When less than 250 ms is left, the hook skips the remaining questions and logs which ones; a killed call's log line names the signal and how long it ran. The budget doesn't cover the bash shim that starts Bun, and the first Git Bash lookup on a fresh install has no time limit of its own, so Claude Code can still stop the hook in those cases.
diff --git a/hosts/claude/hooks/question-log-hook.ts b/hosts/claude/hooks/question-log-hook.ts
index dec7b7e6f..f31417830 100644
--- a/hosts/claude/hooks/question-log-hook.ts
+++ b/hosts/claude/hooks/question-log-hook.ts
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ import * as path from 'path';
 import { HOOK_TIMEOUT_MS, hookChildBudgetMs, runBin } from './spawn-bin';
 import { logHookError as sharedLogHookError } from './hook-log';
 import { parseQidMarker } from '../../../scripts/qid-marker';
+import { resolveWindowsBashCached } from '../../../lib/script-invocation';
+import { resolveStateRoot } from '../../../lib/state-root';
 
 interface HookStdin {
   session_id?: string;
@@ -68,6 +70,14 @@ interface ExtractedQuestion {
 
 const RECOMMENDED_LABEL_RE = /\(recommended\)\s*$/i;
 const HOOK_STARTED_AT = Date.now() - Math.round(process.uptime() * 1000);
+/** Below this much budget a child cannot launch and finish, so the hook skips it instead of starting a call it must kill. */
+const MIN_LAUNCH_BUDGET_MS = 250;
+
+/** Why the next gstack-question-log call is skipped with `budgetMs` left, or null when it may launch. */
+export function launchSkipReason(budgetMs: number): string | null {
+  if (budgetMs >= MIN_LAUNCH_BUDGET_MS) return null;
+  return `the hook's ${HOOK_TIMEOUT_MS} ms budget is spent (${Math.max(0, budgetMs)} ms left, under the ${MIN_LAUNCH_BUDGET_MS} ms a call needs)`;
+}
 
 function logHookError(msg: string): void {
   sharedLogHookError('question-log-hook', msg);
@@ -286,6 +296,7 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
   const choices = extractUserChoices(stdin.tool_response, questions, (msg) =>
     logHookError(`${msg} (tool_use_id=${stdin.tool_use_id || 'n/a'})`),
   );
+  if (process.platform === 'win32') resolveWindowsBashCached(path.join(resolveStateRoot(), 'cache', 'windows-bash.json'));
 
   for (let i = 0; i < questions.length; i++) {
     const q = questions[i];
@@ -313,8 +324,9 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
     if (choice.free_text) payload.free_text = String(choice.free_text);
 
     const budgetMs = hookChildBudgetMs(HOOK_STARTED_AT);
-    if (budgetMs <= 0) {
-      logHookError(`gstack-question-log skipped for questions ${i + 1}-${questions.length}: the hook's ${HOOK_TIMEOUT_MS} ms budget is spent`);
+    const skip = launchSkipReason(budgetMs);
+    if (skip) {
+      logHookError(`gstack-question-log skipped for questions ${i + 1}-${questions.length}: ${skip}`);
       break;
     }
     spawnLog(payload, budgetMs, stdin.cwd);
@@ -323,7 +335,9 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
   process.exit(0);
 }
 
-main().catch((e) => {
-  logHookError(`main crash: ${(e as Error).message}`);
-  process.exit(0);
-});
+if (import.meta.main) {
+  main().catch((e) => {
+    logHookError(`main crash: ${(e as Error).message}`);
+    process.exit(0);
+  });
+}
diff --git a/test/question-log-hook.test.ts b/test/question-log-hook.test.ts
index 60f8b1896..1c06bcd31 100644
--- a/test/question-log-hook.test.ts
+++ b/test/question-log-hook.test.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import * as path from 'path';
 import * as os from 'os';
 import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
 import { hookChildBudgetMs } from '../hosts/claude/hooks/spawn-bin';
+import { launchSkipReason } from '../hosts/claude/hooks/question-log-hook.ts';
 
 const ROOT = path.resolve(import.meta.dir, '..');
 const HOOK = path.join(ROOT, 'hosts', 'claude', 'hooks', 'question-log-hook');
@@ -407,10 +408,17 @@ describe('PostToolUse hook (budget)', () => {
     expect(hookChildBudgetMs(1_000, 6_000)).toBeLessThan(0);
   });
 
+  test('a call launches only with at least 250 ms of budget left', () => {
+    expect(launchSkipReason(4_500)).toBeNull();
+    expect(launchSkipReason(250)).toBeNull();
+    expect(launchSkipReason(249)).toBe("the hook's 5000 ms budget is spent (249 ms left, under the 250 ms a call needs)");
+    expect(launchSkipReason(-40)).toBe("the hook's 5000 ms budget is spent (0 ms left, under the 250 ms a call needs)");
+  });
+
   test('slow children stop at the hook budget and the skipped questions are logged', () => {
     const fakeBin = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gstack-slow-bun-'));
     try {
-      fs.writeFileSync(path.join(fakeBin, 'bun'), `#!/bin/sh\nsleep 1\nexec "${process.execPath}" "$@"\n`, { mode: 0o755 });
+      fs.writeFileSync(path.join(fakeBin, 'bun'), `#!/bin/sh\nsleep 5\nexec "${process.execPath}" "$@"\n`, { mode: 0o755 });
       const env: Record<string, string> = {};
       for (const [k, v] of Object.entries(process.env)) {
         if (v !== undefined) env[k] = v;