diff --git a/.github/workflows/evals-periodic.yml b/.github/workflows/evals-periodic.yml
index 707c2221c..9713a4600 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/evals-periodic.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/evals-periodic.yml
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Emit run manifest (ALL periodic tests minus reasoned excludes)
         env:
           EVALS_ALL: "1"
-        run: EVALS_TIER=periodic bun --no-install run scripts/test-paid-shards.ts --tier periodic --emit-plan /tmp/paid-plan/manifest.json --slice-budget 540 --jobs 2 --max-parallel 24
+        run: EVALS_TIER=periodic bun --no-install run scripts/test-paid-shards.ts --tier periodic --emit-plan /tmp/paid-plan/manifest.json --slice-budget 540 --jobs 2 --max-parallel 25
 
       - name: Derive the periodic executor matrix from the plan
         id: periodic-matrix
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       # Every planned slice starts at once; test/evals-workflow-wiring.test.ts
       # fails when the live plan outgrows this cap.
-      max-parallel: 24
+      max-parallel: 25
       matrix:
         slice: ${{ fromJSON(needs.plan-slices.outputs.periodic_slices) }}
     steps:
diff --git a/bin/gstack-slug b/bin/gstack-slug
index 51b0c902b..3865b8973 100755
--- a/bin/gstack-slug
+++ b/bin/gstack-slug
@@ -65,6 +65,11 @@
 #
 # Security: output is sanitized to [a-zA-Z0-9._-] only, preventing shell
 # injection when consumed via source or eval.
+# Bash 5.2+ can feed a heredoc body >=512B through a pipe with no reader
+# yet, which hangs --help forever; compat level 50 restores the tempfile path
+# (same guard as bin/gstack-artifacts-init). Not exported.
+BASH_COMPAT=50
+
 set -euo pipefail
 
 # State-root aware (bin/gstack-state-root.sh), matching lib/bin-context.ts (#2561): the
diff --git a/test/eng-finding-retry-budget.test.ts b/test/eng-finding-retry-budget.test.ts
index 7ee125f7f..f3966fcde 100644
--- a/test/eng-finding-retry-budget.test.ts
+++ b/test/eng-finding-retry-budget.test.ts
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ test('live periodic census fits the declared CI wall including setup', () => {
 
 test('registered allocation is deterministic and preserves every discovered file', () => {
   const files = collectPaidTestFiles();
-  expect(files).toHaveLength(106);
+  expect(files).toHaveLength(107);
   expect(files).toContain('test/skill-e2e-ship-skip.test.ts');
   const m = livePlan(files);
   expect(livePlan([...files].reverse())).toEqual(m);
diff --git a/test/fixtures/golden/codex-ship-SKILL.md b/test/fixtures/golden/codex-ship-SKILL.md
index 49c89d309..cddee5bef 100644
--- a/test/fixtures/golden/codex-ship-SKILL.md
+++ b/test/fixtures/golden/codex-ship-SKILL.md
@@ -1576,9 +1576,9 @@ You are running a ship-workflow plan completion audit. The base branch is `<base
 setopt +o nomatch 2>/dev/null || true  # zsh compat
 BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')
 REPO=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)")
-_PLAN_SLUG=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null | sed 's|.*[:/]\([^/]*/[^/]*\)\.git$|\1|;s|.*[:/]\([^/]*/[^/]*\)$|\1|' | tr '/' '-' | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-') || true
-_PLAN_SLUG="${_PLAN_SLUG:-$(basename "$PWD" | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')}"
 eval "$($GSTACK_ROOT/bin/gstack-paths)"; : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
+_PLAN_SLUG=$($GSTACK_ROOT/bin/gstack-slug 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/^SLUG=//p') || true
+_PLAN_SLUG="${_PLAN_SLUG:-$(basename "$PWD" | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')}"
 for PLAN_DIR in "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$_PLAN_SLUG" "$HOME/.claude/plans" "$HOME/.codex/plans" ".gstack/plans"; do
   [ -d "$PLAN_DIR" ] || continue
   PLAN=$(ls -t "$PLAN_DIR"/*.md 2>/dev/null | xargs grep -l "$BRANCH" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
diff --git a/test/fixtures/golden/factory-ship-SKILL.md b/test/fixtures/golden/factory-ship-SKILL.md
index d1171d146..69d5dacc2 100644
--- a/test/fixtures/golden/factory-ship-SKILL.md
+++ b/test/fixtures/golden/factory-ship-SKILL.md
@@ -1556,9 +1556,9 @@ You are running a ship-workflow plan completion audit. The base branch is `<base
 setopt +o nomatch 2>/dev/null || true  # zsh compat
 BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')
 REPO=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)")
-_PLAN_SLUG=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null | sed 's|.*[:/]\([^/]*/[^/]*\)\.git$|\1|;s|.*[:/]\([^/]*/[^/]*\)$|\1|' | tr '/' '-' | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-') || true
-_PLAN_SLUG="${_PLAN_SLUG:-$(basename "$PWD" | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')}"
 eval "$($GSTACK_ROOT/bin/gstack-paths)"; : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
+_PLAN_SLUG=$($GSTACK_ROOT/bin/gstack-slug 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/^SLUG=//p') || true
+_PLAN_SLUG="${_PLAN_SLUG:-$(basename "$PWD" | tr -cd 'a-zA-Z0-9._-')}"
 for PLAN_DIR in "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$_PLAN_SLUG" "$HOME/.claude/plans" "$HOME/.codex/plans" ".gstack/plans"; do
   [ -d "$PLAN_DIR" ] || continue
   PLAN=$(ls -t "$PLAN_DIR"/*.md 2>/dev/null | xargs grep -l "$BRANCH" 2>/dev/null | head -1)