diff --git a/bin/gstack-gbrain-detect b/bin/gstack-gbrain-detect
index b0e9931eb..66503905e 100755
--- a/bin/gstack-gbrain-detect
+++ b/bin/gstack-gbrain-detect
@@ -37,7 +37,11 @@ import { existsSync, readFileSync } from "fs";
 import { homedir } from "os";
 import { join } from "path";
 
-import { localEngineStatus } from "../lib/gbrain-local-status";
+import {
+  localEngineStatus,
+  resolveGbrainBin,
+  readGbrainVersion,
+} from "../lib/gbrain-local-status";
 
 const STATE_DIR = process.env.GSTACK_HOME || join(userHome(), ".gstack");
 const SCRIPT_DIR = __dirname;
@@ -71,10 +75,12 @@ function tryReadJSON(path: string): unknown | null {
 }
 
 // --- gbrain binary presence + version ---
+// Uses the shared memoized resolvers from lib/gbrain-local-status.ts so
+// detect and the classifier share probe results within one process.
 function detectGbrain(): { onPath: boolean; version: string | null } {
-  const out = tryExec("sh", ["-c", "command -v gbrain"], 2_000);
-  if (!out) return { onPath: false, version: null };
-  const verRaw = tryExec("gbrain", ["--version"], 2_000);
+  const bin = resolveGbrainBin();
+  if (!bin) return { onPath: false, version: null };
+  const verRaw = readGbrainVersion();
   if (!verRaw) return { onPath: true, version: null };
   // Match bash behavior: head -1 | tr -d '[:space:]'
   const version = verRaw.split("\n")[0].replace(/\s+/g, "") || null;
@@ -93,9 +99,13 @@ function detectConfig(): { exists: boolean; engine: "pglite" | "postgres" | null
 }
 
 // --- gbrain doctor health (any nonzero exit or non-"ok"/"warnings" status → false) ---
+//
+// Uses --fast to avoid hanging on a dead DB. Per the local-status classifier
+// (which probes DB directly via `gbrain sources list`), gbrain_doctor_ok is a
+// coarse health summary, not engine-reachability — that's gbrain_local_status.
 function detectDoctor(onPath: boolean): boolean {
   if (!onPath) return false;
-  const out = tryExec("gbrain", ["doctor", "--json"], 5_000);
+  const out = tryExec("gbrain", ["doctor", "--json", "--fast"], 3_000);
   if (!out) return false;
   try {
     const parsed = JSON.parse(out) as { status?: string };
diff --git a/lib/gbrain-local-status.ts b/lib/gbrain-local-status.ts
index 3fd22919b..e646abd61 100644
--- a/lib/gbrain-local-status.ts
+++ b/lib/gbrain-local-status.ts
@@ -91,34 +91,50 @@ function hashPath(p: string): string {
 
 /**
  * Resolve the absolute path of `gbrain` on PATH. Returns null when missing.
- * Uses `command -v` semantics via execFileSync.
+ * Memoized per-process keyed on PATH so detect's call and the classifier's
+ * call share one fork-exec (~200ms saved per skill preamble).
  */
-function resolveGbrainBin(env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): string | null {
+const _gbrainBinCache = new Map<string, string | null>();
+export function resolveGbrainBin(env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): string | null {
+  const e = env ?? process.env;
+  const key = e.PATH || "";
+  if (_gbrainBinCache.has(key)) return _gbrainBinCache.get(key)!;
+  let result: string | null = null;
   try {
     const out = execFileSync("sh", ["-c", "command -v gbrain"], {
       encoding: "utf-8",
       timeout: 2_000,
       stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
-      env: env ?? process.env,
+      env: e,
     });
-    return out.trim() || null;
+    result = out.trim() || null;
   } catch {
-    return null;
+    result = null;
   }
+  _gbrainBinCache.set(key, result);
+  return result;
 }
 
-function readGbrainVersion(env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): string {
+/** Memoized per-process. */
+const _gbrainVersionCache = new Map<string, string>();
+export function readGbrainVersion(env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): string {
+  const e = env ?? process.env;
+  const key = `${e.PATH || ""}|${resolveGbrainBin(e) || ""}`;
+  if (_gbrainVersionCache.has(key)) return _gbrainVersionCache.get(key)!;
+  let result = "";
   try {
     const out = execFileSync("gbrain", ["--version"], {
       encoding: "utf-8",
       timeout: 2_000,
       stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
-      env: env ?? process.env,
+      env: e,
     });
-    return out.trim().split("\n")[0] || "";
+    result = out.trim().split("\n")[0] || "";
   } catch {
-    return "";
+    result = "";
   }
+  _gbrainVersionCache.set(key, result);
+  return result;
 }
 
 function configFingerprint(): { mtime: number; size: number } {