diff --git a/.claude/skills/new-setup/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/new-setup/SKILL.md
index ba62242..f08fd16 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/new-setup/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/new-setup/SKILL.md
@@ -38,12 +38,14 @@ One permitted parallelism:
 
 ### 1. Node bootstrap
 
-If the probe reported `STATUS: unavailable` (Node isn't installed yet), install Node 22 **before** running `bash setup.sh` — otherwise the first bootstrap run is guaranteed to fail and you'll pay for it twice:
+Check probe results and skip if `HOST_DEPS=ok` — Node, pnpm, `node_modules`, and `better-sqlite3`'s native binding are already in place.
+
+If the probe reported `STATUS: unavailable` (Node isn't installed yet — probe itself couldn't run), install Node 22 **before** running `bash setup.sh`, otherwise the first bootstrap run is guaranteed to fail:
 
 - macOS: `brew install node@22`
 - Linux / WSL: `curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs`
 
-Then run `bash setup.sh`. If the probe reported any other status, run `bash setup.sh` directly — it's idempotent and verifies host deps + native modules.
+Then run `bash setup.sh`. If the probe succeeded but `HOST_DEPS=missing`, run `bash setup.sh` directly — Node is there, deps aren't.
 
 Parse the status block:
 
diff --git a/setup/probe.mjs b/setup/probe.mjs
index a28f759..5aea0d4 100644
--- a/setup/probe.mjs
+++ b/setup/probe.mjs
@@ -268,6 +268,22 @@ function probeInferredDisplayName() {
   return 'User';
 }
 
+function probeHostDeps() {
+  const nodeModules = path.resolve(process.cwd(), 'node_modules');
+  if (!fs.existsSync(nodeModules)) return 'missing';
+  // better-sqlite3's compiled native binding is the canonical proof that
+  // `pnpm install` ran AND the native build step succeeded. Cheaper than
+  // actually loading the module, and unambiguous on success.
+  const nativeBinding = path.join(
+    nodeModules,
+    'better-sqlite3',
+    'build',
+    'Release',
+    'better_sqlite3.node',
+  );
+  return fs.existsSync(nativeBinding) ? 'ok' : 'missing';
+}
+
 function probeTimezone() {
   const envTz = readEnvVar('TZ');
   const systemTz = Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone || '';
@@ -309,6 +325,7 @@ export async function run() {
   const serviceStatus = probeServiceStatus();
   const displayName = probeInferredDisplayName();
   const tz = probeTimezone();
+  const hostDeps = probeHostDeps();
 
   const [onecliStatus, cliAgentWired] = await Promise.all([
     probeOnecliStatus(oneCliUrl),
@@ -323,6 +340,7 @@ export async function run() {
   emitStatus('PROBE', {
     OS: osLabel,
     SHELL: shell,
+    HOST_DEPS: hostDeps,
     DOCKER: docker.status,
     IMAGE_PRESENT: docker.imagePresent,
     ONECLI_STATUS: onecliStatus,