diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index c132b13..6decc9a 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -238,6 +238,13 @@ The leg re-checks the conversions and nothing else — each fixture's emitted ma
 document, its error code — leaving the corpus's pairing, uniqueness, source positions and
 byte-level equality to the Node suite that owns them.
 
+Every leg announces its name and its image before it runs and its elapsed time after, `publish.sh`
+alongside `ci.sh`, so a long run reads as progress rather than as a hang — which is what a silent
+one cost the `0.1.0` release. A leg added later owes the same marker, and a leg that buffers its
+output to read something out of it streams and keeps the copy in a file: `tee /dev/stderr` reopens
+the stream, so under the `> log 2>&1` a reader runs locally the two offsets advance independently
+and punch NUL holes through each other's lines (4d).
+
 The floors live in the `test` script, so `npm test` and the gate are one path: 100% of lines and
 functions, and a branch floor that only ever moves upward. It sits below 100 because the guards
 `noUncheckedIndexedAccess` and ADF's optional keys force — `?? []`, `?? {}`, `?.`, an index
diff --git a/ci.sh b/ci.sh
index dd3d712..012f0ba 100755
--- a/ci.sh
+++ b/ci.sh
@@ -3,28 +3,32 @@ set -euo pipefail
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 source ./docker-runner.sh
 
-in_image "$node_image" npm ci
-in_image "$node_image" npm run typecheck
+test_log=$(mktemp)
 
-if ! test_output=$(in_image "$node_image" npm test 2>&1); then
-  printf '%s\n' "$test_output"
-  exit 1
-fi
-printf '%s\n' "$test_output"
-if printf '%s' "$test_output" | grep -q 'ℹ tests 0'; then
+# Streamed, and copied so the zero-test guard reads the count without trading the output for it.
+node_tests() {
+  in_image "$node_image" npm test 2>&1 | tee "$test_log"
+}
+
+leg "install ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npm ci
+leg "typecheck ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npm run typecheck
+
+leg "tests ($node_image)" node_tests
+if grep -q 'ℹ tests 0' "$test_log"; then
   echo 'the gate ran zero tests — failing instead of a vacuous green'
   exit 1
 fi
+rm -f "$test_log"
 
-in_image "$deno_image" deno test --allow-env=PROPERTY_RUNS --allow-read --no-check src/
-in_image "$bun_image" bun test src/
+leg "tests ($deno_image)" in_image "$deno_image" deno test --allow-env=PROPERTY_RUNS --allow-read --no-check src/
+leg "tests ($bun_image)" in_image "$bun_image" bun test src/
 
-in_image "$node_image" npm run build
-in_image "$node_image" sh -c 'set -e
+leg "build ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npm run build
+leg "pack and install the tarball ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" sh -c 'set -e
   rm -rf package-tests/node_modules
-  npm pack --pack-destination /tmp >/dev/null
-  npm install --no-audit --no-fund --no-package-lock --no-save --offline --prefix package-tests /tmp/*.tgz >/dev/null'
-in_image "$node_image" npx tsc -p package-tests
-in_image "$floor_image" node package-tests/node-floor.js
+  npm pack --pack-destination /tmp
+  npm install --no-audit --no-fund --no-package-lock --no-save --offline --prefix package-tests /tmp/*.tgz'
+leg "typecheck the consumer ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npx tsc -p package-tests
+leg "round-trip on the engines floor ($floor_image)" in_image "$floor_image" node package-tests/node-floor.js
 
-with_firefox in_image "$node_image" node browser-tests/run.js
+leg "browser ($firefox_image)" with_firefox in_image "$node_image" node browser-tests/run.js
diff --git a/docker-runner.sh b/docker-runner.sh
index 8602e71..4fa0ad7 100644
--- a/docker-runner.sh
+++ b/docker-runner.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,20 @@ in_image() {
   docker run --rm -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -e HOME=/tmp ${PROPERTY_RUNS+-e PROPERTY_RUNS} ${in_image_network:+--network "$in_image_network"} -v "$PWD:/app" -w /app --entrypoint "$entrypoint" "$image" "$@"
 }
 
+# Markers go to stderr so a leg reporting a value stays capturable, and the locals carry the
+# function's own name because bash scopes them dynamically into whatever the leg runs.
+leg() {
+  local leg_name=$1 leg_elapsed leg_started leg_status=0
+  shift
+  printf '\n\033[1;34m==> %s\033[0m\n' "$leg_name" >&2
+  # EPOCHREALTIME carries the locale's radix character, so keep the digits and read microseconds.
+  leg_started=${EPOCHREALTIME//[^0-9]/}
+  "$@" || leg_status=$?
+  leg_elapsed=$((${EPOCHREALTIME//[^0-9]/} - leg_started))
+  printf '\033[1;34m<== %s: %d.%ds\033[0m\n' "$leg_name" "$((leg_elapsed / 1000000))" "$((leg_elapsed % 1000000 / 100000))" >&2
+  return $leg_status
+}
+
 with_firefox() {
   local container in_image_network status=0
   container=$(docker run -d --rm "$firefox_image")
diff --git a/publish.sh b/publish.sh
index d0f5999..e4c480c 100755
--- a/publish.sh
+++ b/publish.sh
@@ -7,31 +7,40 @@ read_field() {
   in_image "$node_image" npm pkg get "$1" | tr -d '"\r'
 }
 
+read_package_fields() {
+  private=$(read_field private)
+  name=$(read_field name)
+  version=$(read_field version)
+}
+
 published_version() {
   in_image "$node_image" npm view "$1@$2" version 2>/dev/null || true
 }
 
-private=$(read_field private)
+push_tag() {
+  git tag "v$version"
+  git push origin "v$version"
+}
+
+leg "read package.json ($node_image)" read_package_fields
 if [ "$private" = 'true' ]; then
   echo 'package.json is private — the maintainer removes that in the bump that first publishes'
   exit 0
 fi
 
-name=$(read_field name)
-version=$(read_field version)
-published=$(published_version "$name" "$version")
-tagged=$(git ls-remote --tags origin "v$version")
+published=$(leg "ask npmjs for $name@$version" published_version "$name" "$version")
+tagged=$(leg "ask origin for v$version" git ls-remote --tags origin "v$version")
 
 # Both steps observe their own end state, so a partial run converges on the next push to main.
 if [ -z "$published" ]; then
   : "${NPM_TOKEN:?the publish needs NPM_TOKEN}"
-  in_image "$node_image" npm ci
-  in_image "$node_image" npm run build
-  docker run --rm -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -e HOME=/tmp -e NPM_TOKEN -v "$PWD:/app" -w /app --entrypoint sh "$node_image" -c \
+  leg "install ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npm ci
+  leg "build ($node_image)" in_image "$node_image" npm run build
+  leg "publish $name@$version ($node_image)" \
+    docker run --rm -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -e HOME=/tmp -e NPM_TOKEN -v "$PWD:/app" -w /app --entrypoint sh "$node_image" -c \
     'printf "//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=%s\n" "$NPM_TOKEN" > "$HOME/.npmrc" && npm publish --access public'
 fi
 
 if [ -z "$tagged" ]; then
-  git tag "v$version"
-  git push origin "v$version"
+  leg "tag v$version" push_tag
 fi