diff --git a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
index 8a136caba..7ae685cf5 100644
--- a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/CLAUDE.md
@@ -1777,6 +1777,13 @@ document listener, and an `aria-expanded` control fires nothing anywhere. Both
 keep that state in an attribute, so one `MutationObserver` over `open` and
 `aria-expanded` repaints for both, and `shadowStage` hands it each root.
 
+State, and not the write that carries it: the watch compares each record against
+the attribute's current value and repaints only where the two differ. The paint
+restates both attributes on the controls it owns, so a watch reading every record
+as news repaints for its own writing, and the page runs at its refresh rate with
+nobody touching it. Nothing on screen says so — what said it was the suite, whose
+every browser test paid for it until the run went over its bound.
+
 ### Standing somewhere
 
 Focus is the reader's current place. `focused` follows it through declared
diff --git a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/assets/leaf.js b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/assets/leaf.js
index 71958e0f6..af0abb276 100644
--- a/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/assets/leaf.js
+++ b/plugins/leaf/skills/leaf/assets/leaf.js
@@ -460,11 +460,21 @@ function receiveState(...args) {
 
 // Where a disclosure keeps which way it stands, in both spellings. Declared up here
 // because `shadowStage` calls it, far above the key line it repaints for.
-const disclosureWatch = new MutationObserver(() => paintHere());
+// A write that says what the attribute already said is not a disclosure changing, and
+// taking it for one closes a loop: paintCoreControls paints `aria-expanded` on the key
+// line's More control, so every paint scheduled the next one and the page repainted for
+// as long as it was open. Reading the old value is what tells the two apart. A real
+// toggle still arrives, including one that lands back where it started, because the
+// record for its return leg carries the other value.
+const disclosureWatch = new MutationObserver((records) => {
+  if (records.some((r) => r.target.getAttribute(r.attributeName) !== r.oldValue))
+    paintHere();
+});
 const watchDisclosures = (root) =>
   disclosureWatch.observe(root, {
     subtree: true,
     attributeFilter: ["open", "aria-expanded"],
+    attributeOldValue: true,
   });
 createShadowStage(watchDisclosures);
 
diff --git a/tests/test_render_navigation.py b/tests/test_render_navigation.py
index 74a4ac593..fadb87e4f 100644
--- a/tests/test_render_navigation.py
+++ b/tests/test_render_navigation.py
@@ -2958,6 +2958,51 @@ def test_the_walk_reaches_more_and_goes_on_after_the_line_has_repainted(browser,
     page.close()
 
 
+def test_a_page_at_rest_repaints_the_key_line_only_when_the_state_moves(browser, serve):
+    """A repaint that schedules the next one is a loop no surface reports.
+
+    `paintCoreControls` runs inside `paintHere` and writes what the More control
+    currently says, `aria-expanded` among it. The runtime watches `open` and
+    `aria-expanded` over the whole document, because those two attributes are how both
+    spellings of a disclosure keep which way they stand, and it repaints the line for
+    either. So the paint delivered its own write back to itself and asked for another
+    frame, and the page went on repainting for as long as it was open — every browser
+    test on every page paying for it, which is where it showed: the nightly suite ran
+    half again as long and the run went over its bound with a fifth of the tests unread.
+
+    Nothing on screen says so, which is why the reading is the page's own frames against
+    its own state applications. Every application repaints the line and says so through
+    `lf-actions`, the heartbeat's re-application of state the page already holds
+    included, so a line that repaints more often than the state moves is repainting for
+    a reason the page has not got."""
+    page, errors = open_page(browser, serve(NOTED_PAGE, comments=2))
+    page.evaluate(
+        """() => {
+          const probe = { frames: 0, paints: 0, applied: 0 };
+          window.__lfProbe = probe;
+          document.addEventListener("lf-actions", () => { probe.applied += 1; });
+          new MutationObserver(() => { probe.paints += 1; }).observe(
+            document.querySelector(".lf-keyline"),
+            { attributes: true, childList: true, subtree: true },
+          );
+          const tick = () => { probe.frames += 1; requestAnimationFrame(tick); };
+          requestAnimationFrame(tick);
+        }"""
+    )
+    # The window is the page's own frames rather than a duration: a loop of this shape
+    # repaints once per frame whatever the machine's speed, so counting frames is what
+    # makes the contrast the same size on a loaded runner as on a desk.
+    page.wait_for_function("() => window.__lfProbe.frames >= 90")
+    probe = page.evaluate("() => window.__lfProbe")
+
+    assert probe["paints"] <= probe["applied"] + 1, (
+        "the key line repainted without the state moving over "
+        f"{probe['frames']} frames: {probe}"
+    )
+    assert errors == []
+    page.close()
+
+
 def test_escape_backs_out_from_a_control_nothing_is_typed_into(browser, serve):
     """A scope takes the keys it uses, so a control that has no Escape of its own
     leaves the rung standing behind it. The banner's version chooser swallowed it,