@@ -3,41 +3,75 @@
 #
 #   1. Validate (push event) finished and succeeded on exactly this SHA.
 #   2. If the SHA was merged from a PR, every check on that PR passed or was
-#      skipped. Blender Smoke runs on PRs only, so this is its evidence.
+#      skipped (that includes the PR's Blender Smoke run).
+#   3. If it was a direct push, Blender Smoke (push event) finished and
+#      succeeded on this SHA -- unless every file the push changed matches the
+#      workflow's paths-ignore, in which case no smoke run exists to wait for.
 #
-# Env: GH_TOKEN, SHA, GITHUB_REPOSITORY. Optional: GATE_EVENT (default push),
-# GATE_TIMEOUT seconds (default 1500), GATE_POLL seconds (default 20).
+# Env: GH_TOKEN, SHA, GITHUB_REPOSITORY. Optional: BEFORE (the push's previous
+# head, to diff the whole push), GATE_EVENT (default push), GATE_TIMEOUT seconds
+# for Validate (default 1500), SMOKE_TIMEOUT seconds (default 3600), GATE_POLL
+# seconds (default 20).
 set -euo pipefail
 
 repo="${GITHUB_REPOSITORY:?}"
 sha="${SHA:?}"
 event="${GATE_EVENT:-push}"
-deadline=$((SECONDS + ${GATE_TIMEOUT:-1500}))
 
-while :; do
-  read -r status conclusion < <(
-    gh run list --repo "$repo" --workflow validate.yml --commit "$sha" \
-      --event "$event" --limit 1 --json status,conclusion \
-      --jq '.[0] // {} | "\(.status // "none") \(.conclusion // "none")"'
-  )
-  [ "$status" = "completed" ] && break
-  if [ "$SECONDS" -ge "$deadline" ]; then
-    echo "::error::Validate did not finish for $sha (last status: $status)"
+# wait_green WORKFLOW_FILE LABEL TIMEOUT: poll until the newest run of the
+# workflow on $sha completes, then require success.
+wait_green() {
+  local wf="$1" label="$2" deadline=$((SECONDS + $3)) status conclusion
+  while :; do
+    read -r status conclusion < <(
+      gh run list --repo "$repo" --workflow "$wf" --commit "$sha" \
+        --event "$event" --limit 1 --json status,conclusion \
+        --jq '.[0] // {} | "\(.status // "none") \(.conclusion // "none")"'
+    )
+    [ "$status" = "completed" ] && break
+    if [ "$SECONDS" -ge "$deadline" ]; then
+      echo "::error::$label did not finish for $sha (last status: $status)"
+      exit 1
+    fi
+    echo "$label status for $sha: $status; waiting"
+    sleep "${GATE_POLL:-20}"
+  done
+  if [ "$conclusion" != "success" ]; then
+    echo "::error::$label concluded '$conclusion' for $sha; not releasing"
     exit 1
   fi
-  echo "Validate status for $sha: $status; waiting"
-  sleep "${GATE_POLL:-20}"
-done
+  echo "$label: success"
+}
 
-if [ "$conclusion" != "success" ]; then
-  echo "::error::Validate concluded '$conclusion' for $sha; not releasing"
-  exit 1
-fi
-echo "Validate: success"
+# smoke_applies: 0 when some changed file falls outside blender-smoke.yml's
+# paths-ignore ("**.md", "docs/**", "assets/**"). Unreadable file lists count
+# as "applies" so the gate fails toward waiting, not toward skipping.
+smoke_applies() {
+  local files
+  if [ -n "${BEFORE:-}" ] && [ "${BEFORE}" != "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000" ]; then
+    files=$(gh api "repos/$repo/compare/$BEFORE...$sha" --jq '.files[].filename' 2>/dev/null) || return 0
+  else
+    files=$(gh api "repos/$repo/commits/$sha" --jq '.files[].filename' 2>/dev/null) || return 0
+  fi
+  [ -n "$files" ] || return 0
+  while IFS= read -r f; do
+    case "$f" in
+      *.md|docs/*|assets/*) ;;
+      *) return 0 ;;
+    esac
+  done <<< "$files"
+  return 1
+}
+
+wait_green validate.yml Validate "${GATE_TIMEOUT:-1500}"
 
 pr=$(gh api "repos/$repo/commits/$sha/pulls" --jq '.[0].number // empty')
 if [ -z "$pr" ]; then
-  echo "No PR is associated with $sha (direct push); Validate alone gates this release"
+  if smoke_applies; then
+    wait_green blender-smoke.yml "Blender Smoke" "${SMOKE_TIMEOUT:-3600}"
+  else
+    echo "Direct push changed only smoke-ignored paths; Validate alone gates this release"
+  fi
   exit 0
 fi
 
 
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 name: Blender Smoke Test
 
 # Executes the snippets' and skills' headline examples inside REAL Blender, headless,
-# on the current stable (5.2.x LTS) and the fallback LTS (4.5.x) on every PR,
+# on the current stable (5.2.x LTS) and the fallback LTS (4.5.x) on every PR and
+# every push to main (direct pushes are released, and release-gate.sh waits for
+# this run on the pushed SHA),
 # plus 5.1.x on the weekly cron, the opt-in `needs-5.1` PR label, or a
 # workflow_dispatch series input, and fails on any error or
 # empty-output assertion. Shipped examples go through tests/smoke/run_example.py
@@ -30,6 +32,14 @@ on:
         default: "5.2"
   schedule:
     - cron: "0 7 * * 1"   # weekly, Monday 07:00 UTC
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+    # Same filter as pull_request below. release-gate.sh mirrors these globs to
+    # decide whether a push has a smoke run to wait for; keep them in step.
+    paths-ignore:
+      - "**.md"
+      - "docs/**"
+      - "assets/**"
   pull_request:
     branches: [main]
     types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, labeled]
@@ -46,8 +56,9 @@ permissions:
 concurrency:
   # Isolate labeled runs so auto-label (`ci`, `documentation`, ...) does not
   # cancel the default 4.5/5.2 jobs. synchronize still cancels the previous
-  # synchronize on the same PR.
-  group: blender-smoke-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.ref }}${{ github.event.action == 'labeled' && format('-label-{0}', github.event.label.name) || '' }}
+  # synchronize on the same PR. Pushes to main group per SHA so a later push
+  # never cancels the run an earlier push's release gate is waiting on.
+  group: blender-smoke-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || (github.event_name == 'push' && github.sha) || github.ref }}${{ github.event.action == 'labeled' && format('-label-{0}', github.event.label.name) || '' }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
 jobs:
 
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@ jobs:
   gate:
     name: Gate on CI evidence
     # A push to main must not publish unless Validate passed on this exact SHA and,
-    # when it was merged from a PR, every check on that PR passed (Blender Smoke
-    # runs on PRs only). Direct pushes have no PR; Validate alone gates them.
+    # when it was merged from a PR, every check on that PR passed. A direct push
+    # also waits for its own Blender Smoke push run, unless it changed only
+    # smoke-ignored paths (see release-gate.sh).
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     if: "!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[skip ci]')"
     permissions:
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ jobs:
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
           SHA: ${{ github.sha }}
+          BEFORE: ${{ github.event.before }}
         run: bash .github/scripts/release-gate.sh
 
   version-and-release:
 
@@ -18,13 +18,20 @@
 BASH = shutil.which("bash")
 
 # Fake gh: behaviour comes from env vars so each test sets one scenario.
-#   FAKE_RUN     "<status> <conclusion>" for `gh run list`
+#   FAKE_RUN     "<status> <conclusion>" for `gh run list --workflow validate.yml`
+#   FAKE_SMOKE   the same for `--workflow blender-smoke.yml`
 #   FAKE_PR      PR number for `gh api .../pulls` (empty = direct push)
+#   FAKE_FILES   changed files for `gh api .../commits/SHA` or `.../compare/...`
 #   FAKE_CHECKS  stdout for `gh pr checks`; FAKE_CHECKS_RC its exit code
 FAKE_GH = r"""#!/usr/bin/env bash
 case "$1 $2" in
-  "run list") echo "${FAKE_RUN:-completed success}" ;;
-  "api "*) echo "${FAKE_PR:-}" ;;
+  "run list")
+    case " $* " in
+      *" blender-smoke.yml "*) echo "${FAKE_SMOKE:-completed success}" ;;
+      *) echo "${FAKE_RUN:-completed success}" ;;
+    esac ;;
+  "api "*/pulls) echo "${FAKE_PR:-}" ;;
+  "api "*) printf '%b\n' "${FAKE_FILES:-examples/a/a.py}" ;;
   "pr checks") printf '%s' "${FAKE_CHECKS:-}"; exit "${FAKE_CHECKS_RC:-0}" ;;
   *) echo "unexpected gh $*" >&2; exit 99 ;;
 esac
@@ -57,8 +64,27 @@ def gate(self, **env):
         )
         return proc.returncode, proc.stdout + proc.stderr
 
-    def test_direct_push_with_green_validate_passes(self):
-        self.assertEqual(self.gate(FAKE_PR="")[0], 0)
+    def test_direct_push_with_green_validate_and_smoke_passes(self):
+        code, out = self.gate(FAKE_PR="")
+        self.assertEqual(code, 0, out)
+        self.assertIn("Blender Smoke: success", out)
+
+    def test_direct_push_with_red_smoke_blocks(self):
+        code, out = self.gate(FAKE_PR="", FAKE_SMOKE="completed failure")
+        self.assertEqual(code, 1)
+        self.assertIn("Blender Smoke concluded 'failure'", out)
+
+    def test_direct_push_with_no_smoke_run_times_out(self):
+        code, out = self.gate(FAKE_PR="", FAKE_SMOKE="none none", SMOKE_TIMEOUT="0")
+        self.assertEqual(code, 1)
+        self.assertIn("Blender Smoke did not finish", out)
+
+    def test_docs_only_direct_push_skips_smoke(self):
+        code, out = self.gate(
+            FAKE_PR="", FAKE_SMOKE="none none", FAKE_FILES=r"README.md\ndocs/gallery/x.html"
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(code, 0, out)
+        self.assertIn("only smoke-ignored paths", out)
 
     def test_red_validate_blocks(self):
         code, out = self.gate(FAKE_RUN="completed failure")