diff --git a/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.test.ts b/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.test.ts
index 3bad50c923e..f5957b46e88 100644
--- a/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.test.ts
@@ -88,6 +88,24 @@ describe('runRetirementBackfillScan', () => {
     )
   })
 
+  it('never defers a healthy machine, however many namespaces seed at once', async () => {
+    // Nested workspaces give every repo its own scan key, so several first-time backfills are
+    // routinely in flight together. Counting merely-in-flight listings would reject the third and
+    // let its create pick a name against an unseeded registry.
+    const scans = Array.from({ length: RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_MAX_OUTSTANDING_SCANS + 2 }, () =>
+      stallingScan()
+    )
+    const pending = scans.map((scan, index) =>
+      runRetirementBackfillScan({}, `ns-${index}`, scan.run)
+    )
+    expect(getOutstandingRetirementBackfillScanCount()).toBe(0)
+
+    scans.forEach((scan, index) => scan.finish([`name-${index}`]))
+    await expect(Promise.all(pending)).resolves.toEqual(
+      scans.map((_, index) => new Set([`name-${index}`]))
+    )
+  })
+
   it('keeps a listing that lands after the deadline instead of discarding the answer', async () => {
     // The WSL gate admits one scan at a time and allows it 60s — four times this deadline — so a
     // late-but-correct listing is the normal case there, not an edge case.
diff --git a/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.ts b/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.ts
index 1d74cc4450c..40d9f249d9b 100644
--- a/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.ts
+++ b/src/main/worktree-retirement-backfill-scan.ts
@@ -5,19 +5,20 @@ export const RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_SCAN_TIMEOUT_MS = 15_000
 /** How long a failed scan stays failed, so a stalled mount is not re-probed on every create. */
 export const RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_RETRY_AFTER_FAILURE_MS = 60_000
 
-/** Listings this module may leave outstanding at once, process-wide.
+/** Listings that have outlived their deadline and are still holding a thread, process-wide.
  *
- *  The deadline above abandons a scan, it cannot cancel one: an unabortable `readdir` keeps its
- *  libuv threadpool thread until the OS releases it, and that pool defaults to four. So the
- *  backoff alone only paces the leak — each lapse still stacks another stuck thread. This bounds
- *  what retirement discovery can hold; it is not a guarantee the pool stays healthy, since the WSL
- *  gate and its close lane hold threads of their own. Two leaves headroom for both. */
+ *  The deadline abandons a scan, it cannot cancel one: an unabortable `readdir` keeps its libuv
+ *  threadpool thread until the OS releases it, and that pool defaults to four. So the backoff alone
+ *  only paces the leak — each lapse still stacks another stuck thread. Only listings past their
+ *  deadline count, so healthy scans (which finish in milliseconds) never deny each other a slot.
+ *  This bounds what retirement discovery can hold; it is not a guarantee the pool stays healthy,
+ *  since the WSL gate and its close lane hold threads of their own. Two leaves headroom for both. */
 export const RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_MAX_OUTSTANDING_SCANS = 2
 
 type BackfillScan = {
   /** Resolves with the discovered names, or rejects once the deadline lapses. */
   names: Promise<Set<string>>
-  /** Epoch ms this scan may be retried after; 0 while it is in flight or has succeeded. */
+  /** Monotonic ms this scan may be retried after; 0 while it is in flight or has succeeded. */
   retryAfter: number
 }
 
@@ -26,6 +27,12 @@ const scansByStore = new WeakMap<object, Map<string, BackfillScan>>()
 /** Process-wide on purpose: the threadpool these listings occupy is process-wide too. */
 let outstandingScans = 0
 
+/** Monotonic, like the WSL gate's own stuck timer: wall time misjudges a backoff across laptop
+ *  sleep or an NTP step, either pinning a namespace in its failure memo or ending it early. */
+function monotonicNow(): number {
+  return performance.now()
+}
+
 export function getOutstandingRetirementBackfillScanCount(): number {
   return outstandingScans
 }
@@ -54,8 +61,8 @@ function withScanDeadline(scan: Promise<Set<string>>): Promise<Set<string>> {
  *  `readdir` had no deadline, so one stalled listing wedged this create and every later
  *  generated-name create for the namespace until Orca restarted.
  *
- *  Retrying a failure is therefore allowed, but only up to
- *  `RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_MAX_OUTSTANDING_SCANS` listings still stuck in the kernel at once. */
+ *  Retrying a failure is therefore allowed, but only while fewer than
+ *  `RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_MAX_OUTSTANDING_SCANS` listings are still stuck past their deadline. */
 export function runRetirementBackfillScan(
   store: object,
   scanKey: string,
@@ -67,7 +74,7 @@ export function runRetirementBackfillScan(
     scansByStore.set(store, storeScans)
   }
   const cached = storeScans.get(scanKey)
-  if (cached && (cached.retryAfter === 0 || Date.now() < cached.retryAfter)) {
+  if (cached && (cached.retryAfter === 0 || monotonicNow() < cached.retryAfter)) {
     return cached.names
   }
   if (outstandingScans >= RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_MAX_OUTSTANDING_SCANS) {
@@ -82,25 +89,35 @@ export function runRetirementBackfillScan(
   }
   const entry: BackfillScan = { names: Promise.resolve(new Set()), retryAfter: 0 }
   const started = scan()
-  outstandingScans += 1
-  void started.then(
-    (names) => {
-      outstandingScans -= 1
-      // A listing that lands after the deadline still holds the right answer, and under WSL gate
-      // contention that is the common case rather than the edge one — the gate admits a single
-      // scan at a time and gives it 60s, four times this deadline. Dropping it would leave the
-      // namespace unseeded on exactly the mounts this feature exists to cover.
-      if (entry.retryAfter !== 0) {
-        entry.names = Promise.resolve(names)
-        entry.retryAfter = 0
-      }
-    },
-    () => {
+  let settled = false
+  let holdsSlot = false
+  const releaseSlot = (): void => {
+    settled = true
+    if (holdsSlot) {
       outstandingScans -= 1
+      holdsSlot = false
     }
-  )
+  }
+  // Registered before the deadline wrapper so `settled` is already true when its catch runs, which
+  // is how a scan that failed fast is told apart from one that outlived its deadline.
+  void started.then((names) => {
+    releaseSlot()
+    // A listing that lands after the deadline still holds the right answer, and under WSL gate
+    // contention that is the common case rather than the edge one — the gate admits a single scan
+    // at a time and gives it 60s, four times this deadline. Dropping it would leave the namespace
+    // unseeded on exactly the mounts this feature exists to cover. No liveness check is needed:
+    // once a retry replaces this entry in the map nothing can read it again, so the write is inert.
+    if (entry.retryAfter !== 0) {
+      entry.names = Promise.resolve(names)
+      entry.retryAfter = 0
+    }
+  }, releaseSlot)
   entry.names = withScanDeadline(started).catch((error: unknown) => {
-    entry.retryAfter = Date.now() + RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_RETRY_AFTER_FAILURE_MS
+    if (!settled) {
+      outstandingScans += 1
+      holdsSlot = true
+    }
+    entry.retryAfter = monotonicNow() + RETIREMENT_BACKFILL_RETRY_AFTER_FAILURE_MS
     throw error
   })
   storeScans.set(scanKey, entry)