diff --git a/bin/_claude-triage b/bin/_claude-triage
index 651c6b2..938f7f2 100755
--- a/bin/_claude-triage
+++ b/bin/_claude-triage
@@ -196,15 +196,43 @@ async def main_async(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
     if not candidates:
         return
 
-    items: list[GenerationItem] = []
+    # Cache key is (uuid, mtime) only — mtime is sufficient since a session's
+    # content can't change without its mtime advancing, and this lets us check
+    # the cache BEFORE reading the JSONL (the expensive part for a triage run
+    # over hundreds of sessions where most are unchanged).
+    cache = ResponseCache(CACHE_DIR)
+    template_id = "rclaude-triage-v1"
+    cached_results: list[dict] = []
+    uncached: list[tuple[int, Path, str]] = []
     for mtime, jsonl in candidates:
+        cache_key = f"{jsonl.stem}:{mtime}"
+        hit = None if args.refresh else cache.get(template_id, cache_key)
+        if hit is not None:
+            # Carry through identifying metadata in case the cached payload
+            # was written by an older script revision that didn't enrich.
+            cached_results.append({
+                **hit,
+                "uuid": hit.get("uuid", jsonl.stem),
+                "mtime": hit.get("mtime", mtime),
+            })
+            continue
+        uncached.append((mtime, jsonl, cache_key))
+    if args.refresh:
+        for _, _, ck in uncached:
+            key_hash = cache._hash_key(template_id, ck)
+            path = cache._cache_path(template_id, key_hash)
+            if path.exists():
+                try: path.unlink()
+                except OSError: pass
+
+    items: list[GenerationItem] = []
+    for mtime, jsonl, cache_key in uncached:
         cwd, first_user, transcript = compress_session(jsonl)
         if not cwd:
             continue
-        cache_key = f"{jsonl.stem}:{mtime}:{len(transcript)}"
         items.append(
             GenerationItem(
-                template_id="rclaude-triage-v1",
+                template_id=template_id,
                 cache_key=cache_key,
                 metadata={
                     "uuid": jsonl.stem,
@@ -215,36 +243,26 @@ async def main_async(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
                 },
             )
         )
-    if not items:
-        return
 
-    cache = ResponseCache(CACHE_DIR)
-    if args.refresh:
-        for item in items:
-            key_hash = cache._hash_key(item.template_id, item.cache_key)
-            path = cache._cache_path(item.template_id, key_hash)
-            if path.exists():
-                try:
-                    path.unlink()
-                except OSError:
-                    pass
-
-    client = ClaudeClient(model=MODEL, max_concurrent=MAX_CONCURRENT)
-    try:
-        results = await run_batched(
-            client=client,
-            cache=cache,
-            items=items,
-            system_prompt=SYSTEM_PROMPT,
-            build_batch_prompt=build_prompt,
-            validate_result=validate,
-            enrich_result=enrich,
-            index_key="ref_index",
-            batch_size=BATCH_SIZE,
-            description="rclaude-triage",
-        )
-    finally:
-        await client.close()
+    results = list(cached_results)
+    if items:
+        client = ClaudeClient(model=MODEL, max_concurrent=MAX_CONCURRENT)
+        try:
+            new_results = await run_batched(
+                client=client,
+                cache=cache,
+                items=items,
+                system_prompt=SYSTEM_PROMPT,
+                build_batch_prompt=build_prompt,
+                validate_result=validate,
+                enrich_result=enrich,
+                index_key="ref_index",
+                batch_size=BATCH_SIZE,
+                description="rclaude-triage",
+            )
+        finally:
+            await client.close()
+        results.extend(new_results)
 
     def sort_key(r: dict) -> tuple[int, int]:
         try: