diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/mutation.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/mutation.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3984bee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/mutation.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+name: akbasic Mutation Testing
+run-name: ${{ gitea.actor }} akbasic mutation test
+
+# Mutation testing is intentionally isolated from push and merge checks. The
+# complete src/ tree takes hours and must not consume the shared CI capacity
+# during normal development.
+on:
+  # Gitea schedules use UTC. 07:00 UTC is 02:00 EST (the requested fixed
+  # Eastern Standard Time slot).
+  schedule:
+    - cron: '0 7 * * *'
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  full_mutation:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    timeout-minutes: 720
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out repository code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          submodules: true
+      - name: dependencies
+        run: |
+          sudo apt-get update -y
+          sudo apt-get install -y cmake gcc python3 moreutils
+      - name: mutation testing (full tree)
+        run: |
+          python3 scripts/mutation_test.py \
+            --junit mutation-junit.xml \
+            --threshold 65
+      - name: publish mutation results
+        if: always()
+        uses: mikepenz/action-junit-report@v4
+        with:
+          report_paths: 'mutation-junit.xml'
+          annotate_only: true
+          detailed_summary: true
+          include_passed: true
+          fail_on_failure: 'false'
+      - name: upload mutation report
+        if: always()
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: mutation-report
+          path: mutation-junit.xml
+          if-no-files-found: warn
+      - run: echo "🍏 This job's status is ${{ job.status }}."
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
index f2e6537..d2e69c0 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -1,24 +1,13 @@
 name: akbasic Release Build
 run-name: ${{ gitea.actor }} akbasic release checks
-# Manual only. Nothing here runs on push: the full mutation set is thousands of
-# mutants and hours of runner time, which is a release-gate cost, not a
-# per-commit one. Trigger it from the Actions tab.
+# Manual only. Nothing here runs on push: documentation is a release gate, not
+# a per-commit check. The expensive mutation suite has its own daily schedule.
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
-    inputs:
-      mutation_threshold:
-        description: "Fail if the mutation score falls below this percentage"
-        required: false
-        default: "65"
-      mutation_targets:
-        description: "Space-separated files to mutate; empty means the whole src/ tree"
-        required: false
-        default: ""
 
 jobs:
   # Moved here from ci.yaml. The docs are wanted for a release, not on every
-  # push, and building them beside the release mutation run keeps the two
-  # artefacts a release needs in one place.
+  # push.
   docs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
@@ -52,89 +41,3 @@ jobs:
           path: build/docs/html/
           if-no-files-found: error
       - run: echo "🍏 This job's status is ${{ job.status }}."
-
-  full_mutation:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    # 3675 mutants across the whole src/ tree. Cost per mutant is one incremental
-    # rebuild plus one full ctest run, which measures at roughly 2s for a leaf
-    # file and 11s for src/value.c, where almost everything links against it.
-    # Budget most of a day and expect it to finish well inside that; the ceiling
-    # exists so a mutant that wedges the runner cannot hold it forever.
-    timeout-minutes: 720
-    steps:
-      - name: Check out repository code
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          # The harness copies the repo and configures a build inside the copy,
-          # so it needs the same submodules the main build does. The golden
-          # corpus is part of what kills mutants and it is checked in now, so
-          # that is libakerror and libakstdlib and nothing else.
-          submodules: true
-      # moreutils for errno(1), which deps/libakerror's scripts/generrno.sh needs
-      # to generate its errno table. Without it the generated table is empty and
-      # every AKERR_* code collapses onto a low integer -- see the long note on
-      # ci.yaml's cmake_build job for what that breaks and how it presents.
-      - name: dependencies
-        run: |
-          sudo apt-get update -y
-          sudo apt-get install -y cmake gcc python3 moreutils
-      # The whole akbasic-owned src/ tree. ci.yaml runs a two-file subset on every
-      # push; this is the one that actually covers the interpreter.
-      #
-      # Mutation testing is the only gate that sees the error-handling control
-      # flow at all: libakerror's ATTEMPT/CATCH/PASS macros expand at their call
-      # sites, so gcov attributes them to the caller and line coverage cannot
-      # measure them.
-      #
-      # The default threshold matches ci.yaml's rather than being stricter.
-      # Whole-tree coverage is uneven -- src/symtab.c is the only file measured
-      # on the push path, at 74.1%, and the rest is unmeasured, so a tighter
-      # number here would be a guess. Raise it with the workflow input once a
-      # full run has established a real baseline.
-      #
-      # The two inputs arrive through the environment rather than being
-      # interpolated straight into the script. ${{ }} substitution happens before
-      # the shell sees the line, so a value containing shell metacharacters would
-      # otherwise run as code. This workflow is manual and owner-triggered, but
-      # the safe form costs nothing.
-      - name: mutation testing (full tree)
-        env:
-          MUTATION_TARGETS: ${{ gitea.event.inputs.mutation_targets }}
-          MUTATION_THRESHOLD: ${{ gitea.event.inputs.mutation_threshold }}
-        run: |
-          set -eu
-          # Word-splitting is the point here: the input is a space-separated
-          # list. An empty input leaves $targets empty and the harness falls
-          # through to its own default, which is the whole src/ tree.
-          targets=""
-          for f in ${MUTATION_TARGETS:-}; do
-            targets="$targets --target $f"
-          done
-          # shellcheck disable=SC2086
-          python3 scripts/mutation_test.py \
-            $targets \
-            --junit mutation-junit.xml \
-            --threshold "${MUTATION_THRESHOLD:-65}"
-      # Publish even when the threshold gate fails, so survivors are visible --
-      # each one is a missing test. Display-only (fail_on_failure: false); the
-      # --threshold above is the gate. annotate_only avoids the Checks API 404
-      # on Gitea (mikepenz/action-junit-report#23).
-      - name: publish mutation results
-        if: always()
-        uses: mikepenz/action-junit-report@v4
-        with:
-          report_paths: 'mutation-junit.xml'
-          annotate_only: true
-          detailed_summary: true
-          include_passed: true
-          fail_on_failure: 'false'
-      # Keep the raw report as well as the annotations: a release wants the
-      # survivor list on file, and the job summary is not durable.
-      - name: upload mutation report
-        if: always()
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          name: mutation-report
-          path: mutation-junit.xml
-          if-no-files-found: warn
-      - run: echo "🍏 This job's status is ${{ job.status }}."