@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ const INDEX_CACHE_TTL: u64 = 30;
14 static INDEX_CACHE: std::sync::LazyLock<Mutex<Option<(Instant, String)>>> =
15     std::sync::LazyLock::new(|| Mutex::new(None));
16 use radicle::node::AliasStore;
17-use radicle::storage::{ReadRepository, ReadStorage};
17+use radicle::storage::{ReadRepository, ReadStorage, WriteRepository};
18 use radicle_experiment::benchmark::{Criteria, OptimizeConfig};
19 use radicle_experiment::state::Measurement;
20 use radicle_experiment::{Experiments, is_improvement, is_regressed};
@@ -269,7 +269,6 @@ fn branch_is_outdated(
269     main_tip: radicle::git::Oid,
270     branch_tip: radicle::git::Oid,
271 ) -> bool {
272-    use radicle::storage::WriteRepository;
272     if main_tip == branch_tip {
273         return false;
274     }
@@ -2133,26 +2132,20 @@ pub(crate) fn index_page_inner(
2132         // metric is reachable from the tip. Same definition as the repo
2133         // page branches table.
2134         //
2136-        // Walk `repo.references()` directly instead of `repo.remotes()`.
2137-        // `.remotes()` loads `SignedRefs` per peer (signature verification,
2138-        // identity checks) which is the dominant cost of rendering this page
2139-        // at ~1.4ms per peer and ~1.3s across a seed's full peer set. We
2140-        // only need (namespace, refname, tip) for the counting logic, which
2141-        // `.references()` returns directly from a single libgit2 ref walk.
2142-        // The difference vs signed-refs is that `.references()` sees every
2143-        // ref file under `refs/namespaces/<peer>/refs/heads/*`, including
2144-        // any transiently-unsigned ones — acceptable for an approximate
2145-        // index-page count.
2135+        // Walk `refs/namespaces/*/refs/heads/*` directly via libgit2's
2136+        // reference glob. `repo.references()` iterates *every* ref
2137+        // (sigrefs, cobs, identity, canonical heads, …) and calls
2138+        // `Ref::try_from` on each, which resolves the ref and parses the
2139+        // namespace prefix — wasted work on refs we filter out. We also
2140+        // skip `repo.remotes()` entirely because it loads per-peer
2141+        // `SignedRefs`, doing signature verification we don't need.
2142         let mut branches_count = 0usize;
2147-        if let Ok(refs_iter) = repo.references() {
2148-            for r in refs_iter.filter_map(Result::ok) {
2149-                if r.namespace.is_none() {
2143+        if let Ok(mut refs_iter) = repo.raw().references_glob("refs/namespaces/*/refs/heads/*") {
2144+            while let Some(Ok(reference)) = refs_iter.next() {
2145+                let Some(tip_raw) = reference.target() else {
2146                     continue;
2151-                }
2152-                if !r.name.as_str().starts_with("refs/heads/") {
2153-                    continue;
2154-                }
2155-                let tip_oid = r.oid;
2147+                };
2148+                let tip_oid: radicle::git::Oid = tip_raw.into();
2149                 let Some(branch_config) =
2150                     radicle_experiment::benchmark::config_at_commit(&repo, tip_oid)
2151                 else {