diff --git a/.config/hooks/pre-push b/.config/hooks/pre-push
index bd5a0390c..0e1d7dfd6 100755
--- a/.config/hooks/pre-push
+++ b/.config/hooks/pre-push
@@ -9,14 +9,27 @@ ERRORS=0
 echo "pre-push: running lint checks..."
 
 # --- Detect which directories have changes vs remote ---
+# Prefer origin/<branch> as the baseline (what the remote already has),
+# but fall back to origin/main for first-push of a new branch — otherwise
+# every check runs against nothing and the hook treats the whole repo as
+# changed, spending tens of seconds on linters and JSON validation that
+# have no diff to cover (e.g. pushing a wiki-only branch rebuilds GDScript
+# and runs clippy + ruff + validates all 2762 JSON files).
 BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current)
-REMOTE_REF="origin/$BRANCH"
-if git rev-parse --verify "$REMOTE_REF" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+if git rev-parse --verify "origin/$BRANCH" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    REMOTE_REF="origin/$BRANCH"
+elif git rev-parse --verify "origin/main" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    REMOTE_REF="origin/main"
+else
+    REMOTE_REF=""
+fi
+
+if [ -n "$REMOTE_REF" ]; then
     CLIENT_CHANGED=$(git diff --name-only "$REMOTE_REF"..HEAD -- client/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
     SERVER_CHANGED=$(git diff --name-only "$REMOTE_REF"..HEAD -- server/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
     TOOLING_CHANGED=$(git diff --name-only "$REMOTE_REF"..HEAD -- tooling/ pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
 else
-    # New branch or no remote ref — fall through to directory checks
+    # No remote at all (e.g. fresh clone before first fetch) — be safe, run everything
     CLIENT_CHANGED=1
     SERVER_CHANGED=1
     TOOLING_CHANGED=1
@@ -114,7 +127,12 @@ else
 fi
 
 # --- JSON syntax validation ---
-if git rev-parse --verify "$REMOTE_REF" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+# Use the same REMOTE_REF the directory-change detection above settled on
+# (origin/<branch> preferred, origin/main fallback). Without this, a first
+# push of a new branch falls through to "validate every JSON in the repo,"
+# which on this repo means 2762 Python parses — tens of seconds of churn
+# for a push that might not have touched any JSON at all.
+if [ -n "$REMOTE_REF" ]; then
     JSON_FILES=$(git diff --name-only "$REMOTE_REF"..HEAD -- '*.json' 2>/dev/null || true)
 else
     JSON_FILES=$(git ls-files '*.json')