diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 415457e..77eb851 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ halves, so the root `make check` fails if either one is broken. We provide:
   `script/check`: it needs Docker and takes minutes.
 - `script/docker` — build the image from `Dockerfile` without the build cache,
   tagged `netwatch` via `script/projectname`
-- `script/cibuild` — CI entrypoint: builds the image
+- `script/cibuild` — CI entrypoint: runs `script/bootstrap` and `script/check`,
+  then builds the image as `script/docker` does, without the build cache
 - `script/precommit` — run by the git pre-commit hook; runs `script/check`
 - `script/install-precommit` — install the git pre-commit hook
 
diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index e37242e..e4ee12e 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ latest run passes.
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-09-29: CI can no longer pass on checks that did not run (issue #37):
+  `script/cibuild` is now the org model, byte for byte. It runs
+  `script/bootstrap` and `script/check`, then builds the image with `--no-cache`
+  and the version from `git describe` as the `VERSION` build argument, where it
+  used to be a plain `docker build .` whose check steps could come from the
+  build cache
 - 2026-09-29: nginx sends the security headers `REPO_POLICIES.md` requires on
   every response (issue #18), including errors, `/assets/` and what it passes on
   from the backend, whose own copies it drops so each header goes out once. They
diff --git a/script/cibuild b/script/cibuild
index d860bf5..688299f 100755
--- a/script/cibuild
+++ b/script/cibuild
@@ -1,15 +1,29 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# script/cibuild: run the CI build: build the one image from Dockerfile,
-# whose stages run the checks as build steps (the backend's fmt-check,
-# lint and tests, and the frontend's test, lint and fmt-check). This is
-# the only build step the Gitea workflow runs.
+# script/cibuild: run the CI build. It bootstraps first: a CI runner
+# checks out and runs this and nothing else, and script/fmt-check runs
+# the formatter on the host, which a pristine checkout cannot do.
+# --no-cache for the same reason as script/docker: the gate phases the
+# final stage depends on are RUN steps, and a cached one is a check that
+# did not run.
 set -eu
 
-ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd -P)"
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd -P)"
+ROOT="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/.." && pwd -P)"
 
 main() {
     cd "$ROOT"
-    timeout 300 docker build .
+    "$SCRIPT_DIR/bootstrap"
+    "$SCRIPT_DIR/check"
+    # Own line: a failing command substitution inside an argument does
+    # not trip `set -e`, so the inline form degrades silently to an
+    # empty constant. VERSION is computed here because .dockerignore
+    # excludes .git, so `git describe` in a build stage yields an empty
+    # version without failing.
+    version="$(git describe --tags --always --dirty 2>/dev/null || true)"
+    [ -n "$version" ] || version="unknown"
+    docker build --no-cache \
+        --build-arg VERSION="$version" \
+        -t "$("$SCRIPT_DIR/projectname")" .
 }
 
 main "$@"