diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 81bb087d..ba170d9f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -69,15 +69,45 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Run tox tests
         run: tox -e default
-      - name: Install project testing extras (ensure pytest-asyncio present)
+
+  test-without-cli-extras:
+    # tox installs the cli extra, so the job above never exercises an
+    # install without click or rich. release.yml installs
+    # -e ".[testing]", which has neither, and a test module importing
+    # click above its ImportError guard failed there and nowhere else,
+    # after the release tag was already pushed. This job runs the
+    # release workflow's install so that failure surfaces on the pull
+    # request instead.
+    name: Test without CLI extras
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.14'
+
+      - name: Install project with testing extras only
         run: |
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-          python -m pip install '.[testing]'
+          python -m pip install -e ".[testing]"
+
+      - name: Verify the CLI extras really are absent
+        run: |
+          if python -c 'import click' 2>/dev/null; then
+            echo "click is installed; this job no longer tests what it claims to"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Run tests
+        run: python -m pytest
 
   build:
     name: Build Distribution
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs: [lint, test]
+    needs: [lint, test, test-without-cli-extras]
     
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4