diff --git a/jolt-core/clojure/core/MIGRATION.md b/jolt-core/clojure/core/MIGRATION.md
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+# clojure.core migration worklist (jolt-1j0)
+
+Tracking the move of clojure.core from native Janet (`src/jolt/core.janet`,
+4145 lines / 421 `core-*` fns) into the self-hosted Clojure overlay
+(`jolt-core/clojure/core/`). Goal: shrink the Janet seed to `core-renames` +
+genuinely host-coupled fns.
+
+## Phase 0 classification (heuristic — validate per batch)
+
+| Bucket | Count | Disposition |
+|---|---|---|
+| SEED (in `compiler/core-renames`) | 73 | stay in Janet (compiler emits `core-X` directly) |
+| MACRO (in `core-macro-names`) | 44 | Phase 3 |
+| HOST-coupled (atoms/vars/meta/proxy/transient/arrays/futures/ns/io) | 80 | Phase 4 (where feasible) / stay |
+| LAZY-coupled | 28 | Phase 5 |
+| MOVABLE pure-eager (candidates) | 193 | **Phase 2** |
+
+Counts are heuristic (name + body markers); the MOVABLE list still has some
+host/lazy leakage (e.g. transient `assoc!`/`conj!`, `doall`/`dorun`,
+`chunk-*`, `deliver`) to filter out as each batch is actually moved.
+
+**Key finding:** after removing SEED + HOST, the self-hosted compiler
+(`jolt-core/jolt/{ir,analyzer}.clj`) uses **no** additional clojure.core fns
+beyond the kernel tier (`second`/`peek`/`subvec`/`mapv`/`update`) plus host
+primitives (`atom`/`swap!`/`reset!`). So **Phase 1 (compiler-dep kernel tier)
+is essentially already complete** — to verify, not build.
+
+## Performance baseline (test/bench/core-bench.janet, compile mode, min of 5, ms)
+
+| bench | ms |
+|---|---|
+| fib | 128 |
+| seq-pipe | 88 |
+| reduce | 391 |
+| into-vec | 194 |
+| map-build | 681 |
+| map-read | 6 |
+| str-join | 244 |
+| hof | 604 |
+| **TOTAL** | **2336** |
+
+Re-run after each phase; watch for regressions as fns move from native Janet to
+self-hosted Clojure (interpreted/compiled, slower than native primitives).
+
+## Per-batch gate (every migration step)
+conformance 218/218 ×3 modes · clojure-test-suite ≥ baseline · stage2==stage3
+fixpoint · fib compiled-fast · core-bench no major regression.
+
+## MOVABLE candidates (Phase 2 worklist, 193)
+>Eduction NaN? abs aclone alength ancestors array-map array-seq assoc! associative? bean bigdec bigint biginteger boolean boolean? booleans byte bytes bytes? cat char char-escape-string char-name-string char? chars chunk chunk-append chunk-buffer chunk-cons chunk-first chunk-next chunk-rest chunked-seq? class clojure-version comparator compare-and-set! completing conj! counted? decimal? deliver denominator derive descendants destructure disj disj! dissoc! distinct? doall dorun double? doubles drop-last eduction empty ensure-reduced enumeration-seq ex-cause ex-data ex-info ex-info? ex-message find float? floats force halt-when hash-combine hash-map hash-ordered-coll hash-set hash-unordered-coll ident? ifn? indexed? infinite? inst-ms inst? integer? ints isa? iterator-seq key keyword keyword-identical? list* list? longs macrofy map-entry? memfn munge nat-int? neg-int? not-any? not-every? nthnext nthrest numerator numeric= object? parents persistent! pop pop! pos-int? pr prefers println-str prn-str promise qualified-ident? qualified-keyword? qualified-symbol? rand rand-nth random-sample ratio? rational? rationalize re-groups re-matcher record? reduce-kv reduced reduced? reductions replace replicate resolve reversible? rseq rsubseq run! seq-to-map-for-destructuring seque set set? short shorts shuffle simple-ident? simple-keyword? simple-symbol? some-search sort sort-by sorted-map sorted-map-by sorted-map? sorted-set sorted-set-by sorted-set? special-symbol? split-at split-with str-join str-replace-all str-replace-first str-split subseq supers symbol tagged-literal tagged-literal? take-last test transduce unchecked-add unchecked-byte unchecked-char unchecked-dec unchecked-divide-int unchecked-double unchecked-float unchecked-inc unchecked-int unchecked-multiply unchecked-negate unchecked-remainder-int unchecked-short unchecked-subtract undefined? underive uri? uuid? val vector volatile! volatile? xml-seq
+
+## HOST-coupled (Phase 4 / stay, 80)
+add-watch aget alter-meta! alter-var-root aset aset-boolean aset-byte aset-char aset-double aset-float aset-int aset-long aset-short atom atom? avoid-method-too-large boolean-array bounded-count byte-array char-array construct-proxy copy-core-var copy-var delay? deref double-array float-array future-call future-cancel future-cancelled? future-done? future? get-proxy-class get-validator init-proxy int-array intern into-array long-array make-array make-delay meta namespace namespace-munge new-var ns-name object-array pop-thread-bindings prefer-method print-dup print-method print-str proxy-call-with-super proxy-mappings proxy-super push-thread-bindings reader-conditional reader-conditional? remove-watch reset! reset-meta! reset-vals! set-validator! short-array swap! swap-vals! thread-first thread-last to-array to-array-2d transient transient? update-proxy var-dynamic? var-get var-set var? vary-meta vreset! vswap! with-meta
+
+## LAZY-coupled (Phase 5, 28)
+concat cycle dedupe distinct flatten interleave interpose iterate keep keep-indexed line-seq macro-names map-indexed mapcat partition partition-all partition-by rand-int random-uuid realized? repeat repeatedly seqable? sequence sequential? take-nth trampoline tree-seq unreduced
diff --git a/test/bench/core-bench.janet b/test/bench/core-bench.janet
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+# Performance baseline for the clojure.core migration (jolt-1j0).
+#
+# Times representative core operations end-to-end (compile path) so a phase that
+# moves fns from native Janet to the self-hosted Clojure overlay can be checked
+# for regressions. Same programs before/after a phase -> relative delta is the
+# migration's perf impact. Run: janet test/bench/core-bench.janet
+#
+# Each program carries its own internal iteration so the measured work dominates
+# parse/compile overhead. Reports the min of N runs (least noisy).
+
+(import ../../src/jolt/api :as api)
+
+(def runs 5)
+
+(def benches
+  [[:fib       "(defn fib [n] (if (< n 2) n (+ (fib (- n 1)) (fib (- n 2))))) (fib 28)"]
+   [:seq-pipe  "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 300) (recur (inc i) (+ a (reduce + 0 (map inc (filter even? (range 200)))))) a))"]
+   [:reduce    "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 2000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (reduce + 0 (range 500)))) a))"]
+   [:into-vec  "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 1000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (count (into [] (map inc (range 100)))))) a))"]
+   [:map-build "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 2000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (count (reduce (fn [m k] (assoc m k k)) {} (range 50))))) a))"]
+   [:map-read  "(let [m (zipmap (range 100) (range 100))] (loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 5000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (get m (mod i 100) 0))) a)))"]
+   [:str-join  "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 1000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (count (apply str (map str (range 100)))))) a))"]
+   [:hof       "(loop [i 0 a 0] (if (< i 2000) (recur (inc i) (+ a (reduce + 0 (map (comp inc inc) (range 200))))) a))"]])
+
+(defn time-bench [ctx src]
+  (var best math/inf)
+  (for _ 0 runs
+    (def t0 (os/clock))
+    (api/load-string ctx src)
+    (def dt (* 1000 (- (os/clock) t0)))
+    (when (< dt best) (set best dt)))
+  best)
+
+(defn main [&]
+  (def ctx (api/init {:compile? true}))
+  (print "bench (compile mode), min of " runs " runs, ms:")
+  (var total 0)
+  (each [name src] benches
+    (def ms (time-bench ctx src))
+    (+= total ms)
+    (printf "  %-10s %8.2f ms" name ms))
+  (printf "  %-10s %8.2f ms" "TOTAL" total))