diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
index 82fe47b..5cf5ec7 100644
--- a/.jules/bolt.md
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -13,3 +13,6 @@
 **Learning:** `byte.toString(16).padStart(2, '0').toUpperCase()` inside a loop allocating up to 3 strings per reserved byte in a hot path causes significant GC pressure. This is a common but dangerous anti-pattern in Kotlin when processing large strings or numerous files in directory crawlers.
 **Action:** Replace chained string operations with direct character mapping and bitwise operations (`ushr`, `and`) when building formatted hex output, which avoids intermediate string creation entirely. Ensure 100% branch coverage with test inputs spanning both < 10 and > 9 hex values.
 ## 2026-07-10 - Expensive OS stat calls before cheap in-memory checks\n**Learning:** In Kotlin/Java, checking file properties (like `isDirectory` or `isSymbolicLink`) via `java.nio.file.Files` requires allocating `Path` objects and performs expensive native OS stat calls. When processing file listings, always short-circuit filesystem checks by testing against exclusion lists (using cheap in-memory string operations) before calling methods that touch the filesystem.\n**Action:** Re-ordered conditionals to check `exclude` sets before invoking `Files.isDirectory` and `Files.isSymbolicLink`.
+## 2024-07-11 - [Eliminating Redundant Directory Listings]
+**Learning:** In nested file processing functions like `process_dir` and `process_ignore_file`, executing `curr_dir.listFiles()` repeatedly for the same directory is highly inefficient and creates expensive duplicate OS syscalls.
+**Action:** Always hoist I/O intensive listing operations like `listFiles()` to the highest appropriate scope and pass the result as a parameter to child functions rather than re-evaluating it.
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/html4tree/main.kt b/src/main/kotlin/html4tree/main.kt
index 936c2b7..3141b09 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/html4tree/main.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/html4tree/main.kt
@@ -40,11 +40,16 @@ fun go(topDir: String, maxLevel: Int)  {
 
     while(lle != null && Files.isDirectory(lle.file.toPath(), LinkOption.NOFOLLOW_LINKS)){
         val currentLevel: Int = lle.level
+        // ⚡ Bolt Performance Optimization: Hoist listFiles() out of nested functions
+        // By fetching directory contents once, we eliminate redundant OS syscalls
+        // in process_dir and process_ignore_file (saves 2x I/O calls per directory).
+        val dir_files = lle.file.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList()
+
         if(maxLevel == -1 || currentLevel <= maxLevel)
-           process_dir(lle.file)
+           process_dir(lle.file, dir_files)
 
         if(maxLevel == -1 || currentLevel < maxLevel) {
-            lle.file.listFiles()?.forEach {
+            dir_files.forEach {
                 if(Files.isDirectory(it.toPath(), LinkOption.NOFOLLOW_LINKS)){
                     ll.push( LinkedListEntry(it, currentLevel+1))
                 }
@@ -109,7 +114,7 @@ fun String.urlEncodePath(): String {
     return encoded.toString()
 }
 
-fun process_ignore_file(curr_dir: File): Set<String> {
+fun process_ignore_file(curr_dir: File, dir_files: List<File>): Set<String> {
 
     val ignore_filename = ".html4ignore"
  
@@ -138,7 +143,7 @@ fun process_ignore_file(curr_dir: File): Set<String> {
            }
        }
 
-       curr_dir.list()?.sorted()?.forEach {
+       dir_files.map { it.name }.sorted().forEach {
            val current = it
            ignored_regexes.forEach { regex ->
               if(regex.matches(current)){
@@ -169,9 +174,9 @@ fun write_index_file(curr_dir: File, content: String) {
     }
 }
  
-fun process_dir(curr_dir: File){
+fun process_dir(curr_dir: File, dir_files: List<File>){
     
-    val exclude: Set<String> = process_ignore_file(curr_dir)
+    val exclude: Set<String> = process_ignore_file(curr_dir, dir_files)
 
     val css = """
               <style>
@@ -234,9 +239,9 @@ fun process_dir(curr_dir: File){
     val index_middle = fun():String{ 
         val l = StringBuilder()
 
-        val dir_files: MutableList<File> = curr_dir.listFiles()?.toMutableList() ?: mutableListOf()
-        dir_files.sortWith(compareBy ({it.name}) )
-        dir_files.forEach {
+        val sorted_files = dir_files.toMutableList()
+        sorted_files.sortWith(compareBy ({it.name}) )
+        sorted_files.forEach {
            val fileName = it.getName()
            // ⚡ Bolt Performance Optimization: Short-circuit string match before expensive OS filesystem calls
            if (fileName !in exclude) {
diff --git a/src/test/kotlin/html4tree/MainTest.kt b/src/test/kotlin/html4tree/MainTest.kt
index 9988cee..026fe11 100644
--- a/src/test/kotlin/html4tree/MainTest.kt
+++ b/src/test/kotlin/html4tree/MainTest.kt
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.log").createNewFile()
         File(tempDir, "test.md").createNewFile()
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
 
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.txt"))
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.log"))
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ class MainTest {
 
     @Test
     fun testProcessIgnoreFileNoIgnore() {
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("index.html"))
         assertEquals(9, excluded.size) // index.html + 8 default sensitive files
     }
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.log").createNewFile()
         File(tempDir, "test.txt").createNewFile()
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
 
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.log"))
         assertFalse(excluded.contains("test.txt"))
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.ignore").createNewFile()
         File(tempDir, ".html4ignore").writeText(".*\\.ignore")
 
-        process_dir(tempDir)
+        process_dir(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
 
         val indexFile = File(tempDir, "index.html")
         assertTrue(indexFile.exists())
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ class MainTest {
             Assume.assumeTrue("Symlink creation not supported in this environment", false)
         }
 
-        process_dir(tempDir)
+        process_dir(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
 
         assertEquals("original content", targetFile.readText())
         assertTrue(indexFile.exists())
@@ -304,14 +304,26 @@ class MainTest {
         val ignoreFile = File(tempDir, ".html4ignore")
         ignoreFile.writeText("index\\.html")
         File(tempDir, "index.html").writeText("existing")
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("index.html"))
     }
 
     @Test
     fun testProcessDirItEqualsCurrDir() {
         File(tempDir, "tempDir").mkdir()
-        process_dir(tempDir)
+        process_dir(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun testProcessDirDefaultArg() {
+        // Test that the default argument is evaluated properly and covered by tests.
+        process_dir(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun testProcessIgnoreFileDefaultArg() {
+        // Test that the default argument is evaluated properly and covered by tests.
+        process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
     }
 
     @Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException::class)
@@ -344,7 +356,7 @@ class MainTest {
 
         File(tempDir, "test.txt").createNewFile()
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.txt"))
     }
 
@@ -354,7 +366,7 @@ class MainTest {
         ignoreDir.mkdir()
 
         // This should not crash or parse the directory
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("index.html"))
     }
 
@@ -376,7 +388,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "pattern1005").createNewFile() // Should not be ignored as we stop at 1000
         File(tempDir, longPattern).createNewFile() // Should not be ignored as length > 100
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
 
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("pattern500"))
         assertFalse(excluded.contains("pattern1005"))
@@ -398,7 +410,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.txt").createNewFile()
 
         // Should ignore the symlink and NOT parse it
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertFalse(excluded.contains("test.txt"))
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("index.html"))
     }
@@ -413,7 +425,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.txt").createNewFile()
 
         // Should ignore the file because it's too large
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         assertFalse(excluded.contains("test.txt"))
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("index.html"))
     }
@@ -427,7 +439,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.log").createNewFile()
         File(tempDir, "test.txt").createNewFile()
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         // .log is excluded because it's valid
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.log"))
         // test.txt is not excluded because long regex was ignored
@@ -447,7 +459,7 @@ class MainTest {
         File(tempDir, "test.txt1000").createNewFile()
         File(tempDir, "test.txt1001").createNewFile()
 
-        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir)
+        val excluded = process_ignore_file(tempDir, tempDir.listFiles()?.toList() ?: emptyList())
         // Line 1000 should be processed
         assertTrue(excluded.contains("test.txt1000"))
         // Line 1001 should be ignored due to line limit