diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 07142e7..05fc7dd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -54,7 +54,10 @@ jobs:
           echo "leaf=$leaf" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
   lint:
     # Static checks are interpreter-version agnostic; run them once.
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, spikeforge-ci]
+    # GitHub-hosted on purpose: spikeforge is public, so hosted minutes are
+    # free, and this keeps the *required* checks off the three self-hosted
+    # runners whose queue was the fleet's bottleneck (hq#14).
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
@@ -82,11 +85,14 @@ jobs:
   test:
     # The full suite across every supported interpreter (python_requires).
     needs: changes
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, spikeforge-ci]
+    # GitHub-hosted on purpose: spikeforge is public, so hosted minutes are
+    # free, and this keeps the *required* checks off the three self-hosted
+    # runners whose queue was the fleet's bottleneck (hq#14).
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        python-version: ${{ fromJSON(needs.changes.outputs.leaf == 'true' && '["3.12"]' || '["3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]') }}
+        python-version: ${{ fromJSON(needs.changes.outputs.leaf == 'true' && '["3.12"]' || '["3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]') }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
@@ -371,7 +377,10 @@ jobs:
     #
     # Deliberately torch-free: readme_renderer plus the stdlib is the whole
     # dependency set, so this stays one of the fastest jobs in the matrix.
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, spikeforge-ci]
+    # GitHub-hosted on purpose: spikeforge is public, so hosted minutes are
+    # free, and this keeps the *required* checks off the three self-hosted
+    # runners whose queue was the fleet's bottleneck (hq#14).
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
@@ -423,7 +432,10 @@ jobs:
     # The static half of the core boundary: no module-level import of a
     # forbidden root, and no function-local import outside the lazy shims.
     # Pure stdlib, so no dependencies are installed.
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, spikeforge-ci]
+    # GitHub-hosted on purpose: spikeforge is public, so hosted minutes are
+    # free, and this keeps the *required* checks off the three self-hosted
+    # runners whose queue was the fleet's bottleneck (hq#14).
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
@@ -502,7 +514,10 @@ jobs:
   packaging-guards:
     # The three lightweight topology guards: disjoint import roots (PEP 420),
     # console-script ownership, and satellite pins == compatibility.json.
-    runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64, spikeforge-ci]
+    # GitHub-hosted on purpose: spikeforge is public, so hosted minutes are
+    # free, and this keeps the *required* checks off the three self-hosted
+    # runners whose queue was the fleet's bottleneck (hq#14).
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
diff --git a/packages/spikeforge/pyproject.toml b/packages/spikeforge/pyproject.toml
index f3bbafc..12831b4 100644
--- a/packages/spikeforge/pyproject.toml
+++ b/packages/spikeforge/pyproject.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,10 @@ description = "Spiking neural network toolkit: LIF training, NIR export with dri
 # files: the distribution metadata points at the root documents while
 # setuptools' sandbox only reads files inside the project directory.
 readme = "README.md"
-requires-python = ">=3.10"
+# 3.10 support was dropped when the core adopted `capsize-commons`
+# (`requires-python >=3.11`) for §14 logging in hq#3/#52. The declared floor
+# must match what the declared dependencies actually support.
+requires-python = ">=3.11"
 license = "BSD-3-Clause"
 license-files = ["LICENSE"]
 authors = [
@@ -48,7 +51,6 @@ classifiers = [
     "Intended Audience :: Science/Research",
     "Operating System :: OS Independent",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
-    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",