diff --git a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/queue/repository.py b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/queue/repository.py
index c2801e53..799c0529 100644
--- a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/queue/repository.py
+++ b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/queue/repository.py
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ class JobRepo:
         # JobRepo and SyncStateRepo share the same connection, callers must
         # pass the same lock instance so cross-repo calls also serialize.
         self._lock = lock or asyncio.Lock()
+        # Notified after a successful enqueue so workers can wake
+        # immediately instead of polling on a fixed sleep interval.
+        self.job_available = asyncio.Condition()
 
     async def enqueue(
         self,
@@ -110,6 +113,9 @@ class JobRepo:
             ) as cursor:
                 row = await cursor.fetchone()
             await self._conn.commit()
+        if row is not None:
+            async with self.job_available:
+                self.job_available.notify_all()
         return _row_to_job(row) if row else None
 
     async def claim_next(self, worker_id: str) -> Job | None:
diff --git a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/workers/pool.py b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/workers/pool.py
index 122866b8..32bb6056 100644
--- a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/workers/pool.py
+++ b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/ingester/workers/pool.py
@@ -130,7 +130,14 @@ class WorkerPool:
                 continue
             job = await self._jobs.claim_next(worker_id)
             if job is None:
-                await self._sleep_or_stop(self._poll_idle_s)
+                try:
+                    async with self._jobs.job_available:
+                        await asyncio.wait_for(
+                            self._jobs.job_available.wait(),
+                            timeout=self._poll_idle_s,
+                        )
+                except TimeoutError:
+                    pass
                 continue
             await self._process(job)