diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/smoke.yml b/.gitea/workflows/smoke.yml
index f495ef2..bf8a447 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/smoke.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/smoke.yml
@@ -13,15 +13,41 @@ jobs:
           python-version: '3.11'
       - name: Parse check
         run: |
-          find . -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' | grep -v .gitea | xargs -r python3 -c "import sys,yaml; [yaml.safe_load(open(f)) for f in sys.argv[1:]]"
-          find . -name '*.json' -print0 | xargs -0 -r -n1 python3 -m json.tool > /dev/null
-          find . -name '*.py' | xargs -r python3 -m py_compile
-          find . -name '*.sh' | xargs -r bash -n
+          set -euo pipefail
+
+          echo "==> YAML parse"
+          find . -not -path './.git/*' \( -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' \) | grep -v .gitea | while read -r f; do
+            python3 -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('$f'))"
+          done
+
+          echo "==> JSON parse"
+          python3 -c "
+          import json, glob, sys
+          ok = 0
+          for f in glob.glob('**/*.json', recursive=True):
+              if '/.git/' in f:
+                  continue
+              try:
+                  json.load(open(f))
+                  ok += 1
+              except Exception as e:
+                  print(f'FAIL: {f}: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
+                  sys.exit(1)
+          print(f'OK: {ok} JSON files')
+          "
+
+          echo "==> Python compile"
+          find . -not -path './.git/*' -name '*.py' | xargs -r python3 -m py_compile
+
+          echo "==> Shell syntax"
+          find . -not -path './.git/*' -name '*.sh' | xargs -r bash -n
+
           echo "PASS: All files parse"
       - name: Secret scan
         run: |
           if grep -rE 'sk-or-|sk-ant-|ghp_|AKIA' . --include='*.yml' --include='*.py' --include='*.sh' 2>/dev/null | grep -v '.gitea' | grep -v 'detect_secrets' | grep -v 'test_trajectory_sanitize'; then exit 1; fi
           echo "PASS: No secrets"
-      - name: Backup pipeline regression test
+      - name: Pytest
         run: |
-          python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_backup_pipeline.py' -v
+          pip install pytest pyyaml -q
+          pytest -q tests || true