diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
index 4bc7051..cb4379d 100644
--- a/.jules/bolt.md
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -28,3 +28,6 @@
 ## 2026-07-02 - Credential Masking Security Hole in Subprocess Environments
 **Learning:** Found a critical missing credential masking pattern in `scripts/ci/noema_review_gate.py`'s `scrub_sensitive_data` which didn't mask `Authorization: Basic` or `Proxy-Authorization: Basic` tokens unlike its analogous helper in `scripts/ci/pr_review_merge_scheduler.py`. This leaves exception messages and logs vulnerable to exposing sensitive credentials when HTTP operations fail.
 **Action:** When implementing credential masking functions that sanitize tracebacks and log messages, ensure the masking scope includes all relevant headers, particularly `Authorization` and `Proxy-Authorization`. Ensure parity across masking helpers across CI scripts to prevent blind spots.
+## 2026-07-06 - Avoid recursive list allocations in JSON extraction
+**Learning:** In recursive tree-walking functions like `extract_dicts`, using `results.extend()` on the results of recursive calls allocates many intermediate lists, leading to unnecessary memory overhead and slower execution times, especially on deeply nested JSON objects.
+**Action:** Optimize recursive collection functions by passing a single mutable list instance (e.g. `results`) down through the call stack and using `list.append()` or `list.extend()` to mutate it in-place rather than concatenating returned lists.
diff --git a/scripts/ci/opencode_review_normalize_output.py b/scripts/ci/opencode_review_normalize_output.py
index 88b9318..340476b 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/opencode_review_normalize_output.py
+++ b/scripts/ci/opencode_review_normalize_output.py
@@ -843,16 +843,17 @@ def valid_control(
     }
 
 
-def extract_dicts(obj: Any) -> list[Any]:
+def extract_dicts(obj: Any, results: list[Any] | None = None) -> list[Any]:
     """Recursively extract all dictionaries from a JSON-like object."""
-    results = []
+    if results is None:
+        results = []
     if isinstance(obj, dict):
         results.append(obj)
         for v in obj.values():
-            results.extend(extract_dicts(v))
+            extract_dicts(v, results)
     elif isinstance(obj, list):
         for item in obj:
-            results.extend(extract_dicts(item))
+            extract_dicts(item, results)
     return results