diff --git a/src/operations.js b/src/operations.js
index 66ccf41..2f11f43 100644
--- a/src/operations.js
+++ b/src/operations.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { parseProviderKind, parseWorkspaceMetadata, parseWorkspaceRecord } from './contracts.js';
 import { readPolicy } from './policy.js';
+import { readMetadata } from './metadata.js';
 import { createDockerProvider } from './providers/docker.js';
 import { createKubernetesProvider } from './providers/kubernetes.js';
 import { createAppleContainerProvider } from './providers/apple-container.js';
@@ -120,6 +121,23 @@ export function createWorkspaceProviderOperations(options = {}) {
       }
       return { projectID, workspaces, failures, completeProviders };
     },
+    /**
+     * Whether a workspace still matches the settings in force, read from its own
+     * metadata without contacting the provider. Kept separate from inspectWorkspace,
+     * which runs a health check: a surface labelling a list must not pay for one probe
+     * per row, and the answer here is already recorded in the workspace itself.
+     */
+    async describeWorkspacePolicyState(workspace) {
+      parseWorkspaceRecord(workspace);
+      const provider = providerForWorkspace(workspace);
+      try {
+        readMetadata(workspace, provider.kind, policy);
+        return { provider: provider.kind, matchesPolicy: true };
+      } catch (error) {
+        if (error?.code === 'WORKSPACE_POLICY_MISMATCH') return { provider: provider.kind, matchesPolicy: false, code: error.code };
+        throw error;
+      }
+    },
     async inspectWorkspace(workspace) {
       workspace = await adoptWorkspace(workspace);
       const provider = providerForWorkspace(workspace);
diff --git a/src/operations.test.js b/src/operations.test.js
index 44fa600..9cd7bc0 100644
--- a/src/operations.test.js
+++ b/src/operations.test.js
@@ -43,6 +43,24 @@ describe('workspace provider recovery operations', () => {
     await Promise.all([rm(stateDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true }), rm(sourceDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true })]);
   });
 
+  it('reads policy state from the workspace itself without contacting the provider', async () => {
+    const operations = createWorkspaceProviderOperations({ policy, sourceDirectory });
+    const workspace = recoveredWorkspace();
+
+    await expect(operations.describeWorkspacePolicyState(workspace)).resolves.toMatchObject({ matchesPolicy: true });
+    // Labelling a list must not cost one provider probe per row.
+    expect(provider.list).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(provider.reconcile).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
+  it('reports a workspace created under settings that are no longer in force', async () => {
+    const operations = createWorkspaceProviderOperations({ policy, sourceDirectory });
+    const workspace = recoveredWorkspace();
+    const drifted = { ...workspace, extra: { ...workspace.extra, policyFingerprint: 'b'.repeat(64) } };
+
+    await expect(operations.describeWorkspacePolicyState(drifted)).resolves.toMatchObject({ matchesPolicy: false, code: 'WORKSPACE_POLICY_MISMATCH' });
+  });
+
   function recoveredWorkspace(overrides = {}) {
     const identity = {
       provider: 'docker',