diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 47c03be6..531db723 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -16,51 +16,45 @@ concurrency:
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
 jobs:
-  lint:
-    name: Lint (${{ matrix.shard }})
+  # Partition the workspace packages into balanced shards. Alphabetical
+  # sharding put ~43% of packages in the [s-z] shard (the `uc-*` packages all
+  # start with `u`), making it the CI long pole. This computes shards balanced
+  # by source weight so every static-check leg finishes at roughly the same
+  # time. It only reads package.json files, so it needs no dependency install.
+  setup:
+    name: Setup shards
     runs-on:
       group: databricks-protected-runner-group
       labels: linux-ubuntu-latest
-    strategy:
-      fail-fast: false
-      matrix:
-        # Shards partition packages by the first letter after `@databricks/sdk-`.
-        # Together the four ranges cover a-z.
-        shard: ['[a-c]*', '[d-l]*', '[m-r]*', '[s-z]*']
+    outputs:
+      shards: ${{ steps.shards.outputs.shards }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
 
-      - name: Setup JFrog CLI
-        uses: jfrog/setup-jfrog-cli@279b1f629f43dd5bc658d8361ac4802a7ef8d2d5 # v4.9.1
-        env:
-          JF_URL: https://databricks.jfrog.io
-        with:
-          oidc-provider-name: github-actions
-
       - name: Setup Node.js
         uses: actions/setup-node@49933ea5288caeca8642d1e84afbd3f7d6820020 # v4
         with:
           node-version: '22'
-          cache: 'npm'
-
-      - name: Configure npm for JFrog
-        run: jf npmc --repo-resolve=db-npm
-
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        run: jf npm ci
 
-      - name: Run lint and format checks
-        run: npm run checks -- --filter='@databricks/sdk-${{ matrix.shard }}'
-
-  typecheck:
-    name: Type Check (${{ matrix.shard }})
+      - name: Compute balanced shards
+        id: shards
+        run: echo "shards=$(node scripts/ci-shards.mjs 8)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
+  # Build, lint, and format-check each shard in one job. Lint and build both
+  # depend on `^build`, so running them together builds each shard's dependency
+  # closure once instead of repeating it across separate jobs. The build task is
+  # `tsc -b`, which type-checks `src` while emitting, so a standalone `tsc
+  # --noEmit` typecheck over the same files would be redundant and is omitted.
+  static:
+    name: Static (shard ${{ matrix.shard.id }})
+    needs: setup
     runs-on:
       group: databricks-protected-runner-group
       labels: linux-ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        shard: ['[a-c]*', '[d-l]*', '[m-r]*', '[s-z]*']
+        shard: ${{ fromJSON(needs.setup.outputs.shards) }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
 
@@ -83,8 +77,16 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: jf npm ci
 
-      - name: Run type check
-        run: npm run typecheck -- --filter='@databricks/sdk-${{ matrix.shard }}'
+      - name: Build, lint, and format-check shard
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          SHARD_PKGS: ${{ matrix.shard.pkgs }}
+        run: |
+          filters=""
+          for pkg in $SHARD_PKGS; do
+            filters="$filters --filter=$pkg"
+          done
+          npm run ci:verify -- $filters
 
   test:
     name: Test (Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }})
@@ -157,41 +159,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run browser tests
         run: npm run test:browser
 
-  build:
-    name: Build (Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}, ${{ matrix.shard }})
-    runs-on:
-      group: databricks-protected-runner-group
-      labels: linux-ubuntu-latest
-    strategy:
-      fail-fast: false
-      matrix:
-        node-version: ['22', '24']
-        shard: ['[a-c]*', '[d-l]*', '[m-r]*', '[s-z]*']
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
-
-      - name: Setup JFrog CLI
-        uses: jfrog/setup-jfrog-cli@279b1f629f43dd5bc658d8361ac4802a7ef8d2d5 # v4.9.1
-        env:
-          JF_URL: https://databricks.jfrog.io
-        with:
-          oidc-provider-name: github-actions
-
-      - name: Setup Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
-        uses: actions/setup-node@49933ea5288caeca8642d1e84afbd3f7d6820020 # v4
-        with:
-          node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
-          cache: 'npm'
-
-      - name: Configure npm for JFrog
-        run: jf npmc --repo-resolve=db-npm
-
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        run: jf npm ci
-
-      - name: Build
-        run: npm run build -- --filter='@databricks/sdk-${{ matrix.shard }}'
-
   check-licenses:
     name: Check Licenses
     runs-on:
@@ -214,7 +181,7 @@ jobs:
   ci-gate:
     name: CI Gate
     if: always()
-    needs: [lint, typecheck, test, test-browser, build, check-licenses]
+    needs: [setup, static, test, test-browser, check-licenses]
     runs-on:
       group: databricks-protected-runner-group
       labels: linux-ubuntu-latest
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index f0386a29..018dc48a 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     "format": "turbo run format",
     "format:check": "turbo run format:check",
     "checks": "turbo run lint format:check",
+    "ci:verify": "turbo run build lint format:check",
     "typecheck": "turbo run typecheck",
     "clean": "turbo run clean",
     "check:licenses": "node scripts/check-licenses.mjs",
diff --git a/scripts/ci-shards.mjs b/scripts/ci-shards.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5fe6ad05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ci-shards.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+// Partition the workspace packages into balanced CI shards.
+//
+// CI runs the static checks (build + lint + format) as a matrix where each
+// shard handles a subset of packages. Alphabetical sharding is badly
+// unbalanced because ~25% of packages share the `uc-` prefix, so this script
+// balances shards by source weight instead.
+//
+// Usage:
+//   node scripts/ci-shards.mjs [shardCount]
+//     Prints a single-line JSON array of shard objects to stdout, suitable for
+//     a GitHub Actions matrix: [{ "id": "1", "pkgs": "<space-separated names>" }].
+//
+//   node scripts/ci-shards.mjs [shardCount] --pretty
+//     Prints a human-readable balance report to stderr (for local inspection).
+//
+// Weighting: each package's weight is the total byte size of its TypeScript
+// source files under `src/`, plus a fixed base to account for the per-package
+// fixed cost (turbo task startup, dependency build). Shards are filled with a
+// largest-processing-time-first greedy algorithm, which keeps the heaviest
+// shard close to the theoretical optimum.
+
+import {readdirSync, readFileSync, statSync} from 'node:fs';
+import {join, dirname} from 'node:path';
+import {fileURLToPath} from 'node:url';
+
+const REPO_ROOT = join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
+const PACKAGES_DIR = join(REPO_ROOT, 'packages');
+const PACKAGE_PREFIX = '@databricks/sdk-';
+
+// A fixed weight added to every package, in source-byte-equivalents. Type-aware
+// lint and the tsc build have a large fixed cost per package (loading the TS
+// program and resolving the dependency type graph), so a shard's runtime is
+// driven more by how many packages it holds than by their total source size.
+// Setting the base near the median source size keeps shards balanced by package
+// count while still giving heavy packages (e.g. `jobs`) extra weight.
+const BASE_WEIGHT = 60_000;
+
+function sourceWeight(packageDir) {
+  const srcDir = join(packageDir, 'src');
+  let total = 0;
+  const walk = dir => {
+    let entries;
+    try {
+      entries = readdirSync(dir, {withFileTypes: true});
+    } catch {
+      return;
+    }
+    for (const entry of entries) {
+      const full = join(dir, entry.name);
+      if (entry.isDirectory()) {
+        walk(full);
+      } else if (entry.isFile() && /\.tsx?$/.test(entry.name)) {
+        total += statSync(full).size;
+      }
+    }
+  };
+  walk(srcDir);
+  return total;
+}
+
+function collectPackages() {
+  // The root package.json declares `workspaces: ["packages/**"]`, so packages
+  // are nested at arbitrary depth (e.g. packages/uc/catalogs). Walk the tree
+  // and collect every package.json, skipping node_modules and build output.
+  const packages = [];
+  const walk = dir => {
+    for (const entry of readdirSync(dir, {withFileTypes: true})) {
+      if (entry.name === 'node_modules' || entry.name === 'dist') continue;
+      const full = join(dir, entry.name);
+      if (entry.isDirectory()) {
+        walk(full);
+      } else if (entry.isFile() && entry.name === 'package.json') {
+        let pkg;
+        try {
+          pkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(full, 'utf8'));
+        } catch {
+          continue;
+        }
+        if (
+          typeof pkg.name === 'string' &&
+          pkg.name.startsWith(PACKAGE_PREFIX)
+        ) {
+          packages.push({
+            name: pkg.name,
+            weight: BASE_WEIGHT + sourceWeight(dir),
+          });
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  };
+  walk(PACKAGES_DIR);
+  return packages;
+}
+
+function partition(packages, shardCount) {
+  // Largest-processing-time-first: assign the heaviest package to the
+  // currently lightest shard.
+  const shards = Array.from({length: shardCount}, () => ({
+    pkgs: [],
+    weight: 0,
+  }));
+  const sorted = [...packages].sort(
+    (a, b) => b.weight - a.weight || a.name.localeCompare(b.name)
+  );
+  for (const pkg of sorted) {
+    const lightest = shards.reduce((min, s) =>
+      s.weight < min.weight ? s : min
+    );
+    lightest.pkgs.push(pkg.name);
+    lightest.weight += pkg.weight;
+  }
+  return shards;
+}
+
+const shardCount = Number.parseInt(process.argv[2] ?? '8', 10);
+const pretty = process.argv.includes('--pretty');
+
+const packages = collectPackages();
+const shards = partition(packages, shardCount);
+
+if (pretty) {
+  const lines = shards.map((s, i) => {
+    const kb = Math.round(s.weight / 1024);
+    return `shard ${i + 1}: ${String(s.pkgs.length).padStart(2)} pkgs, ${String(kb).padStart(5)} KB`;
+  });
+  const weights = shards.map(s => s.weight);
+  const imbalance = (
+    (Math.max(...weights) / Math.min(...weights) - 1) *
+    100
+  ).toFixed(1);
+  process.stderr.write(
+    `${packages.length} packages -> ${shardCount} shards\n${lines.join('\n')}\n` +
+      `max/min weight imbalance: ${imbalance}%\n`
+  );
+}
+
+const matrix = shards.map((s, i) => ({
+  id: String(i + 1),
+  pkgs: [...s.pkgs].sort().join(' '),
+}));
+process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify(matrix));