diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2566bbd..8a9110e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -37,9 +37,13 @@ Crawlscope requires Ruby 3.3 or newer.
 Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
 
 ```ruby
-gem "crawlscope"
+gem "crawlscope", require: false
 ```
 
+`require: false` keeps Crawlscope and its crawl stack out of normal Rails web
+and job process boot. Require `crawlscope` at the application boundary that
+runs an audit, or use the task setup below.
+
 And then execute:
 
 ```bash
@@ -142,6 +146,19 @@ puts result.issues.to_a.map(&:message)
 
 ## Rails Usage
 
+For an app that uses Crawlscope through rake tasks, load the task entrypoint
+only when a Crawlscope task is requested. In the application's `Rakefile`,
+before `require_relative "config/application"`:
+
+```ruby
+list_tasks = Rake.application.options.show_tasks || ARGV.any? { |argument| ["-T", "--tasks"].include?(argument) }
+require "crawlscope/tasks" if list_tasks || ARGV.any? { |argument| argument.start_with?("crawlscope:") }
+```
+
+This preserves `bin/rails --tasks` and the `crawlscope:*` tasks without loading
+Crawlscope during normal Rails boot. Runtime callers should explicitly
+`require "crawlscope"` immediately before configuring or using the gem.
+
 In an initializer:
 
 ```ruby
diff --git a/lib/crawlscope.rb b/lib/crawlscope.rb
index 4798509..ea32c9b 100644
--- a/lib/crawlscope.rb
+++ b/lib/crawlscope.rb
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ def reset!
 Crawlscope.instance_variable_set(:@loader, Zeitwerk::Loader.for_gem)
 Crawlscope.loader.ignore("#{__dir__}/tasks")
 Crawlscope.loader.ignore("#{__dir__}/crawlscope/railtie.rb")
+Crawlscope.loader.ignore("#{__dir__}/crawlscope/tasks.rb")
 Crawlscope.loader.setup
 
 require "crawlscope/railtie" if defined?(Rails::Railtie)
diff --git a/lib/crawlscope/railtie.rb b/lib/crawlscope/railtie.rb
index 692fe10..e49f7e0 100644
--- a/lib/crawlscope/railtie.rb
+++ b/lib/crawlscope/railtie.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 module Crawlscope
   class Railtie < Rails::Railtie
     rake_tasks do
-      load File.expand_path("../tasks/crawlscope_tasks.rake", __dir__)
+      require "crawlscope/tasks"
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/lib/crawlscope/tasks.rb b/lib/crawlscope/tasks.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e034149
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/crawlscope/tasks.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+require "crawlscope"
+require "rake"
+
+unless Rake::Task.task_defined?("crawlscope:validate")
+  load File.expand_path("../tasks/crawlscope_tasks.rake", __dir__)
+end
diff --git a/test/crawlscope/loader_test.rb b/test/crawlscope/loader_test.rb
index 5432b7b..bbe4ed8 100644
--- a/test/crawlscope/loader_test.rb
+++ b/test/crawlscope/loader_test.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
 require "test_helper"
+require "open3"
+require "rbconfig"
 
 class CrawlscopeLoaderTest < Minitest::Test
   def test_eager_loads_cleanly
@@ -8,4 +10,39 @@ def test_eager_loads_cleanly
       Crawlscope.loader.eager_load
     end
   end
+
+  def test_entrypoint_does_not_load_crawl_dependencies
+    script = <<~RUBY
+      require "crawlscope"
+
+      loaded = $LOADED_FEATURES.grep(%r{/(?:async|faraday|json-schema|nokogiri)(?:/|\\.rb)})
+      abort loaded.join("\\n") unless loaded.empty?
+    RUBY
+
+    _stdout, stderr, status = Open3.capture3(
+      RbConfig.ruby,
+      "-I#{File.expand_path("../../lib", __dir__)}",
+      "-e",
+      script
+    )
+
+    assert status.success?, stderr
+  end
+
+  def test_task_entrypoint_registers_tasks
+    script = <<~RUBY
+      require "crawlscope/tasks"
+
+      abort "task missing" unless Rake::Task.task_defined?("crawlscope:validate")
+    RUBY
+
+    _stdout, stderr, status = Open3.capture3(
+      RbConfig.ruby,
+      "-I#{File.expand_path("../../lib", __dir__)}",
+      "-e",
+      script
+    )
+
+    assert status.success?, stderr
+  end
 end