diff --git a/PROJECT.md b/PROJECT.md
index 416423c..f0e49be 100644
--- a/PROJECT.md
+++ b/PROJECT.md
@@ -56,3 +56,5 @@ All other functionality uses Python stdlib (`asyncio`, `socket`, `struct`).
 - **Weighted selection** -- recently-tested proxies preferred via recency decay weight
 - **Failure backoff** -- connection failures penalize proxy weight for 60s, avoids retry waste
 - **Stale expiry** -- proxies dropped from sources evicted after 3 refresh cycles if not alive
+- **Chain pre-flight** -- static chain tested before pool health tests; skip on failure
+- **Warm start** -- quick-test alive subset on restart, defer full test to background
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1151c08..1fd9d9e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ through configurable chains of SOCKS4, SOCKS5, and HTTP CONNECT proxies.
 - DNS leak prevention (domain names forwarded to proxies, never resolved locally)
 - Tor integration (Tor is just another SOCKS5 hop)
 - Managed proxy pool: multiple sources (API + file), health-tested, weighted selection
-- Per-proxy failure backoff (60s cooldown) and stale proxy expiry
+- Per-proxy failure backoff (60s cooldown), stale proxy expiry, chain pre-flight
+- Fast warm start (seconds on restart vs minutes on cold start)
 - Connection retry with proxy rotation (configurable attempts)
 - Connection metrics with pool stats (logged periodically and on shutdown)
 - Container-ready (Alpine-based, podman/docker)
diff --git a/ROADMAP.md b/ROADMAP.md
index 3ab4ab1..f28810c 100644
--- a/ROADMAP.md
+++ b/ROADMAP.md
@@ -15,12 +15,13 @@
 - [x] Per-proxy backoff (connection failure cooldown)
 - [x] Stale proxy expiry (last_seen TTL)
 - [x] Pool stats in periodic metrics log
+- [x] Fast warm start (deferred full health test)
+- [x] Static chain health check (pre-flight before pool tests)
 
 ## v0.2.0
 
 - [ ] SOCKS5 server authentication (username/password)
 - [ ] Tor control port integration (circuit renewal via NEWNYM)
-- [ ] Parallel health tests at startup (fast warm start)
 - [ ] Metrics (connections/sec, bytes relayed, hop latency)
 
 ## v0.3.0
diff --git a/TASKS.md b/TASKS.md
index a3a2fc9..79340a2 100644
--- a/TASKS.md
+++ b/TASKS.md
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 - [x] Per-proxy backoff (60s cooldown after connection failure)
 - [x] Stale proxy expiry (evict dead proxies not seen for 3 refresh cycles)
 - [x] Pool stats in periodic metrics log (`pool=alive/total`)
+- [x] Fast warm start (quick-test alive subset, defer full test)
+- [x] Static chain health check (skip pool tests if chain unreachable)
 
 ## Next
 - [ ] Integration tests with mock proxy server
diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index d8c2a3d..47aee0d 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -7,9 +7,7 @@
 - Per-destination chain rules (bypass chain for local addresses)
 - Hot config reload on SIGHUP
 - Systemd socket activation
-- Parallel health tests at startup (fast warm start)
 - Report dead proxies back to source API
-- Chain health check (test static chain before pool tests)
 
 ## Performance
 
diff --git a/docs/CHEATSHEET.md b/docs/CHEATSHEET.md
index afd4e00..cacd994 100644
--- a/docs/CHEATSHEET.md
+++ b/docs/CHEATSHEET.md
@@ -104,3 +104,5 @@ metrics: conn=142 ok=98 fail=44 retries=88 active=3 in=1.2M out=4.5M up=0h05m12s
 | Port in use | `fuser -k 1080/tcp` to free the port |
 | Container slow stop | Rebuild image after SIGTERM fix |
 | Proxy keeps failing | Backoff penalizes for 60s; check `pool=` in metrics |
+| "static chain unreachable" | Tor/upstream hop is down; pool tests skipped |
+| Slow startup | Normal on cold start; warm restarts use state file |
diff --git a/docs/USAGE.md b/docs/USAGE.md
index e2d86c9..b94e40f 100644
--- a/docs/USAGE.md
+++ b/docs/USAGE.md
@@ -131,6 +131,11 @@ Each cycle tests all proxies through the full chain (static chain + proxy)
 by sending an HTTP GET to `test_url`. Proxies are marked alive on `200` response.
 After `max_fails` consecutive failures, a proxy is evicted.
 
+Before each health test cycle, the static chain is tested without any pool
+proxy. If the chain itself is unreachable (e.g., Tor is down), proxy tests
+are skipped entirely and a warning is logged. This prevents false mass-failure
+and unnecessary evictions.
+
 Mass-failure guard: if >90% of tests fail in one cycle, eviction is skipped
 (likely the static chain is broken, not the proxies).
 
@@ -167,6 +172,14 @@ Pool state is saved to `state_file` (default: `~/.cache/s5p/pool.json`) after
 each refresh/health cycle and on shutdown. On startup, previously-alive proxies
 are loaded for fast warm starts.
 
+### Warm start
+
+When restarting with an existing state file, only the previously-alive proxies
+are tested before the server starts accepting connections. A full health test
+of all proxies runs in the background. This reduces startup blocking from
+minutes to seconds on warm restarts. Cold starts (no state file) test all
+proxies before serving.
+
 ### CLI shorthand
 
 ```bash