diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 72ab26e9..c80a8a41 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -135,19 +135,13 @@ def pytest_unconfigure(config: object) -> None:
 
 def pytest_collection_modifyitems(config: object, items: list[object]) -> None:
  """
- xdist worker gate: only gw0 (or the master, if not running under xdist)
- actually runs tests that depend on the live_gui fixture. Other workers
- deselect those tests to avoid port-8999 collisions and to honor the
- "don't multi-thread live_gui" directive.
+ No-op. The live_gui fixture uses a file-based lock to serialize ownership
+ of the sloppy.py subprocess: the first worker to acquire the lock spawns
+ it, other workers wait for the hook server and yield a client handle.
+ All workers CAN run live_gui tests; the lock prevents port-8999 collisions.
  [C: tests/conftest.py:live_gui fixture]
  """
- _worker = os.environ.get("PYTEST_XDIST_WORKER", "master")
- if _worker in ("master", "gw0"):
-  return
- _skip = pytest.mark.skip(reason=f"live_gui tests only run on master/gw0 (this worker is {_worker})")
- for item in items:
-  if "live_gui" in getattr(item, "fixturenames", ()):
-   item.add_marker(_skip)
+ return
 
 _REQUIRED_TEST_IMPORTS: list[tuple[str, str]] = [
  ("sentence_transformers", "sentence-transformers"),