diff --git a/.github/CLAUDE.md b/.github/CLAUDE.md
index 97cf95926..e384561be 100644
--- a/.github/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/.github/CLAUDE.md
@@ -87,7 +87,8 @@ if any category failed.
 | e2e very long running | `test_very_long_running` | (opt-in, see below) |
 
 **Very long running** runs only when enabled: `enable:test:very_long_running`
-in commit message or PR label, or any push to a `release/v*` branch.
+in commit message or PR label, or any push or manual dispatch
+(`workflow_dispatch`) to a `release/v*` branch.
 
 **Parallelism** is set by `XDIST_WORKER_FACTOR` (worker count =
 `max(1, int(cpu_count * factor))`). CI runs the `*_matrix` targets — unit and
diff --git a/.github/workflows/_test.yml b/.github/workflows/_test.yml
index 70b6bf1db..3096c9ea8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_test.yml
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ jobs:
           !cancelled() && (
             contains(inputs.commit_message, 'enable:test:very_long_running') ||
             contains(github.event.pull_request.labels.*.name, 'enable:test:very_long_running') ||
-            (github.event_name == 'push' && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/heads/release/v'))
+            ((github.event_name == 'push' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch') && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/heads/release/v'))
           )
         uses: ./.github/actions/run-tests
         with: