diff --git a/.changeset/20376-plugin-dev-literal-app-imports.md b/.changeset/20376-plugin-dev-literal-app-imports.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2222d11cea1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/20376-plugin-dev-literal-app-imports.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/plugin-dev": patch
+---
+
+`DevPlugin` now loads `@objectstack/setup` and `@objectstack/account` through literal `import('…')` specifiers, like every other declared dependency it loads, instead of one variable specifier shared by a loop (#20376).
+
+Clause-②: no
+
+- **What was wrong.** The setup / account app-package loop imported `spec[0]`. A variable specifier cannot be resolved when the file is transformed. Under vitest, every `DevPlugin.init()` in a test therefore made two round trips to the main test process, even with both packages mocked, inside every clocked test window that boots `DevPlugin`. The main process is shared by the whole run, so on a busy CI shard those round trips wait on other files' work, against this package's 5000 ms test budget.
+- **What changes.** Each loop entry carries its own literal loader. The `try` / `catch` and the absent-package report around each load are unchanged: a missing package is still logged as, for example, `✘ @objectstack/setup not installed — skipping its app`, and a present one that fails is still reported as present-but-failed.
+- **Unchanged.** Nothing an author or operator configures or sees changes. Both packages were already declared dependencies of `@objectstack/plugin-dev`, and both the ESM and the CJS build keep a native `import("…")` for each.
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-literal-imports.pin.test.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-literal-imports.pin.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5c34efb53e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-literal-imports.pin.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+//
+// #20376 — every dynamic `import()` in `dev-plugin.ts` names its package
+// LITERALLY, except the one ADR-0132 requires to stay a variable.
+//
+// ## Why the FORM of the specifier is pinned
+//
+// Every suite in this family mocks the packages `DevPlugin.init()` loads, so
+// `init()` should run in-process. For a literal `import('x')` it does: the
+// specifier is rewritten when `dev-plugin.ts` is transformed, and the test's
+// `vi.mock('x')` serves it inside the worker. A VARIABLE specifier is resolved
+// at CALL time instead, by a round trip to the main vitest process, and that
+// happens on every call, not only the first. Measured with a throwaway vite
+// plugin logging every `resolveId` and `transform` the main process served,
+// around six back-to-back `init()`s with setup and account mocked absent:
+//
+//   - With the loop importing through `spec[0]` (`dev-plugin.ts` as of
+//     `0fcb10184`), the six `init()`s made the main process serve 20
+//     requests: a `resolveId` of `@objectstack/setup` and one of
+//     `@objectstack/account` on EVERY `init()`, and on the first one also the
+//     transform of both packages' `dist` entries and the resolution of their
+//     imports. The mount-refusal suite's nine `init()`s made 18 of those
+//     `resolveId`s.
+//   - With literal specifiers, the same six `init()`s made ZERO. Every
+//     specifier this file names, the twelve literal loads beside the loop
+//     included, is resolved once, when the file is transformed at collection.
+//   - The main process is one process shared by every worker in the run, so
+//     a request to it waits on whatever it is doing for OTHER files. On
+//     `Test Core (6/6)` (job 108779589417), the mount-refusal suite's first
+//     case timed out at 5026 ms and its second took 2336 ms, while its other
+//     four took 16-72 ms, in a package run that read `transform 74.29s,
+//     import 137.46s, tests 11.87s`.
+//
+// So re-introducing a variable specifier puts a main-process round trip back
+// into every clocked window that boots this plugin, whatever the suite. A
+// timeout raised to absorb it would only move the cliff to the next heavier
+// shard.
+//
+// ## The one exception
+//
+// `@objectstack/organizations` is imported through `organizationsPkg`, with
+// `webpackIgnore`, on purpose: ADR-0132's entitlement boundary forbids any
+// framework package from declaring it (`no-framework-dependents.pin.test.ts`),
+// so no bundler may try to resolve it. In the suites that mock it, its mock
+// URL is the raw specifier, so the worker serves it without a round trip.
+//
+// ## How it reads the file
+//
+// Through the TypeScript compiler's own parser, never through the source text:
+// a dynamic import is a call node whose callee is the `import` keyword, so a
+// comment, a string or a regex that mentions `import(` is never read as one,
+// and the leading `/* webpackIgnore: true */` is trivia, not part of the
+// argument. The lit control (③) proves the walk still finds the literal
+// loads, so a walk that found nothing cannot pass ① vacuously.
+
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { resolve } from 'node:path';
+import ts from 'typescript';
+
+// `__dirname`, not `import.meta.url`: this package's build config compiles
+// `src/**` as CommonJS, where `import.meta` is TS1470. Vitest's evaluator
+// provides `__dirname` to every module it runs.
+const HERE = __dirname;
+const FILE = resolve(HERE, 'dev-plugin.ts');
+const SOURCE = ts.createSourceFile(FILE, readFileSync(FILE, 'utf8'), ts.ScriptTarget.Latest, true);
+
+/** Every node of the parsed file, depth first. */
+function nodesOf(root: ts.Node): ts.Node[] {
+  const out: ts.Node[] = [];
+  const visit = (node: ts.Node): void => {
+    out.push(node);
+    ts.forEachChild(node, visit);
+  };
+  visit(root);
+  return out;
+}
+
+const NODES = nodesOf(SOURCE);
+
+/** The first argument of every dynamic `import(…)` call in the file. */
+const DYNAMIC_IMPORT_ARGS: ts.Expression[] = NODES
+  .filter((n): n is ts.CallExpression => ts.isCallExpression(n) && n.expression.kind === ts.SyntaxKind.ImportKeyword)
+  .map((call) => call.arguments[0]);
+
+/**
+ * Only a plain string literal counts as naming its package: it is the form the
+ * transform resolves ahead of time. Anything else is resolved at call time.
+ */
+const LITERAL_ARGS = DYNAMIC_IMPORT_ARGS.filter(ts.isStringLiteral).map((arg) => arg.text);
+const VARIABLE_ARGS = DYNAMIC_IMPORT_ARGS.filter((arg) => !ts.isStringLiteral(arg)).map((arg) => arg.getText(SOURCE));
+
+describe('#20376 — dev-plugin.ts loads its packages through literal specifiers', () => {
+  it('① every dynamic import names its package literally, except the organizations one', () => {
+    expect(VARIABLE_ARGS, 'a variable specifier costs a main-process round trip per call under vitest').toEqual([
+      'organizationsPkg',
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it('② the exception is the ADR-0132 package, and nothing else hides behind that name', () => {
+    const declarations = NODES.filter(
+      (n): n is ts.VariableDeclaration => ts.isVariableDeclaration(n) && n.name.getText(SOURCE) === 'organizationsPkg',
+    );
+    expect(declarations).toHaveLength(1);
+    const init = declarations[0].initializer;
+    expect(init !== undefined && ts.isStringLiteral(init) ? init.text : undefined).toBe('@objectstack/organizations');
+  });
+
+  it('③ lit control: the walk sees the setup / account loads, and the loads beside them, as literals', () => {
+    for (const pkg of ['@objectstack/setup', '@objectstack/account', '@objectstack/objectql']) {
+      expect(LITERAL_ARGS, pkg).toContain(pkg);
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-optional-load-failure.test.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-optional-load-failure.test.ts
index 799d9dbe7fd..77cb76cb9ec 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-optional-load-failure.test.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin-optional-load-failure.test.ts
@@ -285,4 +285,24 @@ describe('DevPlugin — an optional service that is installed and fails to const
     // And the false claim it used to emit instead is gone.
     expect(allLines(ctx).some((l) => l.includes('@objectstack/rest not installed'))).toBe(false);
   });
+
+  // #20376 changed HOW the setup / account app-package loop names its two
+  // packages (a literal `import()` per entry, in place of one variable
+  // specifier), never what it does when one cannot be imported. Both still
+  // reach the absent arm: one line each, at the loop's `warn`, never at the
+  // present-but-failed arm's `error`, and carrying the resolver's own code and
+  // the specifier that failed.
+  it('keeps the setup / account app packages on the absent arm when they cannot be imported', async () => {
+    const ctx = mockCtx();
+    await new DevPlugin({ seedAdminUser: false }).init(ctx);
+
+    const warnLines: string[] = ctx.logger.warn.mock.calls.map((call: unknown[]) => String(call[0]));
+    for (const pkg of ['@objectstack/setup', '@objectstack/account']) {
+      const lines = warnLines.filter((l) => l.includes(pkg));
+      expect(lines, `${pkg}: reported once, at warn`).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(lines[0]).toContain('code: ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND');
+      expect(lines[0]).toContain(`Cannot find package '${pkg}'`);
+      expect(errorLines(ctx).some((l) => l.includes(pkg)), `${pkg}: not the present-but-failed arm`).toBe(false);
+    }
+  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin.ts
index b132ad3f467..1f1ac117f46 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/src/dev-plugin.ts
@@ -734,12 +734,21 @@ export class DevPlugin implements Plugin {
       // NOTE: @objectstack/studio is intentionally NOT default-loaded — the
       // console ships a dedicated Studio surface at /_console/studio/<pkg>/<pillar>,
       // so Studio no longer needs to exist as a navigable app tile.
+      //
+      // [#20376] Each entry carries its own LITERAL `import('…')`, as every
+      // other declared-dependency load in this method does. A variable
+      // specifier (`import(spec[0])`) cannot be resolved when this file is
+      // transformed: under vitest every call became a round trip to the main
+      // process — two per `init()`, measured, mocked packages included —
+      // inside every clocked test window that boots this plugin. Both packages
+      // are declared dependencies, and the absent-package path below is
+      // unchanged. `dev-plugin-literal-imports.pin.test.ts` pins the form.
       for (const spec of [
-        ['@objectstack/setup', 'createSetupAppPlugin'],
-        ['@objectstack/account', 'createAccountAppPlugin'],
+        ['@objectstack/setup', 'createSetupAppPlugin', () => import('@objectstack/setup')],
+        ['@objectstack/account', 'createAccountAppPlugin', () => import('@objectstack/account')],
       ] as const) {
         try {
-          const mod: any = await import(/* @vite-ignore */ spec[0]);
+          const mod: any = await spec[2]();
           this.childPlugins.push(mod[spec[1]]());
           ctx.logger.info(`  ✔ App package enabled (${spec[0]})`);
         } catch (err) {
diff --git a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/vitest.config.ts b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/vitest.config.ts
index a8835104050..d619c52a005 100644
--- a/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/vitest.config.ts
+++ b/packages/plugins/plugin-dev/vitest.config.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,14 @@ export default defineConfig({
       },
       { find: /^@objectstack\/platform-objects$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../platform-objects/src/index.ts') },
       { find: /^@objectstack\/plugin-security$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../plugin-security/src/index.ts') },
+      // [#20376] The setup / account app packages. `dev-plugin.ts` names them with
+      // literal `import('…')` specifiers now, so `check:test-source-alias` sees
+      // both and, unaliased, both resolve through `exports` to `dist/`. Every
+      // suite here mocks them; the mocks and the imports resolve through these
+      // same entries. Their own imports (`@objectstack/platform-objects/apps`,
+      // `@objectstack/spec/system`) are already aliased above and below.
+      { find: /^@objectstack\/setup$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../apps/setup/src/index.ts') },
+      { find: /^@objectstack\/account$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../apps/account/src/index.ts') },
       { find: /^@objectstack\/formula$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../formula/src/index.ts') },
       { find: /^@objectstack\/metadata-core$/, replacement: path.resolve(__dirname, '../../metadata-core/src/index.ts') },
       // Subpath BEFORE the bare package: `@objectstack/core` is a PREFIX match with a