diff --git a/local/r-minor-helpers.R b/local/r-minor-helpers.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffe56fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/local/r-minor-helpers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Metadata-only ABI triage so the full build avoids downloading every source.
+# Mirrors bincraft::abi_classify rules 1-2; "ambiguous" packages still need a
+# source grep via bincraft::needs_per_minor_recompile().
+
+classify_from_metadata <- function(needs_compilation, linking_to, risky_deps) {
+  nc <- if (length(needs_compilation) == 0L || is.na(needs_compilation)) {
+    ""
+  } else {
+    tolower(trimws(needs_compilation))
+  }
+  if (!identical(nc, "yes")) {
+    return("not-sensitive")
+  }
+  lt <- if (length(linking_to) == 0L || is.na(linking_to)) "" else linking_to
+  linked <- trimws(unlist(strsplit(lt, "[,\n]")))
+  linked <- sub("\\s*\\(.*\\)$", "", linked) # strip "(>= x)" constraints
+  linked <- linked[nzchar(linked)]
+  if (any(linked %in% risky_deps)) {
+    return("sensitive")
+  }
+  "ambiguous"
+}
diff --git a/local/tests/test-r-minor-helpers.R b/local/tests/test-r-minor-helpers.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d68e99b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/local/tests/test-r-minor-helpers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+source(file.path("..", "r-minor-helpers.R"))
+
+test_that("pure-r (NeedsCompilation != yes) is not sensitive", {
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("no", NA, c("Rcpp")), "not-sensitive")
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("", "Rcpp", c("Rcpp")), "not-sensitive")
+})
+
+test_that("LinkingTo a risky dep is sensitive (version constraints stripped)", {
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("yes", "Rcpp (>= 1.0)", c("Rcpp")), "sensitive")
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("yes", "R6,\n  cpp11", c("Rcpp", "cpp11")), "sensitive")
+})
+
+test_that("compiled but no risky LinkingTo is ambiguous (needs source)", {
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("yes", "R6", c("Rcpp", "cpp11")), "ambiguous")
+  expect_identical(classify_from_metadata("yes", NA, c("Rcpp")), "ambiguous")
+})