diff --git a/src/mergify.js b/src/mergify.js
index d3f89fb..305a57e 100644
--- a/src/mergify.js
+++ b/src/mergify.js
@@ -61,6 +61,48 @@ export function resetForNavigation() {
     lastPullRequestUrl = null;
 }
 
+function injectRowIntoMergeBox() {
+    // New merge box — the mergebox-partial may be inside discussion-timeline-actions
+    // or a separate element in the page (GitHub layout varies)
+    const mergeBoxPartial = document.querySelector(
+        '[data-testid="mergebox-partial"]',
+    );
+    if (mergeBoxPartial) {
+        const mergeBoxContainer =
+            mergeBoxPartial.querySelector(".border.rounded-2");
+        if (mergeBoxContainer) {
+            mergeBoxContainer.appendChild(buildMergifyRow());
+            debug("Mergify section injected inside merge box container");
+            return true;
+        }
+    }
+
+    let detailSection = document.querySelector(
+        "div[class=discussion-timeline-actions]",
+    );
+    if (detailSection) {
+        const mergeBoxContainer = detailSection.querySelector(
+            ".merge-pr .border.rounded-2",
+        );
+        if (mergeBoxContainer) {
+            mergeBoxContainer.appendChild(buildMergifyRow());
+            debug("Mergify section injected inside merge-pr container");
+            return true;
+        }
+        debug("Merge box container not found yet, waiting for render");
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    // Classic merge box
+    detailSection = document.querySelector(".mergeability-details");
+    if (detailSection) {
+        detailSection.insertBefore(buildMergifyRow(), detailSection.firstChild);
+        debug("Mergify section injected in classic merge box");
+        return true;
+    }
+    return false;
+}
+
 async function _tryInject() {
     if (!isGitHubPullRequestPage()) {
         // SPA-navigated away from a PR (e.g., back to /pulls). The
@@ -81,70 +123,48 @@ async function _tryInject() {
         lastPullRequestUrl = currentUrl;
     }
 
-    const hasMergifyConfiguration = await getMergifyConfigurationStatus();
-    if (!isMergifyEnabledOnTheRepo(hasMergifyConfiguration)) {
+    // Try synchronous Mergify-enabled detection first (Mergify app icon in
+    // DOM, or cached repo result). Only fall back to the /search fetch when
+    // we have no synchronous signal — that fetch is the single biggest
+    // contributor to first-row latency on cold loads.
+    let mergifyEnabled = isMergifyEnabledOnTheRepo(false);
+    if (!mergifyEnabled) {
+        const hasMergifyConfiguration = await getMergifyConfigurationStatus();
+        mergifyEnabled = isMergifyEnabledOnTheRepo(hasMergifyConfiguration);
+    }
+    if (!mergifyEnabled) {
         debug("Mergify is not enabled on the repo");
         return;
     }
 
     const _data = getPullRequestData();
-    await renderMergifyContext({
+    const contextPayload = {
         org: _data.org,
         repo: _data.repo,
         number: Number.parseInt(_data.pull, 10),
         subpath: _data.subpath,
-    });
+    };
 
     const existingRow = document.querySelector("#mergify");
     if (existingRow) {
         updateMergifyRow(existingRow);
+        void renderMergifyContext(contextPayload);
         return;
     }
 
-    // Fetch queue state before first render (only once per PR page visit)
-    await fetchQueueStateIfNeeded();
+    // Inject the row immediately with state derived synchronously from the
+    // DOM. The queue-state and stack-context fetches run in parallel in the
+    // background — when fetchQueueStateIfNeeded resolves, we re-derive the
+    // button state and swap it in if it changed.
+    const injected = injectRowIntoMergeBox();
 
-    // New merge box — the mergebox-partial may be inside discussion-timeline-actions
-    // or a separate element in the page (GitHub layout varies)
-    const mergeBoxPartial = document.querySelector(
-        '[data-testid="mergebox-partial"]',
-    );
-    if (mergeBoxPartial) {
-        const mergeBoxContainer =
-            mergeBoxPartial.querySelector(".border.rounded-2");
-        if (mergeBoxContainer) {
-            mergeBoxContainer.appendChild(buildMergifyRow());
-            debug("Mergify section injected inside merge box container");
-            scheduleQueueStatePoll();
-            return;
-        }
-    }
+    void renderMergifyContext(contextPayload);
+    void fetchQueueStateIfNeeded().then(() => {
+        const row = document.querySelector("#mergify");
+        if (row) updateMergifyRow(row);
+    });
 
-    let detailSection = document.querySelector(
-        "div[class=discussion-timeline-actions]",
-    );
-    if (detailSection) {
-        // Fallback: look for merge box inside discussion-timeline-actions
-        const mergeBoxContainer = detailSection.querySelector(
-            ".merge-pr .border.rounded-2",
-        );
-        if (mergeBoxContainer) {
-            mergeBoxContainer.appendChild(buildMergifyRow());
-            debug("Mergify section injected inside merge-pr container");
-            scheduleQueueStatePoll();
-        } else {
-            debug("Merge box container not found yet, waiting for render");
-        }
-        return;
-    }
-    // Classic merge box
-    detailSection = document.querySelector(".mergeability-details");
-    if (detailSection) {
-        detailSection.insertBefore(buildMergifyRow(), detailSection.firstChild);
-        debug("Mergify section injected in classic merge box");
-        scheduleQueueStatePoll();
-        return;
-    }
+    if (injected) scheduleQueueStatePoll();
 }
 
 function tryInject() {
diff --git a/src/queue.js b/src/queue.js
index 508ff30..f81d939 100644
--- a/src/queue.js
+++ b/src/queue.js
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ import { getPullRequestData, isGitHubPullRequestPage } from "./dom.js";
 import { getLogoSvg, parseSvg } from "./logo.js";
 import { resetStackState } from "./stacks.js";
 
+const QUEUE_ICON_SVG = `<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="14" height="14" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M2 4a1 1 0 1 0 0-2 1 1 0 0 0 0 2Zm3.75-1.5a.75.75 0 0 0 0 1.5h8.5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5h-8.5Zm0 5a.75.75 0 0 0 0 1.5h8.5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5h-8.5Zm0 5a.75.75 0 0 0 0 1.5h8.5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5h-8.5ZM3 8a1 1 0 1 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0Zm-1 6a1 1 0 1 1 0-2 1 1 0 0 1 0 2Z"/></svg>`;
+
+const LOGS_ICON_SVG = `<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="14" height="14" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M8 0a8 8 0 1 1 0 16A8 8 0 0 1 8 0Zm0 1.5a6.5 6.5 0 1 0 0 13 6.5 6.5 0 0 0 0-13ZM6.5 4.75a.75.75 0 0 1 1.5 0v3.44l1.97 1.97a.75.75 0 1 1-1.06 1.06l-2.19-2.19a.75.75 0 0 1-.22-.53Z"/></svg>`;
+
 export const BUTTONS = [
     {
         command: "refresh",
@@ -365,7 +369,9 @@ export function buildQueueButton(state) {
         case "dequeuing":
             btn = buildMergeBoxButton(
                 state === "queuing" ? "queue" : "dequeue",
-                state === "queuing" ? "Queuing…" : "Dequeuing…",
+                state === "queuing"
+                    ? "Adding to merge queue…"
+                    : "Removing from merge queue…",
                 "Waiting for Mergify to process…",
                 true,
                 "secondary",
@@ -374,7 +380,7 @@ export function buildQueueButton(state) {
         case "queued":
             btn = buildMergeBoxButton(
                 "dequeue",
-                "Dequeue",
+                "Remove from merge queue",
                 "Remove the pull request from the merge queue",
                 false,
                 "danger",
@@ -384,7 +390,7 @@ export function buildQueueButton(state) {
         default:
             btn = buildMergeBoxButton(
                 "queue",
-                "Queue",
+                "Add to merge queue",
                 "Add the pull request to the merge queue",
                 false,
                 "primary",
@@ -411,76 +417,72 @@ export function buildMergifyRow() {
 
     const row = document.createElement("div");
     row.id = "mergify";
+    row.className =
+        "bgColor-muted borderColor-muted border-top rounded-bottom-2";
     row.style.cssText =
-        "padding:10px 16px;border-top:1px solid var(--borderColor-default, #30363d);display:flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;";
+        "display:flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:var(--base-size-16,16px)!important;";
 
-    const logo = document.createElement("div");
-    logo.style.cssText = "flex-shrink:0;display:flex;";
-    const svgEl = parseSvg(getLogoSvg());
-    svgEl.setAttribute("width", "20");
-    svgEl.setAttribute("height", "20");
-    logo.appendChild(svgEl);
-    row.appendChild(logo);
+    if (state !== "merged" && state !== "closed") {
+        const buttons = document.createElement("div");
+        buttons.style.cssText = "display:flex;gap:6px;";
+        buttons.appendChild(buildQueueButton(state));
+        for (const btn of BUTTONS) {
+            buttons.appendChild(
+                buildMergeBoxButton(
+                    btn.command,
+                    btn.label,
+                    btn.tooltip,
+                    false,
+                    "secondary",
+                ),
+            );
+        }
+        row.appendChild(buttons);
+    }
 
     const info = document.createElement("div");
     info.style.cssText =
-        "flex:1;display:flex;align-items:center;gap:6px;font-size:13px;";
-
-    const label = document.createElement("span");
-    label.style.fontWeight = "600";
-    label.textContent = "Mergify";
-    info.appendChild(label);
-
-    function appendDot() {
-        const dot = document.createElement("span");
-        dot.style.color = "var(--fgColor-muted, #7d8590)";
-        dot.textContent = "·";
-        info.appendChild(dot);
-    }
+        "display:flex;align-items:center;gap:12px;font-size:14px;margin-left:auto;";
 
-    function appendLink(href, text) {
-        appendDot();
+    function appendLink(href, text, iconSvg) {
         const link = document.createElement("a");
         link.href = href;
         link.target = "_blank";
         link.rel = "noopener noreferrer";
-        link.textContent = text;
         link.style.cssText =
-            "color:var(--fgColor-accent, #58a6ff);text-decoration:none;font-size:12px;";
+            "color:var(--fgColor-accent, #58a6ff);text-decoration:none;display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:4px;";
+        link.appendChild(parseSvg(iconSvg));
+        link.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text));
         info.appendChild(link);
     }
 
-    appendLink(getMergeQueueLink(), "queue");
-    appendLink(getEventLogLink(), "logs");
-
-    row.appendChild(info);
+    appendLink(getMergeQueueLink(), "queue", QUEUE_ICON_SVG);
+    appendLink(getEventLogLink(), "logs", LOGS_ICON_SVG);
 
     if (state === "merged") {
         const status = document.createElement("span");
-        status.style.cssText =
-            "color:var(--fgColor-muted, #7d8590);font-size:13px;";
+        status.style.color = "var(--fgColor-muted, #7d8590)";
         status.textContent = getMergedMessage();
-        row.appendChild(status);
-    } else if (state !== "closed") {
-        const buttons = document.createElement("div");
-        buttons.style.cssText = "display:flex;gap:6px;";
-
-        buttons.appendChild(buildQueueButton(state));
+        info.appendChild(status);
+    }
 
-        for (const btn of BUTTONS) {
-            buttons.appendChild(
-                buildMergeBoxButton(
-                    btn.command,
-                    btn.label,
-                    btn.tooltip,
-                    false,
-                    "secondary",
-                ),
-            );
-        }
+    const brand = document.createElement("a");
+    brand.href = "https://dashboard.mergify.com";
+    brand.target = "_blank";
+    brand.rel = "noopener noreferrer";
+    brand.title = "Open Mergify dashboard";
+    brand.style.cssText =
+        "display:flex;align-items:center;gap:6px;margin-left:8px;color:var(--fgColor-default, #e6edf3);text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;";
+    const svgEl = parseSvg(getLogoSvg());
+    svgEl.setAttribute("width", "20");
+    svgEl.setAttribute("height", "20");
+    brand.appendChild(svgEl);
+    const brandText = document.createElement("span");
+    brandText.textContent = "Mergify";
+    brand.appendChild(brandText);
+    info.appendChild(brand);
 
-        row.appendChild(buttons);
-    }
+    row.appendChild(info);
 
     return row;
 }