diff --git a/src/applications/repository/daemon/PhabricatorRepositoryPullLocalDaemon.php b/src/applications/repository/daemon/PhabricatorRepositoryPullLocalDaemon.php
--- a/src/applications/repository/daemon/PhabricatorRepositoryPullLocalDaemon.php
+++ b/src/applications/repository/daemon/PhabricatorRepositoryPullLocalDaemon.php
@@ -346,6 +346,49 @@
     }
 
     $sleep_for = (int)$repository->getDetail('pull-frequency', $min_sleep);
+
+    // Smart wait: pull rarely used repositories less frequently. Find the
+    // most recent commit which is older than the current time (this keeps us
+    // from spinning on repositories with a silly commit post-dated to some time
+    // in 2037), and adjust how frequently we pull based on how frequently this
+    // repository updates.
+
+    $table = id(new PhabricatorRepositoryCommit());
+    $last_commit = queryfx_one(
+      $table->establishConnection('w'),
+      'SELECT epoch FROM %T
+        WHERE repositoryID = %d AND epoch <= %d
+        ORDER BY epoch DESC LIMIT 1',
+      $table->getTableName(),
+      $repository->getID(),
+      time() + $min_sleep);
+    if ($last_commit) {
+      $time_since_commit = (time() + $min_sleep) - $last_commit['epoch'];
+
+      // Wait 0.5% of the time since the last commit before we pull. This gives
+      // us these wait times:
+      //
+      // 50 minutes or less: 15 seconds
+      // about 3 hours: 1 minute
+      // about 16 hours: 5 minutes
+      // about 2 days: 15 minutes
+      // 50 days or more: 6 hours
+
+      $smart_wait = ($time_since_commit / 200);
+      $smart_wait = min($smart_wait, phutil_units('6 hours in seconds'));
+
+      $this->log(
+        pht(
+          'Last commit to repository "%s" was %s seconds ago; considering '.
+          'a wait of %s seconds before update.',
+          $repository->getMonogram(),
+          new PhutilNumber($time_since_commit),
+          new PhutilNumber($smart_wait)));
+
+      $smart_wait = max(15, $smart_wait);
+      $sleep_for = max($smart_wait, $sleep_for);
+    }
+
     if ($sleep_for < $min_sleep) {
       $sleep_for = $min_sleep;
     }