diff --git a/toolchains/xslt-M4/schema-gen/make-json-schema-metamap.xsl b/toolchains/xslt-M4/schema-gen/make-json-schema-metamap.xsl
index f4d8c8a4b..a36d62c9a 100644
--- a/toolchains/xslt-M4/schema-gen/make-json-schema-metamap.xsl
+++ b/toolchains/xslt-M4/schema-gen/make-json-schema-metamap.xsl
@@ -16,38 +16,28 @@
     <xsl:strip-space elements="METASCHEMA define-assembly define-field model"/>
     
     <xsl:output indent="yes" method="xml"/>
-
+    
+    <xsl:import href="../nist-metaschema-COMPOSE.xsl"/>
+    
     <!-- This parameter controls whether this transform will compose the source metaschema as part of running this
          stylesheet in standalone mode for debugging. In the CI and CD pipelines for production, this is unusual and
          not desired, so this parameter is not enabled by default and set to false(). For unit testing and local debug
          scenarios, you will want this so you do not save intermediate "composed" metaschemas needed for JSON Schema
          generation, so with Oxygen, Saxon on the CLI, or Saxon via API you would set this to `true()`. -->
     <xsl:param name="compose-metaschema-first" select="true()"/>
+    <xsl:variable name="composed-metaschema" select="if ($compose-metaschema-first) then nm:compose-metaschema(/) else /" />
 
     <xsl:template match="/" priority="2">
-        <xsl:choose>
-            <xsl:when test="$compose-metaschema-first = true()">
-                <xsl:sequence select="nm:compose-metaschema(/)"/>
-            </xsl:when>
-            <xsl:otherwise>
-                <xsl:apply-templates/>
-            </xsl:otherwise>
-        </xsl:choose>
+        <xsl:apply-templates />
     </xsl:template>
     
-    <xsl:variable name="home" select="/"/>
-    
     <xsl:variable name="string-value-label">STRVALUE</xsl:variable>
     <xsl:variable name="markdown-value-label">RICHTEXT</xsl:variable>
     <xsl:variable name="markdown-multiline-label">PROSE</xsl:variable>
     
     <xsl:key name="assembly-definition-by-name" match="METASCHEMA/define-assembly" use="@_key-name"/>
     <xsl:key name="field-definition-by-name"    match="METASCHEMA/define-field"    use="@_key-name"/>
-    <xsl:key name="flag-definition-by-name"     match="METASCHEMA/define-flag"     use="@_key-name"/>
-    
-    <xsl:import href="../nist-metaschema-COMPOSE.xsl"/>
-
-    <xsl:variable name="composed-metaschema" select="/"/> 
+    <xsl:key name="flag-definition-by-name"     match="METASCHEMA/define-flag"     use="@_key-name"/>   
    
     <xsl:template match="/METASCHEMA" expand-text="true">
         <map>