diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index e3d79cbab..eff29c08f 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -30,24 +30,14 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/setup-node@v4
         with:
           node-version-file: '.node-version'
-          cache: npm
-
-      # Cache node_modules keyed on the lockfile + Node version: an unchanged
-      # lockfile skips `npm ci` (extraction + postinstall folds patch) and just
-      # restores the tree. Save runs only on a miss AND only if install
-      # succeeded (`success()`), so a failed `npm ci` can't poison the cache.
-      # The act_runner cache server is reached over the dedicated `act-cache-net`
-      # docker network (runner cache.host 172.30.0.2) — jobs previously landed on
-      # isolated per-job networks and ETIMEDOUT on it (~5 min wasted per build).
-      - name: Restore node_modules
-        id: node-modules
-        uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
-        with:
-          path: node_modules
-          key: node-modules-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json', '.node-version') }}
 
+      # No npm / node_modules cache: the act_runner's internal cache server is
+      # unreachable from job containers (`getCacheEntry failed: connect ETIMEDOUT
+      # 172.17.0.2`), so every cache restore hangs ~5 min and then fails — pure
+      # cost, zero benefit. `cache: npm` was removed from Setup Node above for the
+      # same reason. Re-enable both (setup-node `cache: npm` + an actions/cache
+      # node_modules step) once the runner's cache server is reachable from jobs.
       - name: Install dependencies
-        if: steps.node-modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
         # Harden against transient registry network failures (ECONNRESET etc.):
         # raise npm's built-in fetch retries/timeouts and retry `npm ci` up to
         # 3 times with backoff before failing the build.
@@ -67,13 +57,6 @@ jobs:
             sleep $((attempt * 15))
           done
 
-      - name: Save node_modules
-        if: steps.node-modules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true' && success()
-        uses: actions/cache/save@v4
-        with:
-          path: node_modules
-          key: node-modules-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json', '.node-version') }}
-
       # ── Quality gates run BEFORE the slow build so a format/lint/type/test
       # error fails in seconds instead of after the ~minutes-long build. All are
       # hard gates — any failure fails the job and blocks the deploy. The tree is