diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
index 06ebb83..fcd5a8c 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ jobs:
             -e PORT=8080 \
             -e NODE_ENV=production \
             -e LANDING_ROOT=/srv/landing \
+            -e SKIP_K3S=1 \
             "$IMAGE"
 
           for i in $(seq 1 15); do
diff --git a/dist/entrypoint.sh b/dist/entrypoint.sh
index 65a7f34..671dbcb 100644
--- a/dist/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/dist/entrypoint.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -e
 
+# SKIP_K3S=1 — bypass k3s/soul-demo startup and go straight to neuron-web.
+# Used by the dev CI smoke test where the container runtime doesn't support
+# the kernel capabilities k3s requires (overlayfs / privileged mode).
+if [ "${SKIP_K3S:-0}" = "1" ]; then
+  echo "[entrypoint] SKIP_K3S=1: starting neuron-web directly (no k3s/soul-demo)."
+  exec /usr/local/bin/neuron-web
+fi
+
 echo "[entrypoint] Starting k3s server (embedded soul-demo orchestrator)..."
 
 # k3s server — single-node mode, disable unused components