diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yaml
index 596f183..63c5788 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yaml
@@ -80,8 +80,7 @@ jobs:
           git clone --depth 1 \
             "https://will:${CHECKOUT_TOKEN}@git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el.git" \
             "$DEST"
-          ls -la "$DEST" | head -5
-          echo "EL_HOME=$DEST" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+          echo "EL_HOME=$DEST/lang" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
       - name: Authenticate to GCP
         id: auth
@@ -104,15 +103,12 @@ jobs:
       - name: Configure docker auth for Artifact Registry
         run: gcloud auth configure-docker us-central1-docker.pkg.dev --quiet
 
-      - name: Get elc (pre-built linux/amd64 from El SDK release)
+      - name: Get elc (pre-built linux/amd64 from El repo)
         if: steps.changetype.outputs.asset_only != 'true'
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
-          curl -fL -o "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc" \
-            https://git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el/releases/download/v1.2.1/elc-linux-amd64
-          chmod +x "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
-          file "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
-          ls -la "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
+          chmod +x "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64"
+          ln -sf "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64" "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
 
       - name: Compute image tag
         id: tag
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
index 70c9891..9bb5d96 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/dev.yaml
@@ -34,36 +34,18 @@ jobs:
         with:
           fetch-depth: 2
 
-      - name: Set up El SDK (build linux elc from repo C source)
+      - name: Set up El SDK
         env:
           CHECKOUT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.CHECKOUT_TOKEN }}
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
-
-          # Install curl dev libs — needed to link elc.c.
-          # ci-base has gcc but not libcurl4-openssl-dev.
-          sudo apt-get update -qq
-          sudo apt-get install -y -qq libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev
-
           DEST="${{ github.workspace }}/../foundation-el"
-
-          # Clone El repo for source files, runtime, and JS runtime
-          git -c "http.extraheader=Authorization: token ${CHECKOUT_TOKEN}" clone \
-            --depth=1 \
-            "https://git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el.git" \
+          git clone --depth=1 \
+            "https://will:${CHECKOUT_TOKEN}@git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el.git" \
             "$DEST"
-
-          # Compile elc.c (committed C source of the El compiler) for linux/amd64.
-          # The darwin arm64 binary at lang/dist/platform/elc can't run on linux.
-          # Note: -lcurl -lpthread must come AFTER source files on gcc/linux.
-          cc -std=c11 -O2 \
-             -I "$DEST/lang/el-compiler/runtime" \
-             -o "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc" \
-             "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc.c" \
-             "$DEST/lang/el-compiler/runtime/el_runtime.c" \
-             -lcurl -lpthread
-
-          chmod +x "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc"
+          # Use the pre-built linux/amd64 binary — no C compilation needed in CI.
+          chmod +x "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64"
+          ln -sf "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64" "$DEST/lang/dist/platform/elc"
           echo "EL_HOME=$DEST/lang" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
       - name: Authenticate to GCP
@@ -84,9 +66,6 @@ jobs:
         run: echo "tag=dev-${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
       - name: Touch HTML placeholder files
-        # El binary regenerates these at startup via fs_write. They must exist
-        # in the build context for Dockerfile COPY to succeed. touch is
-        # idempotent if the files already exist from a prior run.
         run: touch src/index.html src/about.html src/terms.html src/enterprise-terms.html
 
       - name: Build image (local only — no push)
@@ -104,8 +83,6 @@ jobs:
             -e LANDING_ROOT=/srv/landing \
             "$IMAGE"
 
-          # entrypoint.sh sleeps 4s for soul-demo to load before starting neuron-web.
-          # Poll up to 45s total.
           for i in $(seq 1 15); do
             STATUS=$(curl -sSo /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 http://localhost:8080/ || echo "000")
             echo "Attempt $i/15: HTTP $STATUS"
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
index 46246b6..4976bbd 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ jobs:
           git clone --depth 1 \
             "https://will:${CHECKOUT_TOKEN}@git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el.git" \
             "$DEST"
-          echo "EL_HOME=$DEST" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+          echo "EL_HOME=$DEST/lang" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
       - name: Authenticate to GCP
         uses: google-github-actions/auth@v2
@@ -97,19 +97,8 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.changetype.outputs.asset_only != 'true'
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
-          # Copy the El C-compiler binary from the cloned El repo into the expected path.
-          # The JS-capable elc for client-side compilation is committed in bin/elc-linux-amd64
-          # and used automatically by build-stage.sh on linux/amd64.
-          ELC_SRC="$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64"
-          if [ -f "$ELC_SRC" ]; then
-            cp "$ELC_SRC" "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
-            chmod +x "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
-          else
-            # Fallback: download v1.2.1 C-compiler if the repo binary is absent
-            curl -fL -o "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc" \
-              https://git.neuralplatform.ai/neuron-technologies/el/releases/download/v1.2.1/elc-linux-amd64
-            chmod +x "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
-          fi
+          chmod +x "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64"
+          ln -sf "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc-linux-amd64" "$EL_HOME/dist/platform/elc"
 
       - name: Compute image tag
         id: tag