diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
index 92edb4b..a7ad524 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/stage.yaml
@@ -190,7 +190,8 @@ jobs:
              -lcurl -lpthread -ldl -lm -lssl -lcrypto
           echo "soul-demo compiled: $(ls -lh dist/soul-demo)"
           # Package as minimal OCI image for k3s import
-          docker build -f dist/Dockerfile.soul-demo -t soul-demo:local dist/
+          # --no-cache: prevents reuse of corrupted overlay2 layers from prior failed runs
+          docker build --no-cache -f dist/Dockerfile.soul-demo -t soul-demo:local dist/
           docker save soul-demo:local -o dist/soul-demo-image.tar
           echo "soul-demo-image.tar: $(du -sh dist/soul-demo-image.tar | cut -f1)"
           docker rmi soul-demo:local 2>/dev/null || true