diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
index e3d97e4..56b0090 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -97,17 +97,23 @@ jobs:
           ELC=/opt/el/dist/platform/elc
           RUNTIME=/opt/el/runtime
 
+          # Preserve the pre-compiled dist/soul.c from the repo before running elb.
+          # elb may overwrite it during compilation; we always want the repo version
+          # since it contains the patched self-contained translation unit (all modules
+          # inlined, workspace scope fix, agentic dedup fix, etc.).
+          cp dist/soul.c /tmp/soul.c.prebuilt
+
           # Compile all El modules to C via elb.
           # elb fails at link on Linux (GNU ld rejects duplicate strong symbols that
           # macOS ld accepts silently) — that's expected and captured with || true.
-          # The important output is dist/soul.c: the El compiler inlines all imported
-          # modules into the entry-point file, so soul.c is a self-contained
-          # translation unit.  We never link the other dist/*.c files — they contain
-          # the same symbols inlined again, plus capability-violation #error guards
-          # that fire when compiled outside the cgi entrypoint.
           $ELB --elc=$ELC --runtime=$RUNTIME/el_runtime.c || true
 
-          # Link only soul.c + the runtime.  No --allow-multiple-definition needed.
+          # Restore the repo's self-contained soul.c — elb may have overwritten it
+          # with a partial (non-inlined) version that lacks module-level definitions.
+          cp /tmp/soul.c.prebuilt dist/soul.c
+
+          # Compile the self-contained translation unit.  No --allow-multiple-definition
+          # needed since soul.c inlines all modules.
           mkdir -p dist
           cc -O2 -DHAVE_CURL \
             -I$RUNTIME \