diff --git a/.github/workflows/freebsd.yml b/.github/workflows/freebsd.yml
index 310b46eb2..b20243ca2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/freebsd.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/freebsd.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
-# FreeBSD build, INFORMATIONAL ONLY. Builds the UI-embedded binary (the one
-# every platform ships) inside a FreeBSD VM with the canonical scripts/build.sh,
-# then checks that the binary starts (--version).
+# FreeBSD build, INFORMATIONAL ONLY. Builds the headless binary (the C core,
+# no embedded UI) inside a FreeBSD VM with the canonical scripts/build.sh,
+# then checks that the binary starts (--version). The UI build is not run here:
+# its npm dependency tree pulls in onnxruntime-node, which publishes no FreeBSD
+# build, so `npm ci` stops with EBADPLATFORM. The UI bundle itself is
+# platform-independent JavaScript and is built on every other leg.
 #
 # NON-GATING: workflow_dispatch only. This workflow is not part of the ci-ok
 # aggregate and is not called by release.yml or dry-run.yml, so a FreeBSD red
@@ -26,14 +29,10 @@ jobs:
         release: ['15.1', '14.4']
         arch: ['x86_64']
         # arch: ['x86_64', 'aarch64']
-        # aarch64 is disabled for now: lightningcss (a native Rust dependency
-        # of the Vite/CSS build) publishes no prebuilt binary for freebsd-arm64,
-        # so `npm run build` fails with "Cannot find module
-        # '../lightningcss.freebsd-arm64.node'". That is a gap in the package's
-        # platform coverage, not something fixable on our side without
-        # vendoring a Rust build of it. Re-enable once lightningcss ships that
-        # target, or once the frontend build runs natively on a Linux host
-        # instead of inside the FreeBSD VM.
+        # aarch64 is disabled for now: it has not been proven with this
+        # workflow. Its earlier blocker was the frontend build (lightningcss
+        # publishes no freebsd-arm64 binary), which this headless job no
+        # longer runs. Re-enable after a green aarch64 proof run.
         include:
           - arch: x86_64
             sync: rsync
@@ -62,8 +61,8 @@ jobs:
           cpu: 4
           prepare: |
             pkg update -f
-            pkg install -y gmake sqlite3 pkgconf node22 npm-node22 bash
+            pkg install -y gmake sqlite3 pkgconf bash
             which python3 >/dev/null 2>&1 || ln -sf $(which python3.15 python3.14 python3.13 python3.12 python3.11 python3.10 2>/dev/null | head -n 1) /usr/local/bin/python3
           run: |
-            scripts/build.sh --with-ui CC=clang CXX=clang++
+            scripts/build.sh CC=clang CXX=clang++
             build/c/codebase-memory-mcp --version