diff --git a/local/build-all.R b/local/build-all.R
index f10468b..651a0c7 100644
--- a/local/build-all.R
+++ b/local/build-all.R
@@ -40,21 +40,10 @@ exclude <- c(
 )
 chunk <- chunk[!chunk$Package %in% exclude, ]
 
-# Bulk S3 listing upfront — avoids per-package S3 calls
-s3fs::s3_file_system(
-  aws_access_key_id = Sys.getenv("B2_S3_ACCESS_KEY"),
-  aws_secret_access_key = Sys.getenv("B2_S3_SECRET_KEY"),
-  endpoint = "https://s3.eu-central-003.backblazeb2.com",
-  region_name = "eu-central-003",
-  refresh = TRUE
-)
-codename <- bincraft::set_codename(NULL)
-local_arch <- Sys.info()[["machine"]]
-arch <- if (grepl("arm64|aarch64", local_arch)) "arm64" else "amd64"
-s3_cache <- basename(s3fs::s3_dir_ls(
-  sprintf("devxy-rpkgs-binaries/%s/%s/latest/src/contrib", arch, codename),
-  recurse = TRUE
-))
+# Read pre-computed S3 listing from install-deps step
+# This avoids loading s3fs/reticulate/Python in the build container,
+# saving significant memory for pak subprocess forks
+s3_cache <- readRDS("/mnt/cache/packages/s3_cache.rds")
 sprintf("S3 cache: %s files", length(s3_cache))
 
 n <- nrow(chunk)
diff --git a/local/packages-to-build.R b/local/packages-to-build.R
index 043a9c0..91ee96e 100644
--- a/local/packages-to-build.R
+++ b/local/packages-to-build.R
@@ -83,6 +83,10 @@ s3_pkgs = s3fs::s3_dir_ls(
   recurse = TRUE
 )
 
+# Save the raw S3 file listing for the build step to use as s3_package_cache
+# This avoids loading s3fs/reticulate in the build container, saving memory for pak forks
+saveRDS(basename(s3_pkgs), "/mnt/cache/packages/s3_cache.rds")
+
 file_names <- basename(s3_pkgs)
 matches <- regexec("^([A-Za-z0-9.]+)_([0-9][^/]*)\\.tar\\.gz$", file_names)
 parts <- regmatches(file_names, matches)