diff --git a/.crow/build-all-versions-install-deps.yaml b/.crow/build-all-versions-install-deps.yaml
index 389b57b..ad51300 100644
--- a/.crow/build-all-versions-install-deps.yaml
+++ b/.crow/build-all-versions-install-deps.yaml
@@ -4,19 +4,19 @@
 # they are merged with build-all-versions' identical declarations.
 variables:
   target_arch:
-    description: 'Architecture to build.'
+    description: "Architecture to build."
     options:
       - amd64
       - arm64
     default: amd64
   OS:
-    description: 'Base OS image name (e.g. alpine, redhat, ubuntu).'
+    description: "Base OS image name (e.g. alpine, redhat, ubuntu)."
     default: alpine
   OS_VERSION:
-    description: 'OS version / image tag (e.g. 3.24, 9, jammy, noble).'
-    default: '3.24'
+    description: "OS version / image tag (e.g. 3.24, 9, jammy, noble)."
+    default: "3.24"
   R_VERSION:
-    description: 'Primary R version under /opt/R.'
+    description: "Primary R version under /opt/R."
     options:
       - 4.5.3
       - 4.4.3
@@ -60,10 +60,6 @@ steps:
     commands:
       # one-time full wipe to fix corrupted .so files from previous failed builds
       # - rm -rf /mnt/cache/R-pkgs
-      # Clear churny pkgcache metadata left by a prior crashed run (the "patched"
-      # repo mints a new hash per PACKAGES change -> unbounded pkgs-*.rds/patched-*).
-      # Keep pkg/ downloads and the stable CRAN/BioC/INLA repo dirs.
-      - rm -rf /mnt/cache/pkgcache/R/pkgcache/_metadata/patched-* /mnt/cache/pkgcache/R/pkgcache/_metadata/pkgs-*.rds || true
       - mkdir -p /mnt/cache/pkgcache /mnt/cache/R-pkgs /mnt/cache/ccache /mnt/cache/packages
       - git clone -q https://pat-s:$$REPO_RO_TOKEN@git.devxy.io/devxy/build-cran-binaries.git .
       - git clone -q https://codefloe.com/rpkgs/bincraft.git /tmp/bincraft
diff --git a/.crow/build-all-versions.yaml b/.crow/build-all-versions.yaml
index 1d4feee..639ce80 100644
--- a/.crow/build-all-versions.yaml
+++ b/.crow/build-all-versions.yaml
@@ -5,19 +5,19 @@
 # Skip list lives in local/excluded-packages.json (read by local/build-all.R).
 variables:
   target_arch:
-    description: 'Architecture to build.'
+    description: "Architecture to build."
     options:
       - amd64
       - arm64
     default: amd64
   OS:
-    description: 'Base OS image name (e.g. alpine, redhat, ubuntu).'
+    description: "Base OS image name (e.g. alpine, redhat, ubuntu)."
     default: alpine
   OS_VERSION:
-    description: 'OS version / image tag (e.g. 3.24, 9, jammy, noble).'
-    default: '3.24'
+    description: "OS version / image tag (e.g. 3.24, 9, jammy, noble)."
+    default: "3.24"
   R_VERSION:
-    description: 'Primary R version under /opt/R.'
+    description: "Primary R version under /opt/R."
     options:
       - 4.5.3
       - 4.4.3
@@ -99,11 +99,6 @@ steps:
       - ${ARCH}-binaries-r-dep-cache-${OS}-${OS_VERSION//./}:/mnt/cache
     commands:
       - git clone -q https://pat-s:$$REPO_RO_TOKEN@git.devxy.io/devxy/build-cran-binaries.git .
-      # Clear churny pkgcache metadata left by a prior crashed run (the "patched"
-      # repo mints a new hash per PACKAGES change -> unbounded pkgs-*.rds/patched-*).
-      # Keep pkg/ downloads and the stable CRAN/BioC/INLA repo dirs. Within-run
-      # growth is bounded separately by trim_pkgcache_metadata() in build-all.R.
-      - rm -rf /mnt/cache/pkgcache/R/pkgcache/_metadata/patched-* /mnt/cache/pkgcache/R/pkgcache/_metadata/pkgs-*.rds || true
       - mkdir -p /mnt/cache/pkgcache /mnt/cache/R-pkgs /mnt/cache/ccache /mnt/cache/packages
       - XVFB=$(command -v xwfb-run 2>/dev/null || command -v xvfb-run); XVFB_ARGS=""; if command -v xwfb-run >/dev/null 2>&1; then dnf install -y -q weston 2>/dev/null; XVFB_ARGS="-c weston"; fi
       - $XVFB $XVFB_ARGS -n $SPLIT_INDEX -- /opt/R/$R_VERSION/bin/Rscript local/build-all.R $SPLIT_INTO $SPLIT_INDEX $NCPUS 2>&1
@@ -157,4 +152,4 @@ steps:
             cpu: 1000m
           limits:
             memory: 20Gi
-            cpu: 2000m
+            cpu: 2000m
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/local/build-all.R b/local/build-all.R
index 56f1fbc..8ce1cd5 100644
--- a/local/build-all.R
+++ b/local/build-all.R
@@ -15,31 +15,6 @@ library(bincraft, quietly = TRUE)
 library(future)
 plan("sequential")
 
-# The install-deps step precomputes the package snapshot into /mnt/cache, but
-# that volume is per-agent: a job landing on a fresh agent (or racing
-# install-deps) finds it empty. Recompute the snapshot here when any part is
-# missing, so the first job on an agent repopulates the cache for the jobs that
-# follow; concurrent jobs that also miss simply redo the work. Write via a
-# temp file + atomic rename so a concurrent reader never sees a half-written rds.
-package_cache_files <- c(
-  "/mnt/cache/packages/pkgs_to_build.rds",
-  "/mnt/cache/packages/r_minor_sensitive_pkgs.rds",
-  "/mnt/cache/packages/s3_cache.rds"
-)
-if (!all(file.exists(package_cache_files))) {
-  message("Package snapshot missing from cache; recomputing via packages-to-build.R")
-  dir.create("/mnt/cache/packages", showWarnings = FALSE, recursive = TRUE)
-  save_rds_atomic <- function(obj, path) {
-    tmp <- paste0(path, ".tmp.", Sys.getpid())
-    saveRDS(obj, tmp)
-    file.rename(tmp, path)
-  }
-  source(file.path("local", "packages-to-build.R"))
-  save_rds_atomic(pkgs, "/mnt/cache/packages/pkgs_to_build.rds")
-  save_rds_atomic(pkgs[r_minor_sensitive == TRUE], "/mnt/cache/packages/r_minor_sensitive_pkgs.rds")
-  message("Package snapshot recomputed.")
-}
-
 pkgs <- if (sensitive_only) {
   readRDS("/mnt/cache/packages/r_minor_sensitive_pkgs.rds")
 } else {
@@ -96,10 +71,6 @@ s3_cache <- readRDS("/mnt/cache/packages/s3_cache.rds")
 sprintf("S3 cache: %s files", length(s3_cache))
 
 n <- nrow(chunk)
-# Every `trim_every` packages, bound the pkgcache _metadata dir so a full-platform
-# run does not accumulate thousands of ~70 MB snapshots and fill the host disk.
-# No-op on amd64 (R_PKG_CACHE_DIR is empty / cache not persisted).
-trim_every <- 25L
 mapply(
   function(pkg, ver, sens, i) {
     cat(sprintf("[%d/%d] %s_%s (r_minor_sensitive=%s)\n", i, n, pkg, ver, sens))
@@ -124,12 +95,6 @@ mapply(
       upload = TRUE,
       store_build_metadata = TRUE
     )
-    if (i %% trim_every == 0L) {
-      removed <- trim_pkgcache_metadata()
-      if (removed > 0L) {
-        cat(sprintf("  [pkgcache trim] removed %d stale _metadata entries\n", removed))
-      }
-    }
   },
   chunk$Package,
   chunk$Version,
diff --git a/local/r-minor-helpers.R b/local/r-minor-helpers.R
index 6f01c29..65aafdf 100644
--- a/local/r-minor-helpers.R
+++ b/local/r-minor-helpers.R
@@ -31,42 +31,3 @@ parse_build_args <- function(args) {
     ncpus = as.integer(pos[3L])
   )
 }
-
-# Bound the {pkgcache} metadata dir, which otherwise grows without limit: the
-# "patched" repo mints a new content hash on every PACKAGES change, so each build
-# writes a fresh ~70 MB _metadata/pkgs-<hash>.rds (+ patched-<hash>/) that is
-# never reused. Keep the `keep` newest entries by mtime; only remove entries
-# older than `min_age_secs`, so a concurrent split-job's in-flight files are
-# never deleted (each build uses a unique hash, so aged entries are
-# unreferenced). Stable repo dirs (CRAN-*, BioC*, INLA-*) and pkg/ downloads are
-# not matched and thus preserved. Returns the number of entries removed.
-trim_pkgcache_metadata <- function(cache_dir = Sys.getenv("R_PKG_CACHE_DIR"),
-                                   keep = 20L,
-                                   min_age_secs = 600) {
-  meta <- file.path(cache_dir, "R", "pkgcache", "_metadata")
-  if (!nzchar(cache_dir) || !dir.exists(meta)) {
-    return(0L)
-  }
-  entries <- c(
-    Sys.glob(file.path(meta, "patched-*")),
-    Sys.glob(file.path(meta, "pkgs-*.rds"))
-  )
-  if (length(entries) == 0L) {
-    return(0L)
-  }
-  info <- file.info(entries)
-  order_new_first <- order(info$mtime, decreasing = TRUE)
-  ranked <- entries[order_new_first]
-  ranked_mtime <- info$mtime[order_new_first]
-  if (length(ranked) <= keep) {
-    return(0L)
-  }
-  candidates <- ranked[(keep + 1L):length(ranked)]
-  candidate_age <- as.numeric(Sys.time()) - as.numeric(ranked_mtime[(keep + 1L):length(ranked)])
-  removable <- candidates[candidate_age >= min_age_secs]
-  if (length(removable) == 0L) {
-    return(0L)
-  }
-  unlink(removable, recursive = TRUE, force = TRUE)
-  length(removable)
-}
diff --git a/local/tests/test-trim-pkgcache.R b/local/tests/test-trim-pkgcache.R
deleted file mode 100644
index 1a5b418..0000000
--- a/local/tests/test-trim-pkgcache.R
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,68 +0,0 @@
-source(file.path("..", "r-minor-helpers.R"))
-
-# Build a fake _metadata dir under a temp R_PKG_CACHE_DIR. Each entry's mtime is
-# set to `age_secs` in the past so we can exercise the age gate deterministically.
-make_meta <- function(patched = 0L, pkgs = 0L, keep_repos = TRUE, age_secs = 3600) {
-  root <- tempfile("pkgcache-")
-  meta <- file.path(root, "R", "pkgcache", "_metadata")
-  dir.create(meta, recursive = TRUE)
-  old <- Sys.time() - age_secs
-  mk_dir <- function(p) { dir.create(p); Sys.setFileTime(p, old); p }
-  mk_file <- function(p) { writeLines("x", p); Sys.setFileTime(p, old); p }
-  for (i in seq_len(patched)) mk_dir(file.path(meta, sprintf("patched-%03d", i)))
-  for (i in seq_len(pkgs)) mk_file(file.path(meta, sprintf("pkgs-%03d.rds", i)))
-  if (keep_repos) {
-    mk_dir(file.path(meta, "CRAN-075c426938"))
-    mk_dir(file.path(meta, "BioCsoft-1ac964ed6c"))
-    mk_file(file.path(meta, "bioc-sysreqs.dcf.gz"))
-    mk_dir(file.path(root, "R", "pkgcache", "pkg")) # downloads, must survive
-  }
-  root
-}
-
-n_churn <- function(root) {
-  meta <- file.path(root, "R", "pkgcache", "_metadata")
-  length(Sys.glob(file.path(meta, "patched-*"))) +
-    length(Sys.glob(file.path(meta, "pkgs-*.rds")))
-}
-
-test_that("empty cache_dir is a no-op", {
-  expect_identical(trim_pkgcache_metadata("", keep = 5L, min_age_secs = 0), 0L)
-})
-
-test_that("missing _metadata dir is a no-op", {
-  expect_identical(
-    trim_pkgcache_metadata(tempfile("absent-"), keep = 5L, min_age_secs = 0),
-    0L
-  )
-})
-
-test_that("fewer than keep entries removes nothing", {
-  root <- make_meta(patched = 2L, pkgs = 2L)
-  expect_identical(trim_pkgcache_metadata(root, keep = 20L, min_age_secs = 0), 0L)
-  expect_identical(n_churn(root), 4L)
-})
-
-test_that("trims down to keep newest, leaving churn == keep", {
-  root <- make_meta(patched = 30L, pkgs = 30L) # 60 churn entries, all old
-  removed <- trim_pkgcache_metadata(root, keep = 20L, min_age_secs = 0)
-  expect_identical(removed, 40L)
-  expect_identical(n_churn(root), 20L)
-})
-
-test_that("entries younger than min_age_secs are protected", {
-  root <- make_meta(patched = 30L, pkgs = 0L, keep_repos = FALSE, age_secs = 60)
-  # keep=5 would drop 25, but all are 60s old < 600s gate -> nothing removed
-  expect_identical(trim_pkgcache_metadata(root, keep = 5L, min_age_secs = 600), 0L)
-  expect_identical(n_churn(root), 30L)
-})
-
-test_that("stable repo dirs and pkg downloads are never touched", {
-  root <- make_meta(patched = 30L, pkgs = 30L)
-  trim_pkgcache_metadata(root, keep = 0L, min_age_secs = 0)
-  meta <- file.path(root, "R", "pkgcache", "_metadata")
-  expect_true(dir.exists(file.path(meta, "CRAN-075c426938")))
-  expect_true(dir.exists(file.path(meta, "BioCsoft-1ac964ed6c")))
-  expect_true(file.exists(file.path(meta, "bioc-sysreqs.dcf.gz")))
-  expect_true(dir.exists(file.path(root, "R", "pkgcache", "pkg")))
-})