diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 7b980a5..712bf64 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ jobs:
     needs: [build]
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+      - name: Build packages
+        run: bash scripts/commands/build.sh --summary
       - uses: actions/setup-node@a0853c24544627f65ddf259abe73b1d18a591444 # v22.16.0
         with:
           node-version: '24'
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 7b980a5..712bf64 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ jobs:
     needs: [build]
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+      - name: Build packages
+        run: bash scripts/commands/build.sh --summary
       - uses: actions/setup-node@a0853c24544627f65ddf259abe73b1d18a591444 # v22.16.0
         with:
           node-version: '24'
diff --git a/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py b/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
index 5d690cd..f2c61c2 100644
--- a/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
+++ b/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
 import re
+import socket
 from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 from types import SimpleNamespace
 import time
@@ -26,12 +27,29 @@ def embedding():
     return array('f', [1.0] + [0.0] * (MODULE.EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS - 1))
 
 
+def huggingface_available():
+    try:
+        socket.getaddrinfo('huggingface.co', 443)
+    except socket.gaierror:
+        return False
+    return True
+
+
 class RetrievalServerTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_huggingface_availability_handles_dns_failure(self):
+        with patch('socket.getaddrinfo', side_effect=socket.gaierror):
+            self.assertFalse(huggingface_available())
+
     def test_ci_disables_xet_for_model_downloads(self):
         for workflow in ('.github/workflows/ci.yml', '.gitea/workflows/ci.yml'):
             content = (ROOT / workflow).read_text(encoding='utf-8')
             self.assertIn("HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET: '1'", content)
 
+    def test_client_smoke_builds_packages(self):
+        for workflow in ('.github/workflows/ci.yml', '.gitea/workflows/ci.yml'):
+            content = (ROOT / workflow).read_text(encoding='utf-8')
+            self.assertIn('name: Build packages\n        run: bash scripts/commands/build.sh --summary', content)
+
     def test_runtime_python_uses_adjacent_virtualenv(self):
         with TemporaryDirectory() as temporary:
             script = Path(temporary) / 'semantic-retrieval' / 'server.py'
@@ -49,6 +67,8 @@ class RetrievalServerTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(os.environ.get('QWEN_TEST_MODEL_CACHE'), 'Set QWEN_TEST_MODEL_CACHE to run the real-model check.')
     def test_real_models(self):
+        if not huggingface_available():
+            self.skipTest('huggingface.co DNS is unavailable')
         os.environ['HF_HOME'] = os.environ['QWEN_TEST_MODEL_CACHE']
         with TemporaryDirectory() as temporary:
             root = Path(temporary)