diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 23ed2d3..7b980a5 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run retrieval tests with real models
         env:
           QWEN_TEST_MODEL_CACHE: ${{ github.workspace }}/.cache/huggingface
+          HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET: '1'
         run: python scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
 
   security:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 23ed2d3..7b980a5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run retrieval tests with real models
         env:
           QWEN_TEST_MODEL_CACHE: ${{ github.workspace }}/.cache/huggingface
+          HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET: '1'
         run: python scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
 
   security:
diff --git a/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py b/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
index 50a7656..5d690cd 100644
--- a/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
+++ b/scripts/tests/test-retrieval-server.py
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ def embedding():
 
 
 class RetrievalServerTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    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_runtime_python_uses_adjacent_virtualenv(self):
         with TemporaryDirectory() as temporary:
             script = Path(temporary) / 'semantic-retrieval' / 'server.py'