diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index ad6a700..7603a50 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -499,6 +499,46 @@ jobs:
           ls -la "$staged"
 
 
+      # This runner is Alpine, whose image carries busybox wget and no curl at all — and the step below
+      # talks to the forge six times, so it died on the first call that was not written to tolerate a
+      # failure: `curl: command not found`, exit 127, after the whole APK had been built.
+      #
+      # It took that long to say so because the two lookups before it end in `|| true` with stderr
+      # discarded, which is the right shape for "no nightly release exists yet" and indistinguishable
+      # from "there is no curl on this machine". Installing it here is what makes those two different
+      # again; the alternative of dropping the `|| true` would fail the step for a first-ever run.
+      #
+      # Not busybox wget instead. The asset upload is a multipart -F, which busybox wget cannot send,
+      # so the channel would publish a release with no APK on it — the exact failure the verification
+      # at the end of the step below exists to catch.
+      #
+      # Conditioned exactly like the step it serves, since nothing else in this job wants curl. The two
+      # conditions have to stay the same: loosen that one without loosening this one and the publish is
+      # back to exit 127, several minutes into the job.
+      - name: ensure curl
+        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
+        run: |
+          set -eu
+          SUDO=""
+          [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] || SUDO="sudo"
+
+          if ! command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            echo "Installing curl"
+            if command -v apk >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+              $SUDO apk add --no-cache curl
+            elif command -v apt-get >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+              $SUDO apt-get update -qq
+              $SUDO apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl
+            elif command -v dnf >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+              $SUDO dnf install -y curl
+            else
+              echo "No apk, apt-get or dnf here, so curl cannot be installed from inside the job." >&2
+              echo "Add curl to the runner's image; the nightly cannot be published without it." >&2
+              exit 1
+            fi
+          fi
+          curl --version | head -1
+
       # ◆ PUBLISHING IT, AND WHAT THAT CAPABILITY IS.
       #
       # Whoever can write a release here can put a build on every nightly phone, because the client fetches