diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index 1ee71a1e7b8..0ca65c9623f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -95,20 +95,22 @@ jobs:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
           GH_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
 
-      # kilocode_change start - tar the whole dist tree into a single file before upload.
-      # download-artifact@v4's streaming unzip is CPU-bound and processes entries one by
-      # one; collapsing ~480 files into one tar cuts build-vscode download from >30m to
-      # seconds. compression-level: 0 avoids double-compressing binaries on the outer zip.
+      # kilocode_change start - pack dist tree into a single zstd-compressed tar before upload.
+      # download-artifact@v4's streaming unzip is CPU-bound and processes entries one by one;
+      # collapsing ~480 files into one tar cuts build-vscode download from >30m to seconds.
+      # zstd compresses the wasms (~4x) and leaves the already-compact binaries alone, for
+      # ~1 GB artifact. compression-level: 0 on the outer zip avoids double-compression.
+      # zstd + GNU tar are preinstalled on both github-hosted and blacksmith ubuntu-2404.
       # See actions/upload-artifact#36, actions/toolkit#1533.
-      - name: Pack CLI dist into tar
+      - name: Pack CLI dist into tar.zst
         run: |
           find packages/opencode/dist -name '*.map' -delete
-          tar -cf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar -C packages/opencode/dist .
+          tar --zstd -cf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar.zst -C packages/opencode/dist .
 
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: kilo-cli
-          path: /tmp/kilo-cli.tar
+          path: /tmp/kilo-cli.tar.zst
           compression-level: 0
       # kilocode_change end
 
@@ -137,11 +139,11 @@ jobs:
           name: kilo-cli
           path: /tmp
 
-      # kilocode_change start - extract the tar packed by build-cli
+      # kilocode_change start - extract the tar.zst packed by build-cli
       - name: Unpack CLI dist
         run: |
           mkdir -p packages/opencode/dist
-          tar -xf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar -C packages/opencode/dist
+          tar --zstd -xf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar.zst -C packages/opencode/dist
       # kilocode_change end
       - name: Build VSIX packages
         run: bun script/build.ts
@@ -335,11 +337,11 @@ jobs:
           name: kilo-cli
           path: /tmp
 
-      # kilocode_change start - extract the tar packed by build-cli
+      # kilocode_change start - extract the tar.zst packed by build-cli
       - name: Unpack CLI dist
         run: |
           mkdir -p packages/opencode/dist
-          tar -xf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar -C packages/opencode/dist
+          tar --zstd -xf /tmp/kilo-cli.tar.zst -C packages/opencode/dist
       # kilocode_change end
       - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
         with: