diff --git a/deploy.sh b/deploy.sh
index 4b3235f..5990329 100644
--- a/deploy.sh
+++ b/deploy.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ VPS=humanjing@100.71.119.27
 CONTAINER=forum-nginx
 WEBROOT=/usr/share/nginx/html
 
+echo "— optimize assets (idempotent; skips anything already meshopt-compressed) —"
+node fktry/tools/optimize-assets.mjs
+
 echo "— build —"
 (cd fktry && npx vite build --base=./)
 cp index.html fktry/dist/match.html
@@ -27,7 +30,19 @@ ssh "$VPS" "docker exec $CONTAINER rm -rf $WEBROOT/glytch \
 echo "— verify (cache-busted) —"
 curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}  https://partly.party/glytch/\n'           "https://partly.party/glytch/?v=$(date +%s)"
 curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}  https://partly.party/glytch/match.html\n' "https://partly.party/glytch/match.html?v=$(date +%s)"
-# data-endpoint check, not just index (classic nginx-routing failure mode):
+# Data-endpoint checks, not just the index (classic nginx-routing failure mode).
+# Round-7 fix: this used to test ONE js file, so a deploy that shipped zero models
+# still reported success. Now the JS bundle, a real GLB, and the model COUNT.
 ASSET=$(ls fktry/dist/assets | grep -m1 '\.js$')
-curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}  https://partly.party/glytch/assets/$ASSET\n" "https://partly.party/glytch/assets/$ASSET?v=$(date +%s)"
+curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}  assets/$ASSET\n" "https://partly.party/glytch/assets/$ASSET?v=$(date +%s)"
+
+MODELS_LOCAL=$(ls fktry/dist/assets/models/*.glb 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
+MODEL=$(basename "$(ls fktry/dist/assets/models/*.glb 2>/dev/null | head -1)")
+if [ -z "$MODEL" ] || [ "$MODELS_LOCAL" -eq 0 ]; then
+  echo "FAIL: build produced no GLB models" >&2; exit 1
+fi
+curl -fsS -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}  assets/models/$MODEL\n" "https://partly.party/glytch/assets/models/$MODEL?v=$(date +%s)"
+MODELS_LIVE=$(ssh "$VPS" "docker exec $CONTAINER sh -c 'ls $WEBROOT/glytch/assets/models/*.glb 2>/dev/null | wc -l'" | tr -d ' ')
+echo "models: $MODELS_LIVE live / $MODELS_LOCAL built"
+[ "$MODELS_LIVE" = "$MODELS_LOCAL" ] || { echo "FAIL: model count mismatch" >&2; exit 1; }
 echo "done. If this was a major change: purge Cloudflare cache for partly.party."
diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/archaeology-lab.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/archaeology-lab.glb
index f171ebc..7163df4 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/artifact-bottler.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/artifact-bottler.glb
index 8dfef3a..7f9745b 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/asic-cooler.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/asic-cooler.glb
index ae35896..e5ecdea 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/bloom-duplicator.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/bloom-duplicator.glb
index ec748ca..0ab4407 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/chroma-keyer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/chroma-keyer.glb
index 8c6e272..d46cdc5 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/dct-press.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/dct-press.glb
index a053ddc..6d8c00c 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/decode-asic.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/decode-asic.glb
index fa4c795..3805a98 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/demosaicer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/demosaicer.glb
index eec1ebc..7db2537 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/demuxer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/demuxer.glb
index b136e9b..3f882d2 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/field-loom.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/field-loom.glb
index f705735..67af390 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/gop-assembler.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/gop-assembler.glb
index aa8b0e2..f2aff77 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/hex-splicer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/hex-splicer.glb
index b198ddb..b4d4f41 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/matte-bath.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/matte-bath.glb
index e55f635..0377305 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/mosh-reactor.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/mosh-reactor.glb
index 733e0d7..29959cd 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/mosquito-trap.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/mosquito-trap.glb
index 45dfedb..61a3dad 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/muxer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/muxer.glb
index 3cd1590..b252b92 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/mv-extractor.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/mv-extractor.glb
index 089eb7d..464d6d2 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/neural-keyer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/neural-keyer.glb
index 156c761..1dab88a 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/optical-printer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/optical-printer.glb
index 595a944..c19b40b 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/p-caster.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/p-caster.glb
index 24ac8d8..436e2d8 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/quantizer.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/quantizer.glb
index 61cf079..9ad2c20 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/roto-bench.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/roto-bench.glb
index a78aa2e..e9a2634 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/seam-extractor.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/seam-extractor.glb
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/shipper.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/shipper.glb
index a2afccf..3441aae 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/software-decoder.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/software-decoder.glb
index 966a192..e3f3ea6 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/subsampler.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/subsampler.glb
index dd04fc4..ac8d4fb 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/public/assets/models/telecine-puller.glb b/fktry/public/assets/models/telecine-puller.glb
index 2da4c08..f357ab3 100644
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diff --git a/fktry/tools/optimize-assets.mjs b/fktry/tools/optimize-assets.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da73bbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fktry/tools/optimize-assets.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Idempotent GLB optimization gate. Runs from deploy.sh BEFORE vite build.
+ *
+ * Why this exists: the farm emits 1–8 MB PBR GLBs. Shipped raw, 27 of them were
+ * 27.3 MB; through `gltf-transform optimize` they are 7.0 MB with the same PBR.
+ * That step used to live in my head, which is not a build system. An asset added
+ * by hand — or by a farm run that skipped the post-step — would silently ship raw.
+ *
+ * Skips anything already carrying EXT_meshopt_compression, so it is safe to run
+ * every deploy and costs ~0s when there is nothing new.
+ */
+import { execFileSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { readdirSync, readFileSync, statSync, renameSync, rmSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+
+const DIR = new URL('../public/assets/models/', import.meta.url).pathname;
+const MAX_KB = 900; // per-asset ceiling; a farm regression should fail the build
+
+/** Read the GLB JSON chunk without a glTF library. */
+function meta(path) {
+  const b = readFileSync(path);
+  if (b.length < 20 || b.subarray(0, 4).toString() !== 'glTF') return null;
+  const jsonLen = b.readUInt32LE(12);
+  try {
+    return JSON.parse(b.subarray(20, 20 + jsonLen).toString());
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+const files = readdirSync(DIR).filter((f) => f.endsWith('.glb'));
+let optimized = 0, skipped = 0, before = 0, after = 0;
+const oversize = [];
+
+for (const f of files) {
+  const p = join(DIR, f);
+  const sizeBefore = statSync(p).size;
+  before += sizeBefore;
+  const m = meta(p);
+  if (m?.extensionsRequired?.includes('EXT_meshopt_compression')) {
+    skipped++;
+    after += sizeBefore;
+  } else {
+    const tmp = `${p}.opt`;
+    execFileSync('npx', ['--yes', '@gltf-transform/cli@latest', 'optimize', p, tmp,
+      '--texture-compress', 'webp', '--texture-size', '1024',
+      '--simplify-error', '0.002', '--compress', 'meshopt'],
+      { stdio: 'pipe', timeout: 900_000 });
+    rmSync(p);
+    renameSync(tmp, p);
+    optimized++;
+    after += statSync(p).size;
+    console.log(`  optimized ${f}: ${(sizeBefore / 1024) | 0} KB -> ${(statSync(p).size / 1024) | 0} KB`);
+  }
+  const kb = (statSync(p).size / 1024) | 0;
+  if (kb > MAX_KB) oversize.push(`${f} (${kb} KB)`);
+}
+
+console.log(`assets: ${files.length} files, ${optimized} optimized, ${skipped} already lean — ` +
+  `${(before / 1048576).toFixed(1)} MB -> ${(after / 1048576).toFixed(1)} MB`);
+
+if (oversize.length) {
+  console.error(`\nFAIL: ${oversize.length} asset(s) over ${MAX_KB} KB after optimization:`);
+  for (const o of oversize) console.error(`  ${o}`);
+  console.error('A mesh this heavy usually means the bake used too dense a pipeline ' +
+    '(trellis2 1024_cascade produces ~487k tris; hunyuan3d_mlx is the machine default).');
+  process.exit(1);
+}