diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 28102bb..22351df 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -423,21 +423,29 @@ func sshExec(st *state, command string) (int, error) {
 	return runSession(session, command)
 }
 
-// uploadFile copies a local file to the remote box by piping its bytes to
-// `cat > remotePath` over a plain (non-PTY) exec session -- no SFTP
-// subsystem required, just enough to get companion scripts (e.g.
-// stall-watch.py) onto a box whose only other content is whatever gets
-// piped to `bash -s`.
-//
-// Uses Start()+StdinPipe()+explicit Close() rather than Run()'s automatic
-// Stdin-reader-copying, so the exact moment EOF is signaled to the remote
-// `cat` is under our control instead of implicit in the library's internal
-// copy goroutine.
+// uploadFile copies a local file to the remote box. See uploadBytes for
+// the transfer mechanism.
 func uploadFile(st *state, localPath, remotePath string) error {
 	content, err := os.ReadFile(localPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	return uploadBytes(st, content, remotePath)
+}
+
+// uploadBytes writes content to remotePath by piping it to `cat >
+// remotePath` over a plain (non-PTY) exec session -- no SFTP subsystem
+// required. Deliberately non-PTY: a plain pipe has no fixed-size line
+// buffer the way a PTY's canonical-mode input queue does (historically
+// 4KB on Linux) and won't silently truncate a multi-KB write -- see
+// sshExecScript's doc comment for why that distinction turned out to
+// matter a great deal.
+//
+// Uses Start()+StdinPipe()+explicit Close() rather than Run()'s automatic
+// Stdin-reader-copying, so the exact moment EOF is signaled to the remote
+// `cat` is under our control instead of implicit in the library's internal
+// copy goroutine.
+func uploadBytes(st *state, content []byte, remotePath string) error {
 	session, client, err := sshSession(st, false)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -472,66 +480,57 @@ func uploadFile(st *state, localPath, remotePath string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// sshExecScript pipes script to `bash -s` on the remote box, prefixed with
-// `export` lines for env. Values are forwarded only over the SSH channel's
-// stdin — never as a command-line argument on either end — so they don't
-// show up in `ps` output on the box or in this process's argv.
-// sshExecScript pipes script to `bash -s` over a PTY (needed so the remote
-// side line-buffers instead of block-buffering -- see sshSession).
+// sshExecScript runs script on the remote box by uploading it as a file
+// and executing it, rather than piping it to `bash -s` over stdin.
 //
-// The script ends with an explicit `exit $?` rather than relying on EOF to
-// end bash's read loop. Confirmed in production (ci runs #56 and #60,
-// plus a direct reproduction: a script that finishes and prints its own
-// "end" timestamp, after which the local process sits for 10+ more
-// minutes) that PTY stdin EOF is not a reliable "hang up" signal the way
-// it is on a plain pipe -- a PTY is fundamentally for interactive
-// sessions, where "stopped sending input" doesn't inherently mean
-// "terminate". This held true even after switching to
-// Start()+StdinPipe()+explicit Close() (the fix that *did* work for
-// uploadFile, which uses a plain, non-PTY session) -- ruling out
-// Run()'s implicit copying as the cause and pointing at the PTY itself.
-// An explicit `exit` sidesteps the ambiguity entirely: bash terminates on
-// its own the instant the script's last command finishes, independent of
-// whatever the PTY does or doesn't do with EOF.
+// This replaced two earlier, progressively-less-wrong attempts, both
+// disproven in production:
+//  1. `session.Run("bash -s")` with Stdin set to a Reader -- hung
+//     indefinitely after the script's real work finished (ci runs #56,
+//     #60): PTY stdin EOF is not a reliable "hang up" signal, since a PTY
+//     is fundamentally for interactive sessions where a pause in input
+//     isn't supposed to mean "terminate". Confirmed independently outside
+//     this codebase: golang/go#6088 (identical x/crypto/ssh symptom) and
+//     net-ssh/net-ssh#460 (different language, same symptom, confirms
+//     removing request_pty fixes it).
+//  2. Switching to Start()+StdinPipe()+explicit Close(), appending
+//     `exit $?` so bash would terminate on its own instead of depending on
+//     EOF at all -- this fixed short scripts but a real sync.sh run (ci
+//     run #63) still hung, this time *mid-script*: the process was found
+//     blocked in do_select() on its stdin fd, and directories the script
+//     creates early on (depot_tools clone) didn't exist yet even though
+//     later output (an apt-get install several lines further down) had
+//     already reached the log. That means the script was truncated
+//     partway through delivery, not just missing its termination signal --
+//     consistent with a PTY's small, fixed-size canonical-mode input queue
+//     (historically 4KB on Linux) silently dropping the tail of a
+//     multi-KB single write() that arrives faster than bash drains it. A
+//     plain pipe (as uploadBytes uses) doesn't have this limitation.
+//
+// Uploading the script and executing it as a file sidesteps this whole
+// class of problem: no script content ever goes through a PTY's stdin at
+// all, only the plain, already-proven-reliable uploadBytes path. The PTY
+// is still used for the *execution* (via sshExec, for live output
+// streaming), but that session has no stdin data of its own -- a plain
+// command with nothing written to its stdin has no EOF ambiguity to begin
+// with.
 func sshExecScript(st *state, script string, env map[string]string) (int, error) {
-	session, client, err := sshSession(st, true)
-	if err != nil {
-		return -1, err
-	}
-	defer client.Close()
-	defer session.Close()
-
 	var buf strings.Builder
+	buf.WriteString("#!/usr/bin/env bash\n")
 	for k, v := range env {
 		fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "export %s=%s\n", k, shellQuote(v))
 	}
 	buf.WriteString(script)
-	buf.WriteString("\nexit $?\n")
 
-	stdin, err := session.StdinPipe()
-	if err != nil {
-		return -1, err
+	remotePath := fmt.Sprintf("/root/.hetzner-runner-script-%d.sh", time.Now().UnixNano())
+	if err := uploadBytes(st, []byte(buf.String()), remotePath); err != nil {
+		return -1, fmt.Errorf("uploading script: %w", err)
 	}
-	session.Stdout = os.Stdout
-	session.Stderr = os.Stderr
-
-	if err := session.Start("bash -s"); err != nil {
-		return -1, err
+	code, err := sshExec(st, fmt.Sprintf("bash %s", shellQuote(remotePath)))
+	if rmCode, rmErr := sshExec(st, fmt.Sprintf("rm -f %s", shellQuote(remotePath))); rmErr == nil && rmCode != 0 {
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "warning: failed to remove remote script %s\n", remotePath)
 	}
-	if _, err := stdin.Write([]byte(buf.String())); err != nil {
-		return -1, err
-	}
-	if err := stdin.Close(); err != nil {
-		return -1, err
-	}
-
-	if err := session.Wait(); err != nil {
-		if exitErr, ok := err.(*ssh.ExitError); ok {
-			return exitErr.ExitStatus(), nil
-		}
-		return -1, err
-	}
-	return 0, nil
+	return code, err
 }
 
 func shellQuote(v string) string {