diff --git a/tui-panel/server-panel.py b/tui-panel/server-panel.py
index 8393337a..93504b58 100644
--- a/tui-panel/server-panel.py
+++ b/tui-panel/server-panel.py
@@ -276,21 +276,18 @@ class ServerManager:
         BIN_DIR.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
         log = []
         # cmd/telesrv-admin embeds web/dist via go:embed -- `go build` alone
-        # just re-embeds whatever dist/ already happens to be on disk, so a
-        # frontend-only change (edit TSX, restart) silently ships the old
-        # bundle unless we rebuild it here first, every time.
+        # just re-embeds whatever dist/ already happens to be on disk. dist/
+        # is committed to git precisely so prod (older Node, no JS toolchain
+        # by design) never needs to build it; only rebuild here when
+        # node_modules already exists -- i.e. a dev explicitly set this up on
+        # a machine with a compatible Node/npm. Never auto-`npm install`:
+        # that's what actually invokes vite, and vite 8 requires a newer
+        # Node than prod ships, so an implicit install-then-build would just
+        # fail there instead of silently doing nothing.
         admin_web_dir = ROOT / "cmd" / "telesrv-admin" / "web"
-        if (admin_web_dir / "package.json").exists():
+        if (admin_web_dir / "node_modules").exists():
             npm = shutil.which("npm")
             if npm:
-                if not (admin_web_dir / "node_modules").exists():
-                    r = subprocess.run(
-                        [npm, "install"],
-                        cwd=admin_web_dir, capture_output=True, text=True,
-                    )
-                    log.append(f"$ npm install (admin web)\n{r.stdout}{r.stderr}")
-                    if r.returncode != 0:
-                        return False, "\n".join(log)
                 r = subprocess.run(
                     [npm, "run", "build"],
                     cwd=admin_web_dir, capture_output=True, text=True,
@@ -298,8 +295,6 @@ class ServerManager:
                 log.append(f"$ npm run build (admin web)\n{r.stdout}{r.stderr}")
                 if r.returncode != 0:
                     return False, "\n".join(log)
-            else:
-                log.append("! npm not found on PATH -- skipping admin web frontend rebuild (go:embed will reuse the existing web/dist)")
         for out_path, pkg in ((SERVER_EXE, "./cmd/telesrv"), (ADMIN_EXE, "./cmd/telesrv-admin")):
             r = subprocess.run(
                 ["go", "build", "-o", str(out_path), pkg],