diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/homelab-main.yml b/.gitea/workflows/homelab-main.yml
index b4dfdc4..90199c1 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/homelab-main.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/homelab-main.yml
@@ -14,15 +14,14 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install Node.js and Python deps
         run: |
           set -e
-          # We avoid apt-get update/install for tools already in the image or easily fetched
-          # Python3 and curl are already in golang:1.23-bullseye. 
-          # We only need python3-yaml and nodejs.
-          # To avoid broken debian-security mirrors, we use pip for yaml and binary for node.
+          # Use python3 -m pip to ensure we use the python3 installed in the image
+          python3 -m pip install --user PyYAML
           
-          pip3 install PyYAML
+          # Update PATH to include user pip installs
+          export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin"
           
           curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | bash -
-          apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs
+          apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs
       - name: Check out repository
         run: |
           set -e
@@ -30,6 +29,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Validate repository
         run: |
           set -e
+          # Ensure user pip path is available for the script
+          export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin"
           ./jeannie validate
 
   deploy:
@@ -42,9 +43,10 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install Node.js and Python deps
         run: |
           set -e
-          pip3 install PyYAML
+          python3 -m pip install --user PyYAML
+          export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin"
           curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | bash -
-          apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs
+          apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs
       - name: Check out repository
         run: |
           set -e
@@ -52,6 +54,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Block automatic deploy for external Gitea changes
         run: |
           set -e
+          export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin"
 
           event_before="$(
             python3 -c 'import json, os; p = os.environ.get("GITHUB_EVENT_PATH", ""); print(json.load(open(p, encoding="utf-8")).get("before", "") if p and os.path.exists(p) else "")'