diff --git a/nix/sets/ai-code.nix b/nix/sets/ai-code.nix
index af61bab..7b99f0d 100644
--- a/nix/sets/ai-code.nix
+++ b/nix/sets/ai-code.nix
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 # Uses tryEval with meta.license check to handle both missing and unfree packages.
 { pkgs }:
 let
+  # claude-code is installed separately via npm (latest version, smaller footprint)
+  # — the nixpkgs package bundles sharp/libvips (~500MB) and lags behind releases.
   wanted = [
-    "claude-code"
     "codex"
     "opencode"
     "aider-chat"
diff --git a/src/runtime/incus.rs b/src/runtime/incus.rs
index 000b444..df043a0 100644
--- a/src/runtime/incus.rs
+++ b/src/runtime/incus.rs
@@ -175,6 +175,14 @@ impl Runtime for IncusRuntime {
 
         run_ok("incus", &launch_args).await?;
 
+        // Expand the root disk to 20GB (Incus default is 10GB, too small for
+        // NixOS with dev tools). Must be done after launch, before provisioning.
+        let _ = run_ok(
+            "incus",
+            &["config", "device", "override", &vm, "root", "size=20GiB"],
+        )
+        .await;
+
         // Wait for the VM agent to be ready before provisioning.
         // The guest agent takes time to start after boot.
         println!("Waiting for VM agent to be ready...");
diff --git a/src/runtime/lima.rs b/src/runtime/lima.rs
index 0ff9a3b..0378c0d 100644
--- a/src/runtime/lima.rs
+++ b/src/runtime/lima.rs
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ vmOpts:
 
 cpus: {cpu}
 memory: "{memory}"
+disk: "20GiB"
 
 mounts:
 {mounts_yaml}
diff --git a/src/sandbox/provision.rs b/src/sandbox/provision.rs
index da20175..1899623 100644
--- a/src/sandbox/provision.rs
+++ b/src/sandbox/provision.rs
@@ -149,8 +149,8 @@ fn nix_packages_for_set(set: &str) -> Vec<&'static str> {
             "trippy",
             "doggo",
         ],
+        // claude-code is installed separately via npm (latest version, smaller footprint)
         "ai-code" => vec![
-            "claude-code",
             "codex",
             "opencode",
             "aider-chat",