diff --git a/packages/cli/src/shared/orchestrate.ts b/packages/cli/src/shared/orchestrate.ts
index 32f1c9ad..717986e6 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/shared/orchestrate.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/shared/orchestrate.ts
@@ -251,7 +251,11 @@ export async function runOrchestration(
         installed = await uploadAndExtractTarball(cloud.runner, localTarball.localPath);
         localTarball.cleanup();
       }
-      if (!installed && useTarball && !agent.skipTarball) {
+      // Only try remote tarball download when we didn't already have a local tarball.
+      // If the local tarball was available but upload/extract failed, the remote
+      // download would face the same extraction issues — skip it to save ~150s
+      // and fall through to live install immediately.
+      if (!installed && !localTarball && useTarball && !agent.skipTarball) {
         const tarball = options?.tryTarball ?? tryTarballInstall;
         installed = await tarball(cloud.runner, agentName);
       }
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/sprite/sprite.ts b/packages/cli/src/sprite/sprite.ts
index 907e7a51..04707962 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/sprite/sprite.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/sprite/sprite.ts
@@ -576,6 +576,12 @@ export async function uploadFileSprite(localPath: string, remotePath: string): P
   // Compute the parent directory in TypeScript to avoid shell interpolation
   const parentDir = posixDirname(normalizedRemote);
 
+  // 180s timeout — prevents indefinite hangs during tarball uploads in fast mode.
+  // Without this, large file uploads (e.g. 300MB openclaw tarball) or stalled
+  // Sprite connections can block the entire provisioning pipeline past the
+  // E2E provision timeout (720s), causing agent binary not-found failures.
+  const UPLOAD_TIMEOUT_MS = 180_000;
+
   await spriteRetry("sprite upload", async () => {
     // Upload the file to the temp path, then mkdir + mv using array args
     // to avoid shell string interpolation (command injection risk).
@@ -604,8 +610,13 @@ export async function uploadFileSprite(localPath: string, remotePath: string): P
     );
     // Drain stderr before awaiting exit to prevent pipe buffer deadlock
     const stderrText = new Response(proc.stderr).text();
-    const exitCode = await proc.exited;
-    if (exitCode !== 0) {
+    const uploadTimer = setTimeout(() => killWithTimeout(proc), UPLOAD_TIMEOUT_MS);
+    const uploadResult = await asyncTryCatch(() => proc.exited);
+    clearTimeout(uploadTimer);
+    if (!uploadResult.ok) {
+      throw new Error(`upload timed out for ${remotePath}`);
+    }
+    if (uploadResult.data !== 0) {
       throw new Error(`upload mkdir failed for ${remotePath}: ${await stderrText}`);
     }
 
@@ -632,8 +643,13 @@ export async function uploadFileSprite(localPath: string, remotePath: string): P
       },
     );
     const mvStderrText = new Response(mvProc.stderr).text();
-    const mvExitCode = await mvProc.exited;
-    if (mvExitCode !== 0) {
+    const mvTimer = setTimeout(() => killWithTimeout(mvProc), 60_000);
+    const mvResult = await asyncTryCatch(() => mvProc.exited);
+    clearTimeout(mvTimer);
+    if (!mvResult.ok) {
+      throw new Error(`upload mv timed out for ${remotePath}`);
+    }
+    if (mvResult.data !== 0) {
       throw new Error(`upload mv failed for ${remotePath}: ${await mvStderrText}`);
     }
   });