diff --git a/deploy/nixos/configuration.nix b/deploy/nixos/configuration.nix
index 11f6d22..8f7928e 100644
--- a/deploy/nixos/configuration.nix
+++ b/deploy/nixos/configuration.nix
@@ -111,29 +111,37 @@
   };
 
   # System packages
+  #
+  # Kept deliberately thin — this is a kiosk, and every entry here is closure
+  # that ships to each ATM and eats eMMC headroom the nightly rebuild needs.
+  # Deliberately absent (see #70 sizing):
+  #   git     70MB. nixos-rebuild fetches the flake with its OWN git-minimal,
+  #           which stays in the closure via unit-nixos-upgrade.service, so
+  #           auto-upgrade is unaffected.
+  #   vim     43MB. Replaced by nano — an on-box editor is worth a few MB for
+  #           field edits to /var/lib/bitspire/.env, vim's bulk is not.
+  #   nodejs_22  94MB. Nothing runs it: the app is Electron (which embeds its
+  #           own node) and fund-atm already pins pkgs-unstable.nodejs itself.
+  #   wget    curl covers it.
   environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
     # System utilities
     htop
-    vim
-    git
+    nano
     curl
-    wget
 
     # Hardware debugging
     usbutils
     pciutils
     lsof
 
-    # Serial port tools
+    # Serial port tools (validator/dispenser live on ttyJ5/ttyJ7 — these are
+    # how a field fault gets diagnosed, and they cost ~2MB between them)
     minicom
     screen
 
     # For the Electron app
     pkgs-unstable.electron
 
-    # Node.js for the application
-    pkgs-unstable.nodejs_22
-
     # Camera support. v4l-utils' default build drags in the whole Qt6 stack
     # for its qv4l2 GUI (~0.5GB) — we only ever use the v4l2-ctl CLI, so drop
     # the GUI.