diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index fa14c3e8..96bf6894 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: update apt
         run: apt update
       - name: install dependencies
-        run: apt -y install git cmake build-essential ccache libssl-dev libunbound-dev libboost-all-dev libzmq3-dev
+        run: apt -y install curl bzip2 git cmake build-essential ccache libssl-dev libunbound-dev libboost-all-dev libzmq3-dev
                             libqrencode-dev qt6-base-dev qt6-svg-dev qt6-websockets-dev qt6-multimedia-dev
                             qt6-wayland-dev libzip-dev libsodium-dev libgcrypt20-dev libx11-xcb-dev
                             protobuf-compiler libprotobuf-dev libhidapi-dev libzxing-dev libusb-dev
@@ -26,9 +26,18 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
+      - name: fetch wownerod to embed (single-file build)
+        run: |
+          mkdir -p /tmp/wownerod-embed
+          curl -L -o /tmp/wownero.tar.bz2 \
+            https://github.com/wownero/wownero-codeberg-mirror/releases/download/v0.11.4.0/wownero-x86_64-linux-gnu-v0.11.4.0.tar.bz2
+          tar xjf /tmp/wownero.tar.bz2 -C /tmp
+          find /tmp -name wownerod -type f -exec cp {} /tmp/wownerod-embed/ \;
+          chmod +x /tmp/wownerod-embed/wownerod
+          ls -la /tmp/wownerod-embed
       - name: build
         run: |
           mkdir build
           cd build
-          cmake -DWITH_SCANNER=OFF ..
+          cmake -DWITH_SCANNER=OFF -DWOWNEROD_DIR=/tmp/wownerod-embed ..
           cmake --build . -j $(nproc)