diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/runner-nix-smoke.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/runner-nix-smoke.yaml
index 4c999e3c..423c07ab 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/runner-nix-smoke.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/runner-nix-smoke.yaml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ jobs:
           nix config show substituters
           nix config show trusted-public-keys
 
-      - name: Repository flake evaluation
+      - name: Repository flake metadata
         run: |
           set -eu
-          nix flake check --no-build
+          nix flake metadata --no-write-lock-file
diff --git a/package/gitea-runner-controller/hcloud.sh b/package/gitea-runner-controller/hcloud.sh
index edee4f4f..d6cd5c1b 100644
--- a/package/gitea-runner-controller/hcloud.sh
+++ b/package/gitea-runner-controller/hcloud.sh
@@ -309,6 +309,14 @@ case "$label" in
   /tmp/nix-$GCR_NIX_VERSION-\$nix_arch/install --no-daemon
   rm -rf /tmp/nix*
   ;;
+esac
+case "$label" in
+  nix|gross-nix-*)
+    if command -v apt-get >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+      apt-get update -qq
+      DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y -qq nodejs
+    fi
+    ;;
 esac
  case "\$(uname -m)" in
    x86_64) runner_arch=amd64 ;;