diff --git a/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl b/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
index b9efc8b..5474366 100755
--- a/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
+++ b/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
@@ -62,24 +62,48 @@ if command -v fdfind >/dev/null 2>&1 && ! command -v fd >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     ln -sf "$(command -v fdfind)" "$USER_HOME/.local/bin/fd"
 fi
 
-# Debian's neovim in stable is too old for LazyVim (needs >=0.9).
-# If installed neovim is <0.9, fetch the official binary tarball.
+# Neovim — always install the latest official binary tarball on debian.
+# apt's neovim is too old for LazyVim on stable (bookworm), and even on
+# trixie we want a known-good version. Detect arch for the right tarball.
+ARCH="$(uname -m)"
+case "$ARCH" in
+    x86_64)        NVIM_TARBALL="nvim-linux64.tar.gz" ;;
+    aarch64|arm64) NVIM_TARBALL="nvim-linux-arm64.tar.gz" ;;
+    *)
+        die "unsupported arch for neovim tarball: $ARCH"
+        ;;
+esac
+
 if command -v nvim >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     NVIM_VER="$(nvim --version | head -1 | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d 'v')"
     NVIM_MAJOR="$(echo "$NVIM_VER" | cut -d. -f1)"
     NVIM_MINOR="$(echo "$NVIM_VER" | cut -d. -f2)"
     if [[ "${NVIM_MAJOR:-0}" -lt 1 || ("$NVIM_MAJOR" -eq 0 && "${NVIM_MINOR:-0}" -lt 9) ]]; then
-        log "installed neovim $NVIM_VER is too old, installing official binary"
+        log "installed neovim $NVIM_VER too old — replacing with latest from GitHub ($ARCH)"
         sudo apt-get remove -y neovim || true
-        cd /tmp
-        NVIM_LATEST="$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/neovim/neovim/releases/latest | grep tag_name | cut -d'"' -f4)"
-        curl -fL "https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/download/${NVIM_LATEST}/nvim-linux64.tar.gz" -o nvim.tar.gz
-        sudo tar -xzf nvim.tar.gz -C /opt/
-        sudo ln -sf /opt/nvim-linux64/bin/nvim /usr/local/bin/nvim
-        rm -f nvim.tar.gz
+    else
+        log "neovim $NVIM_VER from apt is recent enough — keeping it"
+        NVIM_TARBALL=""
     fi
 fi
 
+if [[ -n "$NVIM_TARBALL" ]]; then
+    log "downloading neovim from GitHub ($NVIM_TARBALL)"
+    cd /tmp
+    NVIM_LATEST="$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/neovim/neovim/releases/latest | grep tag_name | cut -d'"' -f4)"
+    curl -fL "https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/download/${NVIM_LATEST}/${NVIM_TARBALL}" -o nvim.tar.gz
+    sudo rm -rf /opt/nvim-linux* /usr/local/bin/nvim
+    sudo tar -xzf nvim.tar.gz -C /opt/
+    # The arm64 tarball extracts to nvim-linux-arm64, x86_64 to nvim-linux64.
+    sudo ln -sf "/opt/$(basename nvim.tar.gz .tar.gz)/bin/nvim" /usr/local/bin/nvim
+    rm -f nvim.tar.gz
+fi
+
+# Verify neovim is reachable (PATH may need /usr/local/bin explicitly for this run)
+if ! command -v nvim >/dev/null 2>&1 && [[ -x /usr/local/bin/nvim ]]; then
+    export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
+fi
+
 {{ else -}}
 die "unsupported os_family: {{ .os_family }}"
 {{ end -}}