diff --git a/scripts/smoke-test.sh b/scripts/smoke-test.sh
index cb62e23..dd6364e 100755
--- a/scripts/smoke-test.sh
+++ b/scripts/smoke-test.sh
@@ -50,7 +50,11 @@ run "pi-extensions clone" "test -d /opt/pi-extensions && git -C /opt/pi-extensio
 # ── Runtime deployment (needs entrypoint to run) ──────────────────────
 echo ""
 echo "── Runtime deployment ──"
-CID=$(docker run -d --entrypoint="" "$IMAGE" sleep 60)
+# Spin up a long-running container WITHOUT overriding the entrypoint, so
+# the baked entrypoint chain (entrypoint.sh → entrypoint-user.sh) runs and
+# deploys pi-toolkit + pi-extensions to ~/.pi/agent/. Override CMD to
+# tail -f /dev/null so the container stays alive while we docker-exec.
+CID=$(docker run -d --rm "$IMAGE" tail -f /dev/null)
 cleanup() { docker rm -f "$CID" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true; }
 trap cleanup EXIT