diff --git a/.github/workflows/attest.yml b/.github/workflows/attest.yml
index a2a11d3..49b9fa1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/attest.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/attest.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ on:
   schedule:
     - cron: "17 4 * * *"
   workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      max_targets:
+        description: "Attest at most N pending targets (0 = all). Use a small N for a smoke run."
+        required: false
+        default: "0"
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
@@ -38,9 +43,11 @@ jobs:
         with:
           python-version: "3.12"
       - id: plan
+        env:
+          MAX_TARGETS: ${{ inputs.max_targets || '0' }}
         run: |
           pip install --quiet "pyyaml==6.0.3"
-          m=$(python3 tools/plan.py --attester "$ATTESTER_ID")
+          m=$(python3 tools/plan.py --attester "$ATTESTER_ID" --limit "$MAX_TARGETS")
           n=$(printf '%s' "$m" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(len(json.load(sys.stdin)))')
           echo "matrix=$m" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           echo "count=$n" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
diff --git a/targets.yaml b/targets.yaml
index 2e26ccd..3ef345a 100644
--- a/targets.yaml
+++ b/targets.yaml
@@ -66,7 +66,8 @@ targets:
   - node
   - /cache/npm/@modelcontextprotocol__server-redis/node_modules/.bin/mcp-server-redis
   - redis://127.0.0.1:6379
-  note: connects at startup
+  note: connects to Redis at startup (ECONNREFUSED under --network none); cannot list a surface without a live backend
+  skip: true
 - coordinate: npm:@modelcontextprotocol/server-everart@0.6.2
   spawn:
   - node
@@ -129,6 +130,8 @@ targets:
   - /cache/npm/@stripe__mcp/node_modules/.bin/mcp
   - --tools=all
   - --api-key=sk_test_DUMMY
+  skip: true
+  note: never completes the MCP handshake in the sandbox (30 s); needs investigation before attesting
 - coordinate: npm:@sentry/mcp-server@0.39.0
   spawn:
   - node
@@ -174,7 +177,8 @@ targets:
   - /cache/npm/mcp-server-kubernetes/node_modules/.bin/mcp-server-kubernetes
   env:
     KUBECONFIG: /tmp/kubeconfig
-  note: may need a cluster
+  note: crashes without a reachable cluster/kubeconfig
+  skip: true
 - coordinate: npm:@agentdeskai/browser-tools-mcp@2.0.2
   spawn:
   - node
@@ -202,6 +206,8 @@ targets:
   - from mcp_server_sqlite import main; main()
   - --db-path
   - /tmp/test.db
+  skip: true
+  note: "incompatible with mcp 2.x (Server.list_resources removed) \u2014 what uvx resolves today also crashes"
 - coordinate: pypi:mcp-server-sentry@2025.1.14
   spawn:
   - python3
@@ -209,6 +215,8 @@ targets:
   - from mcp_server_sentry import main; main()
   - --auth-token
   - DUMMY
+  skip: true
+  note: incompatible with mcp 2.x (McpError import)
 - coordinate: pypi:mcp-atlassian@0.23.1
   spawn:
   - python3
@@ -226,6 +234,8 @@ targets:
   - python3
   - -c
   - from mcp_server_tree_sitter.server import main; main()
+  skip: true
+  note: incompatible with mcp 2.x (mcp.server.fastmcp renamed)
 - coordinate: pypi:arxiv-mcp-server@0.7.2
   spawn:
   - python3
@@ -249,6 +259,8 @@ targets:
   env:
     QDRANT_URL: http://127.0.0.1:6333
     COLLECTION_NAME: x
+  skip: true
+  note: resolves a hostname at startup (fastembed model fetch) under --network none; cannot list a surface offline
 - coordinate: pypi:duckduckgo-mcp-server@0.6.1
   spawn:
   - python3
@@ -259,14 +271,15 @@ targets:
   - python3
   - -c
   - from mcp_server_docker import main; main()
-  note: needs a docker socket
+  note: requires Python >= 3.12; attester image is 3.11
+  skip: true
 - coordinate: pypi:mcp-server-motherduck@1.0.8
   spawn:
   - python3
   - -c
   - from mcp_server_motherduck import main; main()
   - --db-path
-  - ':memory:'
+  - /tmp/attest.duckdb
 - coordinate: pypi:mcp-neo4j-cypher@0.6.0
   spawn:
   - python3
diff --git a/tools/attest_one.sh b/tools/attest_one.sh
index bd54d69..af8053b 100755
--- a/tools/attest_one.sh
+++ b/tools/attest_one.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
 : "${TARGET_JSON:?TARGET_JSON (one plan.py entry) is required}"
 : "${IMAGE:?IMAGE is required}"
 OUT="${OUT:-$PWD/out}"; CACHE="${CACHE:-$PWD/cache}"
-mkdir -p "$OUT" "$CACHE"
+mkdir -p "$OUT" "$CACHE" "$CACHE/.tmp"   # stage-1 scratch is disk-backed: dependency trees can exceed any sane tmpfs
 coord=$(printf '%s' "$TARGET_JSON" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["coordinate"])')
 lock_rel=$(printf '%s' "$TARGET_JSON" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["lock_rel"])')
 mapfile -t spawn < <(printf '%s' "$TARGET_JSON" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;[print(a) for a in json.load(sys.stdin)["spawn"]]')
@@ -21,22 +21,26 @@ echo "== [$coord] stage 1: pre-fetch (network on, --ignore-scripts / --only-bina
 case "$eco" in
   npm)
     docker run --rm --network bridge --user "$uid:$gid" -e HOME=/tmp -e npm_config_cache=/tmp/npm-cache \
-      --tmpfs /tmp:rw,nosuid,size=256m -v "$CACHE:/cache" "$IMAGE" \
+      -v "$CACHE/.tmp:/tmp" -v "$CACHE:/cache" "$IMAGE" \
       npm install --prefix "/cache/npm/$segment" --ignore-scripts --no-audit --no-fund --no-package-lock --loglevel=error "$name@$version" ;;
   pypi)
     docker run --rm --network bridge --user "$uid:$gid" -e HOME=/tmp \
-      --tmpfs /tmp:rw,nosuid,size=256m -v "$CACHE:/cache" "$IMAGE" \
+      -v "$CACHE/.tmp:/tmp" -e TMPDIR=/tmp -v "$CACHE:/cache" "$IMAGE" \
       pip install --quiet --no-cache-dir --only-binary :all: --target "/cache/pypi/$segment" "$name==$version" ;;
   *) echo "unknown ecosystem $eco" >&2; exit 2 ;;
 esac
 echo "== [$coord] stage 2: sandboxed capture (network none, non-root, read-only, cap-drop ALL)"
-envflags=(); for kv in "${envkv[@]:-}"; do [ -n "$kv" ] && envflags+=(-e "$kv"); done
+# The MCP SDK spawns stdio servers with a MINIMAL default environment (HOME, PATH,
+# USER…), not the parent's — so the target's env, and PYTHONPATH for PyPI targets, are
+# delivered by wrapping the spawn in `env K=V …` inside the sandbox. The lock records
+# `env` as the command; the surface digest consensus compares excludes `server`.
+wrap=(env "HOME=/tmp" "PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1" "PYTHONPATH=/cache/pypi/$segment" "NODE_PATH=/cache/npm/$segment/node_modules")
+for kv in "${envkv[@]:-}"; do [ -n "$kv" ] && wrap+=("$kv"); done
 docker run --rm --network none --user "$uid:$gid" --read-only --cap-drop ALL \
   --security-opt no-new-privileges --pids-limit 256 --memory 512m \
-  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,size=64m -e HOME=/tmp -e PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
-  -e "PYTHONPATH=/cache/pypi/$segment" -e "NODE_PATH=/cache/npm/$segment/node_modules" "${envflags[@]}" \
+  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,size=64m -e HOME=/tmp \
   -v "$CACHE:/cache:ro" -v "$OUT:/out" "$IMAGE" \
-  timeout 120 mcp-warden pin --lock "/out/$lock_rel" -- "${spawn[@]}"
+  timeout 120 mcp-warden pin --lock "/out/$lock_rel" -- "${wrap[@]}" "${spawn[@]}"
 test -s "$lock_path"
 if [ "${SIGN:-0}" = "1" ]; then
   echo "== [$coord] stage 3: sign on host (v2 statement, ambient OIDC)"
diff --git a/tools/plan.py b/tools/plan.py
index 7074b4e..bf157ef 100755
--- a/tools/plan.py
+++ b/tools/plan.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ def main() -> int:
     ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     ap.add_argument("--attester", default="dse-nightly")
     ap.add_argument("--all", action="store_true", help="ignore existing locks (dry runs)")
+    ap.add_argument("--limit", type=int, default=0, help="attest at most N targets (0 = all)")
     ns = ap.parse_args()
     doc = yaml.safe_load((ROOT / "targets.yaml").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
     out = []
@@ -49,6 +50,8 @@ def main() -> int:
             "env": t.get("env", {}),
             "lock_rel": str((d / f"{ns.attester}.lock").relative_to(ROOT)),
         })
+    if ns.limit > 0:
+        out = out[: ns.limit]
     json.dump(out, sys.stdout, separators=(",", ":"))
     return 0