diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e98db68..13fe07b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ htmlcov/
 # Claude Code
 .claude/
 
-# Eval results (scratch files only — eval_results.jsonl + eval_results_rig*.jsonl tracked via LFS)
+# Eval results (scratch files only — versioned eval_results_v*.jsonl tracked via LFS)
 eval_tight*.jsonl
 eval_vram*.jsonl
 ablation_progress.log
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index d7a0f2e..ceba814 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -49,6 +49,15 @@ dev = [
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
 packages = ["src/forge"]
 
+[tool.hatch.build.targets.sdist]
+# Without scoping, hatchling sweeps the whole tree into the sdist — pulling in
+# the LFS eval datasets (~112 MB) and the eval dashboard's node_modules (~97 MB,
+# incl. platform .exe/.node binaries). Ship only what builds + tests from source.
+exclude = [
+    "eval_results*.jsonl",
+    "tests/eval/dashboard/node_modules",
+]
+
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 testpaths = ["tests"]
 markers = [