diff --git a/.github/firebase-mcp.json b/.github/firebase-mcp.json
index 8859083..113cc18 100644
--- a/.github/firebase-mcp.json
+++ b/.github/firebase-mcp.json
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 {
-  "_comment": "Firebase MCP server config for the crashlytics-autotriage workflow. `--only crashlytics` activates the (experimental) Crashlytics tool group — it is NOT in the default tool set, so without it the crashlytics_* tools never surface. Requires Application Default Credentials (from google-github-actions/auth) on a service account with roles/firebasecrashlytics.viewer. See docs/PRD-crashlytics-autotriage.md.",
+  "_comment": "Firebase MCP server config for the crashlytics-autotriage workflow. `--only crashlytics` activates the (experimental) Crashlytics tool group — it is NOT in the default tool set. Uses the firebase-tools pre-installed by the workflow step (no `@latest`, so npx resolves the cached global copy instantly instead of cold-downloading at MCP startup). Requires ADC (from google-github-actions/auth) on a service account with roles/firebasecrashlytics.viewer. See docs/PRD-crashlytics-autotriage.md.",
   "mcpServers": {
     "firebase": {
       "command": "npx",
-      "args": ["-y", "firebase-tools@latest", "mcp", "--dir", ".", "--project", "openloop-8c266", "--only", "crashlytics"]
+      "args": ["-y", "firebase-tools", "mcp", "--dir", ".", "--project", "openloop-8c266", "--only", "crashlytics"]
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/.github/workflows/crashlytics-autotriage.yml b/.github/workflows/crashlytics-autotriage.yml
index 480f451..a4472a0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/crashlytics-autotriage.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/crashlytics-autotriage.yml
@@ -61,10 +61,20 @@ jobs:
         with:
           credentials_json: ${{ secrets.GCP_SA_KEY }}
 
+      # Install the Firebase CLI up front so the MCP server (npx firebase-tools mcp)
+      # starts instantly. Otherwise it cold-downloads the whole package at MCP-startup
+      # time and exceeds the SDK's connection window — the server then "fails to connect"
+      # and the crashlytics_* tools never load.
+      - name: Pre-install Firebase CLI
+        run: npm install -g firebase-tools@latest
+
       - name: Triage the crash with Claude
         uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
         with:
           anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
+          # Temporary: surfaces the MCP server startup logs so we can diagnose connection
+          # issues. Remove once the Firebase MCP server connects reliably.
+          show_full_output: "true"
           prompt: |
             You are triaging an automated Crashlytics crash report filed as GitHub issue
             #${{ github.event.issue.number || github.event.inputs.issue_number }} in stozo04/OpenLoop.