diff --git a/scripts/extract-archive.sh b/scripts/extract-archive.sh
index b436bc9..3519f4b 100755
--- a/scripts/extract-archive.sh
+++ b/scripts/extract-archive.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 # Example: ./scripts/extract-archive.sh platform.1
 #
 # Available versions: see `.archive/*.tar.zst`
+#
+# If the archive is an LFS pointer (small file, ~130B) rather than the real
+# tarball, this script will git-lfs-pull it on demand so a fresh clone with
+# GIT_LFS_SKIP_SMUDGE=1 doesn't need to pre-fetch 34G of archives.
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
@@ -39,6 +43,16 @@ if [ ! -f "$ARCHIVE" ]; then
     usage
 fi
 
+# If the file is tiny, it's an LFS pointer — fetch the real blob.
+size=$(stat -c %s "$ARCHIVE" 2>/dev/null || stat -f %z "$ARCHIVE")
+if [ "$size" -lt 1024 ]; then
+    echo "archive is an LFS pointer (${size}B); fetching real blob via git lfs pull..."
+    (cd "$REPO_ROOT" && git lfs pull --include=".archive/${VERSION}.tar.zst") || {
+        echo "error: git lfs pull failed. Is the LFS remote configured?" >&2
+        exit 1
+    }
+fi
+
 if [ -d "$DEST" ]; then
     echo "destination exists: $DEST"
     read -rp "remove and re-extract? [y/N] " ans