diff --git a/careless/build b/careless/build
index 95a9d6c..6af67fd 100755
--- a/careless/build
+++ b/careless/build
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ pbuild::configure() {
     # repo.anaconda.com is unreachable from Ra (GnuTLS error), so no conda.
     # uv fetches a standalone CPython instead; keep it inside PREFIX so the
     # venv's interpreter symlinks don't depend on the builder's home cache.
+    # modbuild's shell strips ~/.local/bin from PATH; override with UV=/path/to/uv if needed
+    UV="${UV:-$HOME/.local/bin/uv}"
     export UV_PYTHON_INSTALL_DIR="$PREFIX/python"
-    uv venv --python 3.12 "$PREFIX/venv"
+    "$UV" venv --python 3.12 "$PREFIX/venv"
 }
 
 pbuild::compile() {
@@ -17,6 +19,7 @@ pbuild::compile() {
 }
 
 pbuild::install() {
+    UV="${UV:-$HOME/.local/bin/uv}"
     # [cuda] extra ships the NVIDIA libs via pip wheels; works on CPU-only nodes too
-    uv pip install --python "$PREFIX/venv/bin/python" "careless[cuda]==${V_PKG}"
+    "$UV" pip install --python "$PREFIX/venv/bin/python" "careless[cuda]==${V_PKG}"
 }