diff --git a/build.cfg b/build.cfg
index f90420ee..b3427ff7 100644
--- a/build.cfg
+++ b/build.cfg
@@ -23,9 +23,12 @@ FREEBSD_MEMSTICK_SHA256_URL="${FREEBSD_ISO_BASE_URL}/CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-${F
 IMAGE_SIZE="50G"
 IMAGE_NAME="clawdie-iso-$(date +%d.%b.%Y | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z').img"
 
-# Clawdie-AI release to bundle (fetched from Codeberg)
-CLAWDIE_VERSION="0.9.1"
-CLAWDIE_TARBALL_URL="https://codeberg.org/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI/archive/v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+# Clawdie-AI ref to bundle from Codeberg.
+# Use main for install validation so ISO firstboot exercises the current
+# post-install setup/token flow. Use --clawdie-version X.Y.Z for release builds.
+CLAWDIE_VERSION="main"
+CLAWDIE_REF="${CLAWDIE_REF:-main}"
+CLAWDIE_TARBALL_URL="https://codeberg.org/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI/archive/${CLAWDIE_REF}.tar.gz"
 
 # Default installer choices (can be overridden by setup.txt on the writable USB config partition)
 DEFAULT_PKG_BRANCH="latest"     # latest or quarterly
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index e08d3b30..0336473b 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@
 #   ./build.sh                          # full build (fetch + assemble)
 #   ./build.sh --fetch-only             # fetch packages/memstick only (no root needed)
 #   ./build.sh --skip-fetch             # assemble only (use cached packages)
-#   ./build.sh --clawdie-version 1.0.2  # pin Clawdie-AI version
+#   ./build.sh --clawdie-version 1.0.2  # pin Clawdie-AI release tag v1.0.2
+#   ./build.sh --clawdie-ref main       # bundle a branch/tag/commit ref
 #
 # Requirements (run on FreeBSD host):
 #   pkg install curl         # for fetching
@@ -40,7 +41,8 @@ SKIP_FETCH=0
 FETCH_ONLY=0
 while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
     case "$1" in
-        --clawdie-version) CLAWDIE_VERSION="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+        --clawdie-version) CLAWDIE_VERSION="$2"; CLAWDIE_REF="v$2"; shift 2 ;;
+        --clawdie-ref)     CLAWDIE_REF="$2"; CLAWDIE_VERSION="$2"; shift 2 ;;
         --skip-fetch)      SKIP_FETCH=1; shift ;;
         --fetch-only)      FETCH_ONLY=1; shift ;;
         --assistant-name)  ASSISTANT_NAME="$2"; shift 2 ;;
@@ -75,7 +77,7 @@ fi
 
 echo "==> clawdie-iso build"
 echo "    FreeBSD : ${FREEBSD_VERSION} ${FREEBSD_ARCH}"
-echo "    Clawdie : v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}"
+echo "    Clawdie : ${CLAWDIE_REF}"
 echo "    Desktop : ${DEFAULT_DESKTOP}"
 echo "    Pkg     : ${DEFAULT_PKG_BRANCH}"
 echo "    GPU     : ${GPU_DRIVER:-auto-detect}"
@@ -430,26 +432,28 @@ else
 fi
 
 # --- step 4: fetch + prepare Clawdie-AI tarball (offline-ready) ---
-# Resolve "latest" to the most recent Codeberg tag
-if [ "$CLAWDIE_VERSION" = "latest" ] || [ -z "$CLAWDIE_VERSION" ]; then
+# Resolve "latest" to the most recent Codeberg tag.
+if [ "${CLAWDIE_REF:-${CLAWDIE_VERSION:-}}" = "latest" ] || [ -z "${CLAWDIE_REF:-}" ]; then
     echo "==> [4/7] Resolving latest Clawdie-AI version..."
     CLAWDIE_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://codeberg.org/api/v1/repos/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI/releases?limit=1" \
         | grep -o '"tag_name":"[^"]*"' | head -1 | cut -d'"' -f4 | sed 's/^v//')
-    echo "    Resolved: v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}"
+    CLAWDIE_REF="v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}"
+    echo "    Resolved: ${CLAWDIE_REF}"
 fi
 
-CLAWDIE_TARBALL="${CACHE_DIR}/clawdie-ai-v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+CLAWDIE_CACHE_KEY=$(printf '%s' "$CLAWDIE_REF" | tr -c 'A-Za-z0-9._-' '_')
+CLAWDIE_TARBALL="${CACHE_DIR}/clawdie-ai-${CLAWDIE_CACHE_KEY}.tar.gz"
+CLAWDIE_TARBALL_URL="https://codeberg.org/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI/archive/${CLAWDIE_REF}.tar.gz"
 if [ "$SKIP_FETCH" -eq 0 ] || [ ! -f "$CLAWDIE_TARBALL" ]; then
-    echo "==> [4/7] Fetching Clawdie-AI v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}..."
+    echo "==> [4/7] Fetching Clawdie-AI ${CLAWDIE_REF}..."
     mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR"
-    curl -L --progress-bar -o "$CLAWDIE_TARBALL" \
-        "https://codeberg.org/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI/archive/v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+    curl -L --progress-bar -o "$CLAWDIE_TARBALL" "$CLAWDIE_TARBALL_URL"
 else
-    echo "==> [4/7] Clawdie-AI v${CLAWDIE_VERSION} cached."
+    echo "==> [4/7] Clawdie-AI ${CLAWDIE_REF} cached."
 fi
 
 # Build an ISO-ready tarball that includes node_modules for offline firstboot.
-CLAWDIE_TARBALL_ISO="${CACHE_DIR}/clawdie-ai-v${CLAWDIE_VERSION}-iso.tar.gz"
+CLAWDIE_TARBALL_ISO="${CACHE_DIR}/clawdie-ai-${CLAWDIE_CACHE_KEY}-iso.tar.gz"
 if [ "$SKIP_FETCH" -eq 0 ] || [ ! -f "$CLAWDIE_TARBALL_ISO" ]; then
     echo "==> [4/7] Preparing Clawdie-AI offline tarball (node_modules)..."
 
@@ -655,8 +659,12 @@ mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"
 cp "$WORK_IMG" "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}"
 sync
 echo ""
-echo "    Done : ${OUTPUT_DIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}"
-echo "    Size : $(du -sh "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}" | cut -f1)"
+OUTPUT_IMAGE="${OUTPUT_DIR}/${IMAGE_NAME}"
+IMAGE_LOGICAL_SIZE=$(ls -lh "$OUTPUT_IMAGE" | awk '{print $5}')
+IMAGE_ALLOCATED_SIZE=$(du -sh "$OUTPUT_IMAGE" | awk '{print $1}')
+echo "    Done       : ${OUTPUT_IMAGE}"
+echo "    Image size : ${IMAGE_LOGICAL_SIZE}"
+echo "    Allocated  : ${IMAGE_ALLOCATED_SIZE} (sparse on build host)"
 echo ""
 echo "    Write to USB:"
 echo "    dd if=${IMAGE_NAME} of=/dev/daX bs=1M status=progress"