diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 5d9eb5702..2223f5712 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -208,10 +208,12 @@ test:
   script:
     # Remove CUDA stubs from LD_LIBRARY_PATH — nvidia RuntimeClass provides real libcuda.so
     - export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(echo "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" | tr ':' '\n' | grep -v stubs | tr '\n' ':' | sed 's/:$//')
-    - nvidia-smi  # verify GPU access
+    - nvidia-smi || echo "nvidia-smi not available (no GPU RuntimeClass) — compile-only mode"
     # Detect GPU compute capability and partition sccache per architecture
-    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=compute_cap --format=csv,noheader | head -1 | tr -d '.')
-    - echo "Detected CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP"
+    # Falls back to 89 (L4) when nvidia-smi unavailable (compile jobs don't need GPU)
+    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=compute_cap --format=csv,noheader 2>/dev/null | head -1 | tr -d '.' || echo "89")
+    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=${CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP:-89}
+    - echo "CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP"
     - export SCCACHE_DIR="/mnt/sccache/sm_${CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP}"
     - mkdir -p "$SCCACHE_DIR"
     # Wait for Redis sidecar (K8s executor doesn't wait for service readiness)
@@ -249,8 +251,10 @@ compile-services:
     - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web" || $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "api"
   script:
     # Detect GPU compute capability and partition sccache per architecture
-    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=compute_cap --format=csv,noheader | head -1 | tr -d '.')
-    - echo "Detected CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP"
+    # Falls back to 89 (L4) when nvidia-smi unavailable (compile doesn't need GPU)
+    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=compute_cap --format=csv,noheader 2>/dev/null | head -1 | tr -d '.' || echo "89")
+    - export CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=${CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP:-89}
+    - echo "CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=$CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP"
     - export SCCACHE_DIR="/mnt/sccache/sm_${CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP}"
     - mkdir -p "$SCCACHE_DIR"
     - sccache --zero-stats || true