diff --git a/.github/AGENTS.md b/.github/AGENTS.md
index 52ec913f..a86c28bf 100644
--- a/.github/AGENTS.md
+++ b/.github/AGENTS.md
@@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ All build/test workflows cover Python 3.10-3.15 plus free-threaded 3.14t and 3.1
 
 ## Notes
 - Workflow/job renames are breaking for downstream tooling
-- Cache key includes `meta.yaml` hash for conda packages
+- Conda jobs do not cache the conda package directory: the channel downloads were faster than restoring the ~1 GB `actions/cache` entries, which were also evicted before the next run
diff --git a/.github/workflows/conda-build-test.yml b/.github/workflows/conda-build-test.yml
index 0f70ea0e..216d004c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/conda-build-test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/conda-build-test.yml
@@ -11,10 +11,6 @@ on:
         description: Conda platform subdir (e.g. linux-64, win-64, osx-64)
         required: true
         type: string
-      pkgs-dir:
-        description: Directory to cache conda packages in
-        required: true
-        type: string
       channels-list:
         description: Conda channels to build and test against
         required: true
@@ -70,7 +66,6 @@ jobs:
 
     env:
       build-env-name: 'build'
-      CONDA_PKGS_DIRS: ${{ inputs.pkgs-dir }}
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout repo
@@ -87,18 +82,6 @@ jobs:
           channels: conda-forge
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python }}
 
-      - name: Cache conda packages
-        uses: actions/cache@55cc8345863c7cc4c66a329aec7e433d2d1c52a9 # v6.1.0
-        env:
-          CACHE_NUMBER: 0  # Increase to reset cache
-        with:
-          path: ${{ inputs.pkgs-dir }}
-          key:
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-python-${{ matrix.python_tag || matrix.python }}-${{hashFiles('**/meta.yaml') }}
-          restore-keys: |
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-python-${{ matrix.python_tag || matrix.python }}-
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-
-
       - name: Install conda-build
         run: conda install -n base -y conda-build
 
@@ -166,7 +149,6 @@ jobs:
       test-env-name: 'test'
       channel-path: './channel'
       pkg-path-in-channel: './channel/${{ inputs.conda-subdir }}'
-      CONDA_PKGS_DIRS: ${{ inputs.pkgs-dir }}
 
     steps:
       - name: Download artifact
@@ -203,25 +185,6 @@ jobs:
           echo "PACKAGE_VERSION=${PACKAGE_VERSION}"
           echo "PACKAGE_VERSION=$PACKAGE_VERSION" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
-      - name: Collect dependencies
-        run: |
-          conda install ${{ env.package-name }}=${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }} pytest "python=${{ matrix.python_spec || matrix.python }}" ${{ env.CHANNELS }} --only-deps --dry-run > lockfile
-          cat lockfile
-        env:
-          CHANNELS: '-c ${{ env.channel-path }} ${{ inputs.channels-list }}'
-
-      - name: Cache conda packages
-        uses: actions/cache@55cc8345863c7cc4c66a329aec7e433d2d1c52a9 # v6.1.0
-        env:
-          CACHE_NUMBER: 0  # Increase to reset cache
-        with:
-          path: ${{ inputs.pkgs-dir }}
-          key:
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-python-${{ matrix.python_tag || matrix.python }}-${{hashFiles('lockfile') }}
-          restore-keys: |
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-python-${{ matrix.python_tag || matrix.python }}-
-            ${{ runner.os }}-conda-${{ env.CACHE_NUMBER }}-
-
       - name: Install mkl-service
         run: |
           conda install ${{ env.package-name }}=${{ env.PACKAGE_VERSION }} pytest "python=${{ matrix.python_spec || matrix.python }}" ${{ env.CHANNELS }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/conda-package-cf.yml b/.github/workflows/conda-package-cf.yml
index b0842757..2eb62935 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/conda-package-cf.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/conda-package-cf.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ jobs:
     with:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       conda-subdir: linux-64
-      pkgs-dir: /home/runner/conda_pkgs_dir
       channels-list: -c conda-forge --override-channels
       recipe-dir: conda-recipe-cf
 
@@ -30,7 +29,6 @@ jobs:
     with:
       runs-on: windows-latest
       conda-subdir: win-64
-      pkgs-dir: D:\conda_pkgs_dir
       channels-list: -c conda-forge --override-channels
       recipe-dir: conda-recipe-cf
 
@@ -40,6 +38,5 @@ jobs:
     with:
       runs-on: macos-26-intel
       conda-subdir: osx-64
-      pkgs-dir: /Users/runner/conda_pkgs_dir
       channels-list: -c conda-forge --override-channels
       recipe-dir: conda-recipe-cf
diff --git a/.github/workflows/conda-package.yml b/.github/workflows/conda-package.yml
index 970bcbf0..5df35e5b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/conda-package.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/conda-package.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ jobs:
     with:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       conda-subdir: linux-64
-      pkgs-dir: /home/runner/conda_pkgs_dir
       channels-list: -c https://software.repos.intel.com/python/conda -c conda-forge --override-channels
       recipe-dir: conda-recipe
       build-wheels: true
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@ jobs:
     with:
       runs-on: windows-latest
       conda-subdir: win-64
-      pkgs-dir: D:\conda_pkgs_dir
       channels-list: -c https://software.repos.intel.com/python/conda -c conda-forge --override-channels
       recipe-dir: conda-recipe
       build-wheels: true