diff --git a/.github/workflows/assets.yml b/.github/workflows/assets.yml
index af375b50bb..d131b1bead 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/assets.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/assets.yml
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ jobs:
     - run: yarn global add gulp-cli
     - run: ./ui/build prod
     - run: mkdir assets && mv public assets/ && cp LICENSE COPYING.md README.md assets/ && git log -n 1 --pretty=oneline > assets/commit.txt
+    - run: cd assets && tar -cvpJf ../assets.tar.xz . && cd -
     - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v1
       with:
         name: lila-assets
-        path: assets
+        path: assets.tar.xz
diff --git a/.github/workflows/server.yml b/.github/workflows/server.yml
index 875cde634b..d0e07fe7cd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/server.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/server.yml
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ jobs:
     - run: TZ=UTC git log -1 --date=iso-strict-local --pretty='format:app.version = """%h / %ad / %s"""%n' | tee conf/version.conf
     - run: ./lila -Depoll=true "test;dist"
     - run: unzip target/universal/lila-3.0.zip && cp LICENSE COPYING.md README.md lila-3.0 && git log -n 1 --pretty=oneline > lila-3.0/commit.txt
+    - run: cd lila-3.0 && tar -cvpJf ../lila-3.0.tar.xz . && cd -
     - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v1
       with:
         name: lila-server
-        path: lila-3.0
+        path: lila-3.0.tar.xz
diff --git a/bin/ci-deploy.py b/bin/ci-deploy.py
index df9bef2a79..c441846a7c 100755
--- a/bin/ci-deploy.py
+++ b/bin/ci-deploy.py
@@ -217,15 +217,18 @@ def deploy(profile, session, repo, runs):
     print(f"Deploying {url} to {profile['ssh']}...")
     header = f"Authorization: {session.headers['Authorization']}"
     artifact_target = f"{profile['artifact_dir']}/{profile['artifact_name']}-{run['id']:d}.zip"
+    artifact_unzipped = f"{profile['artifact_dir']}/{profile['artifact_name']}-{run['id']:d}"
     command = ";".join([
         f"mkdir -p {profile['artifact_dir']}",
         f"mkdir -p {profile['deploy_dir']}/application.home_IS_UNDEFINED/logs",
         f"wget --header={shlex.quote(header)} -O {shlex.quote(artifact_target)} --no-clobber {shlex.quote(url)}",
-        f"unzip -q -o {shlex.quote(artifact_target)} -d {profile['artifact_dir']}/{profile['artifact_name']}-{run['id']:d}",
-        f"cat {profile['artifact_dir']}/{profile['artifact_name']}-{run['id']:d}/commit.txt",
+        f"unzip -q -o {shlex.quote(artifact_target)} -d {artifact_unzipped}",
+        f"mkdir -p {artifact_unzipped}/d",
+        f"tar -xf {artifact_unzipped}/*.tar.xz -C {artifact_unzipped}/d",
+        f"cat {artifact_unzipped}/d/commit.txt",
         f"chown -R lichess:lichess {profile['artifact_dir']}"
     ] + [
-        f"ln -f --no-target-directory -s {profile['artifact_dir']}/{profile['artifact_name']}-{run['id']:d}/{symlink} {profile['deploy_dir']}/{symlink}"
+        f"ln -f --no-target-directory -s {artifact_unzipped}/d/{symlink} {profile['deploy_dir']}/{symlink}"
         for symlink in profile["symlinks"]
     ] + [
         f"chown -R lichess:lichess {profile['deploy_dir']}",