diff --git a/bootstrap.sh b/bootstrap.sh
index 9a5f470..21c9562 100755
--- a/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/bootstrap.sh
@@ -298,7 +298,13 @@ check_clean() {
 deliver_repo() {
   local src=$1 remote_dir=$2 label=$3 dest=$4 commit
   commit=$(git -C "$src" rev-parse HEAD) || die "could not resolve HEAD for $label ($src)"
-  ssh "${SSH_OPTS[@]}" "$FLIT_USER@$dest" "mkdir -p ~/$remote_dir" \
+  # Replaced, not extracted over. `git archive | tar -x` never removes
+  # anything, so a file deleted from the source repository used to live in the
+  # staging directory forever and be re-delivered from there on every run — the
+  # same defect laptop/sync-config.sh's sync_tree() clears its destination to
+  # avoid, and it is safe here for the same reason: this directory is staging
+  # that only phase 2 writes and only server/lib/22-claude-config.sh reads.
+  ssh "${SSH_OPTS[@]}" "$FLIT_USER@$dest" "rm -rf ~/$remote_dir && mkdir -p ~/$remote_dir" \
     || die "could not create ~/$remote_dir on $dest"
   git -C "$src" archive HEAD \
     | ssh "${SSH_OPTS[@]}" "$FLIT_USER@$dest" "tar -x -C ~/$remote_dir" \