diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-recipe.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-recipe.yml
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+name: CI (recipe-first) [DRAFT]
+
+# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# DRAFT recipe-first build path.
+#
+# This is the intended replacement for the apt + cvc-requirements.yaml +
+# hand-written `cmake` steps in ci.yml. Instead it builds libcvc from its
+# in-tree cvcpkg recipe (cvcpkg/recipes/libcvc/), which declares the full
+# third-party closure — so the same recipe a developer runs locally
+#
+#     cvcpkg build libcvc --recipes-dir cvcpkg/recipes --prefix /tmp/libcvc
+#
+# is exactly what CI runs. No apt/brew library installs; cvcpkg is the sole
+# source of third-party deps on every platform.
+#
+# ── Why this is still a draft (workflow_dispatch only, not on PRs) ──
+# It cannot go green until the closure is *published* to the cvcpkg catalog:
+#   * libxml2 (new — transfix/libcvc-deps#335) and the ImageMagick delegates
+#     the libcvc recipe now pulls in (libjpeg-turbo/libpng/libwebp/freetype)
+#     need published bundles for each platform tuple, otherwise cvcpkg errors
+#     with "no bundles found in catalog" (unless run with
+#     --fallback-to-source, which source-builds the whole stack — very slow).
+#   * Windows has no published dep bundles at all yet.
+# Publishing is currently blocked on the cvcpkg token rotation. Once that is
+# resolved and the bundles are published, flip the `on:` trigger to
+# pull_request/push and retire the corresponding jobs in ci.yml.
+# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      fallback_to_source:
+        description: "Build any unpublished deps from source (slow)"
+        type: boolean
+        default: false
+
+jobs:
+  build-recipe:
+    name: recipe / ${{ matrix.os }} / ${{ matrix.build_type }}
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
+        build_type: [Release, Debug]
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+
+      # The cvcpkg CLI itself (same pin used by publish-cvcpkg.yml).
+      - name: Install cvcpkg
+        shell: bash
+        run: pip install 'git+https://github.com/transfix/libcvc-deps@master'
+
+      # Build libcvc and its declared closure from the in-tree recipe.
+      # cvcpkg fetches prebuilt dep bundles from the catalog and compiles only
+      # libcvc; with --fallback-to-source it also source-builds any dep that
+      # has no published bundle for this platform.
+      - name: Build libcvc from its recipe
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          config=$(echo "${{ matrix.build_type }}" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
+          extra=""
+          if [ "${{ inputs.fallback_to_source }}" = "true" ]; then
+            extra="--fallback-to-source"
+          fi
+          cvcpkg build libcvc \
+            --recipes-dir cvcpkg/recipes \
+            --prefix "${{ runner.temp }}/libcvc" \
+            --config "$config" \
+            $extra
+
+      # Prove the installed SDK is consumable: find_package(cvc CONFIG) must
+      # resolve and a trivial program must link against cvc::cvc.
+      - name: Smoke-test the installed SDK
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          prefix="${{ runner.temp }}/libcvc"
+          work="${{ runner.temp }}/consumer"
+          mkdir -p "$work"
+          cat > "$work/main.cpp" <<'CPP'
+          #include <cvc/core/app.h>
+          #include <cvc/volume/volume.h>
+          #include <cvc/volume/volume_file_io.h>
+          int main() {
+            cvc::app app;                      // registers volume handlers
+            cvc::dimension dim(4, 4, 4);
+            cvc::bounding_box box(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1);
+            std::vector<float> buf(4 * 4 * 4, 1.0f);
+            cvc::volume v(app, reinterpret_cast<const unsigned char *>(buf.data()), dim,
+                          cvc::Float, box);
+            v.write("smoke.rawiv");            // exercises the write path (#111)
+            cvc::volume r(app);
+            r.read("smoke.rawiv");
+            return (r.XDim() == 4) ? 0 : 1;
+          }
+          CPP
+          cat > "$work/CMakeLists.txt" <<'CMK'
+          cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
+          project(cvc_smoke LANGUAGES CXX)
+          set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
+          find_package(cvc CONFIG REQUIRED)
+          add_executable(smoke main.cpp)
+          target_link_libraries(smoke PRIVATE cvc::cvc)
+          CMK
+          cmake -S "$work" -B "$work/build" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$prefix"
+          cmake --build "$work/build"
+          ( cd "$work/build" && ./smoke )