diff --git a/scripts/src/cicd.ts b/scripts/src/cicd.ts
index d1c7f62f..e54c4fb1 100644
--- a/scripts/src/cicd.ts
+++ b/scripts/src/cicd.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import { createHash } from "node:crypto";
 import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { isAbsolute } from "node:path";
+import { gunzipSync } from "node:zlib";
 import { repoRoot, rootPath, type UniDeskConfig } from "./config";
 import { runCommand, type CommandResult } from "./command";
 import { startJob } from "./jobs";
@@ -1881,7 +1882,7 @@ function kubeConfigMapFollowerState(registry: BranchFollowerRegistry, options: P
 
 function kubeConfigMapDataValue(registry: BranchFollowerRegistry, options: ParsedOptions, key: string): { ok: boolean; present: boolean; value: string | null; omitted: boolean; error: string } {
   const template = `{{ with index .data ${JSON.stringify(key)} }}{{ . }}{{ end }}`;
-  const maxValueBytes = 6144;
+  const maxValueBytes = 32_768;
   const script = [
     "set -eu",
     "tmpdir=$(mktemp -d)",
@@ -1905,8 +1906,13 @@ function kubeConfigMapDataValue(registry: BranchFollowerRegistry, options: Parse
     "  printf '{\"ok\":true,\"present\":true,\"valueB64\":null,\"omitted\":true,\"valueBytes\":%s,\"errorB64\":\"\"}' \"$value_bytes\"",
     "  exit 0",
     "fi",
-    "value_b64=$(printf '%s' \"$value\" | base64 | tr -d '\\n')",
-    "printf '{\"ok\":true,\"present\":true,\"valueB64\":\"%s\",\"omitted\":false,\"valueBytes\":%s,\"errorB64\":\"\"}' \"$value_b64\" \"$value_bytes\"",
+    "if command -v gzip >/dev/null 2>&1; then",
+    "  value_b64=$(printf '%s' \"$value\" | gzip -c | base64 | tr -d '\\n')",
+    "  printf '{\"ok\":true,\"present\":true,\"valueB64\":\"%s\",\"encoding\":\"gzip-base64\",\"omitted\":false,\"valueBytes\":%s,\"errorB64\":\"\"}' \"$value_b64\" \"$value_bytes\"",
+    "else",
+    "  value_b64=$(printf '%s' \"$value\" | base64 | tr -d '\\n')",
+    "  printf '{\"ok\":true,\"present\":true,\"valueB64\":\"%s\",\"encoding\":\"base64\",\"omitted\":false,\"valueBytes\":%s,\"errorB64\":\"\"}' \"$value_b64\" \"$value_bytes\"",
+    "fi",
   ].join("\n");
   const result = runKubeScript(registry, options, script, "", 10_000);
   const parsed = result.exitCode === 0 ? parseJsonObject(result.stdout) : null;
@@ -1925,10 +1931,12 @@ function kubeConfigMapDataValue(registry: BranchFollowerRegistry, options: Parse
   const present = parsed.present === true;
   const omitted = parsed.omitted === true;
   const valueB64 = typeof parsed.valueB64 === "string" ? parsed.valueB64 : null;
+  const encoding = stringOrNull(parsed.encoding) ?? "base64";
+  const valueBuffer = valueB64 === null ? null : Buffer.from(valueB64, "base64");
   return {
     ok,
     present,
-    value: valueB64 === null ? null : Buffer.from(valueB64, "base64").toString("utf8"),
+    value: valueBuffer === null ? null : encoding === "gzip-base64" ? gunzipSync(valueBuffer).toString("utf8") : valueBuffer.toString("utf8"),
     omitted,
     error: redactText(error),
   };