diff --git a/.github/workflows/preview.yaml b/.github/workflows/preview.yaml
index f0476c2f..9abea450 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/preview.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/preview.yaml
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ concurrency:
 jobs:
   deploy:
     if: ${{ github.event_name != 'merge_group' }}
+    # Seeding now writes to a local SQLite file and is bulk-imported into the
+    # fresh Turso preview DB in one operation, so it no longer streams thousands
+    # of latency-bound round-trips that killed Blacksmith runners mid-seed.
+    # Moving this job onto a Blacksmith runner is now a trivial follow-up — see
+    # NWACus/web#1143.
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     environment: Preview
     env:
@@ -22,7 +27,7 @@ jobs:
         run: curl -sSfL https://get.tur.so/install.sh | bash
         env:
           TURSO_INSTALL_SKIP_SIGNUP: 'true'
-      - name: Create a new database for the preview
+      - name: Compute the preview database name
         id: database
         run: |
           set -o errexit
@@ -42,13 +47,53 @@ jobs:
           echo "ref=${ref}" >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
 
           name="payloadcms-preview-${ref}"
+          echo "name=${name}" >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
+      - name: 🏗 Setup repo
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: 🏗 Setup pnpm
+        uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
+      - name: 🏗 Setup Node
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: 24.x
+          cache: pnpm
+      - name: 📦 Install dependencies
+        run: pnpm ii
+        shell: bash
+      - name: Seed a local SQLite database
+        # Seed against a local file instead of streaming thousands of per-row
+        # writes to remote Turso. This is the same fast path the CI build job
+        # uses: NODE_ENV is overridden off `production` so the SQLite adapter
+        # runs in push mode and builds the current schema directly from the
+        # Payload config (running migrations from zero isn't viable — a data
+        # migration reads collections whose block tables a later migration
+        # adds). The resulting schema matches what the deployed preview expects.
+        run: pnpm seed:standalone
+        env:
+          NODE_ENV: development
+          DATABASE_URI: 'file:./preview-seed.db'
+          PAYLOAD_SEED_PASSWORD: '${{ secrets.PAYLOAD_SEED_PASSWORD }}'
+          PAYLOAD_SECRET: '${{ secrets.PAYLOAD_SECRET }}'
+      - name: Create the preview database from the seeded file
+        # Bulk-import the seeded local DB into a fresh Turso DB in one operation.
+        # We use `--from-dump` (plain SQL) rather than `--from-file`: the latter
+        # requires WAL mode and mis-parses valid WAL databases on sqlite3 >= 3.50
+        # (tursodatabase/turso-cli#1030), whereas a `.dump` is runner-agnostic.
+        run: |
+          set -o errexit
+          set -o nounset
+          set -o pipefail
+
+          name="${{ steps.database.outputs.name }}"
+
+          sqlite3 ./preview-seed.db .dump > ./preview-seed.sql
+
           /home/runner/.turso/turso org switch nwac
           if /home/runner/.turso/turso db show "${name}"; then
             /home/runner/.turso/turso db destroy "${name}" --yes
           fi
-          /home/runner/.turso/turso db create "${name}" --wait
+          /home/runner/.turso/turso db create "${name}" --from-dump ./preview-seed.sql --wait
           /home/runner/.turso/turso db shell "${name}" .tables
-          echo "name=${name}" >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
         env:
           TURSO_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURSO_API_TOKEN }}
       - name: Record database connection URI and token
@@ -62,18 +107,6 @@ jobs:
           echo "token=$(/home/runner/.turso/turso db tokens create "${{ steps.database.outputs.name }}")" >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
         env:
           TURSO_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURSO_API_TOKEN }}
-      - name: 🏗 Setup repo
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-      - name: 🏗 Setup pnpm
-        uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
-      - name: 🏗 Setup Node
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
-        with:
-          node-version: 24.x
-          cache: pnpm
-      - name: 📦 Install dependencies
-        run: pnpm ii
-        shell: bash
       - name: Install Vercel CLI
         run: npm install --global vercel@latest
       - name: Generate preview domain names
@@ -101,19 +134,6 @@ jobs:
         run: echo -n "${{ steps.domains.outputs.preview_alias }}" | vercel env add NEXT_PUBLIC_ROOT_DOMAIN preview ${{ github.head_ref }} --no-sensitive --force --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
       - name: Pull Vercel Environment Variables into .env file
         run: vercel env pull --yes --environment=preview --git-branch="${{ github.head_ref }}" --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }} .env
-      - name: Run database migrations
-        run: pnpm migrate
-        env:
-          DATABASE_URI: '${{ steps.connection.outputs.uri }}'
-          DATABASE_AUTH_TOKEN: '${{ steps.connection.outputs.token }}'
-          PAYLOAD_SECRET: '${{ secrets.PAYLOAD_SECRET }}'
-      - name: Seed the database
-        run: pnpm seed:standalone
-        env:
-          DATABASE_URI: '${{ steps.connection.outputs.uri }}'
-          DATABASE_AUTH_TOKEN: '${{ steps.connection.outputs.token }}'
-          PAYLOAD_SEED_PASSWORD: '${{ secrets.PAYLOAD_SEED_PASSWORD }}'
-          PAYLOAD_SECRET: '${{ secrets.PAYLOAD_SECRET }}'
       - name: Pull Vercel Environment Information
         run: vercel pull --yes --environment=preview --git-branch="${{ github.head_ref }}" --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
       - name: Build Project Artifacts