diff --git a/.github/workflows/_package-publish.yml b/.github/workflows/_package-publish.yml
index 1b4ddd29e..f1f6a9ac1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_package-publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_package-publish.yml
@@ -171,17 +171,36 @@ jobs:
           GIT_CLIFF_CHANGELOG: ${{ steps.git-cliff.outputs.changelog }}
         run: cat "$GIT_CLIFF_CHANGELOG"
 
-      - name: Build distribution into dist/
+      - name: Verify lockstep versioning
         shell: bash
-        run: make dist
+        run: |
+          SDK_VERSION=$(grep '^version = ' packages/aignostics-sdk/pyproject.toml | head -1 | sed 's/version = "\(.*\)"/\1/')
+          FULL_VERSION=$(grep '^version = ' packages/aignostics/pyproject.toml | head -1 | sed 's/version = "\(.*\)"/\1/')
+          if [ "$SDK_VERSION" != "$FULL_VERSION" ]; then
+            echo "❌ Version mismatch: aignostics-sdk=$SDK_VERSION, aignostics=$FULL_VERSION"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "✅ Versions match: $SDK_VERSION"
 
-      - name: Publish distribution to Python Package Index at pypi.org
+      - name: Build aignostics-sdk distribution
+        shell: bash
+        run: uv build --package aignostics-sdk --out-dir dist/
+
+      - name: Publish aignostics-sdk to PyPI
         shell: bash
         env:
           UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN }}
-        run: |
-          # Use uv's credential storage - uv will read from UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN env var automatically
-          uv publish
+        run: uv publish dist/aignostics_sdk-*
+
+      - name: Build aignostics distribution
+        shell: bash
+        run: uv build --package aignostics --out-dir dist/
+
+      - name: Publish aignostics to PyPI
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN }}
+        run: uv publish dist/aignostics-*
 
       - name: Download test results for ubuntu-latest generated in _test.yml
         if: |
@@ -276,3 +295,25 @@ jobs:
           # See https://github.com/cli/cli/discussions/10696
           gh api repos/aignostics/python-sdk/dispatches \
             -f event_type=release_created_programatically
+
+  smoke_test_slim:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    needs: package_publish
+    continue-on-error: true
+    steps:
+      - name: Install uv
+        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@cec208311dfd045dd5311c1add060b2062131d57 # v8.0.0
+
+      - name: Smoke test aignostics-sdk
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          VERSION=$(echo "${{ github.ref_name }}" | sed 's/^v//')
+          uv venv /tmp/slim-venv
+          uv pip install --python /tmp/slim-venv/bin/python "aignostics-sdk==$VERSION"
+          /tmp/slim-venv/bin/aignostics-sdk --help
+          /tmp/slim-venv/bin/python -c "from aignostics_sdk.platform import Client; print('✅ slim import OK')"
+          if /tmp/slim-venv/bin/python -c "import openslide" 2>/dev/null; then
+            echo "❌ openslide should not be installed in slim package"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "✅ Heavy deps correctly absent"
diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index dd69ce240..8d74238e4 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -1027,5 +1027,6 @@ def act(session: nox.Session) -> None:
 
 @nox.session()
 def dist(session: nox.Session) -> None:
-    """Build wheel and put in dist/."""
-    session.run("uv", "build", external=True)
+    """Build wheels for both packages into dist/."""
+    session.run("uv", "build", "--package", "aignostics-sdk", "--out-dir", "dist/", external=True)
+    session.run("uv", "build", "--package", "aignostics", "--out-dir", "dist/", external=True)