diff --git a/.github/actions/setup-nodejs/action.yml b/.github/actions/setup-nodejs/action.yml
index 877b015eb4a..b140eaef092 100644
--- a/.github/actions/setup-nodejs/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/setup-nodejs/action.yml
@@ -145,7 +145,10 @@ runs:
       shell: bash
       run: node .github/scripts/verify-safechain.mjs
 
+    # Confluent ships no Node 26 prebuilt and its vendored librdkafka cannot build
+    # inside node_modules: https://github.com/confluentinc/confluent-kafka-javascript/issues/397
     - name: Skip Kafka native build (no Node 26 prebuilds)
+      if: ${{ startsWith(inputs.node-version, '26.') }}
       shell: bash
       run: |
         node -e "
diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-build-push.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-build-push.yml
index 7e893f8dfc2..770d347a2f1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-build-push.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-build-push.yml
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Setup and Build
         uses: ./.github/actions/setup-nodejs
         with:
+          # The image copies native bindings from the host build, so both need the same Node.
+          node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
           build-command: pnpm build:n8n
           enable-docker-cache: 'true'
         env:
@@ -175,7 +177,7 @@ jobs:
             ${{ needs.determine-build-context.outputs.push_to_docker == 'true' && '--include-docker' || '' }}
 
           echo "=== Generated Docker Tags ==="
-          cat "$GITHUB_OUTPUT" | grep "_tags=" | while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
+          grep "_tags=" "$GITHUB_OUTPUT" | while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
             echo "${key}: ${value%%,*}..."  # Show first tag for brevity
           done
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-build-smoke.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-build-smoke.yml
index 655548376b9..7154045dbec 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-build-smoke.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-build-smoke.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build full chain (no cache)
         uses: ./.github/actions/setup-nodejs
         with:
+          # Keep in sync with NODE_VERSION in docker/images/n8n/Dockerfile: the image
+          # copies native bindings from the host build.
+          node-version: '24.18.1'
           build-command: 'pnpm build:docker:clean'
           enable-docker-cache: true