diff --git a/packages/@n8n/instance-ai/src/workspace/sandbox-setup.ts b/packages/@n8n/instance-ai/src/workspace/sandbox-setup.ts
index f5f59bae519..956fd95e19e 100644
--- a/packages/@n8n/instance-ai/src/workspace/sandbox-setup.ts
+++ b/packages/@n8n/instance-ai/src/workspace/sandbox-setup.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
  */
 
 import type { Workspace } from '@mastra/core/workspace';
-import { getExampleFiles } from '@n8n/workflow-sdk/examples-loader';
+import { getExampleFiles, type ExampleFile } from '@n8n/workflow-sdk/examples-loader';
 import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
 
 import type { Logger } from '../logger';
@@ -329,7 +329,17 @@ export async function getWorkspaceRoot(workspace: Workspace): Promise<string> {
  */
 export async function writeCuratedExamples(workspace: Workspace, logger?: Logger): Promise<void> {
 	const start = Date.now();
-	const { files: exampleFiles, indexTxt } = getExampleFiles();
+	// Examples are nice-to-have — never block the build when loading them fails.
+	let exampleFiles: ExampleFile[];
+	let indexTxt: string;
+	try {
+		({ files: exampleFiles, indexTxt } = getExampleFiles());
+	} catch (error) {
+		logger?.warn('[sandbox-setup] curated examples unavailable, continuing without', {
+			error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
+		});
+		return;
+	}
 	if (exampleFiles.length === 0) return;
 
 	const root = await getWorkspaceRoot(workspace);
diff --git a/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-loader.ts b/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-loader.ts
index 1f1e4cad29b..7abd1bd8d22 100644
--- a/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-loader.ts
+++ b/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-loader.ts
@@ -15,14 +15,12 @@ import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
 import { emitInstanceAi } from './codegen/emit-instance-ai';
-import { ensureExtracted } from './examples-zip';
+import { ensureExtracted, WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR } from './examples-zip';
 import type { WorkflowJSON } from './types/base';
 
-// Resolve relative to this file. At runtime this lives at <package>/dist/examples-loader.js,
-// so `../examples` reaches <package>/examples/.
+// Manifest ships read-only in the package; workflows live in WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR.
 const EXAMPLES_DIR = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'examples');
 const MANIFEST_PATH = path.join(EXAMPLES_DIR, 'manifest.json');
-const WORKFLOWS_DIR = path.join(EXAMPLES_DIR, 'workflows');
 
 const NODES_INLINE_LIMIT = 5;
 const INDEX_NODE_SEPARATOR = ',';
@@ -95,7 +93,7 @@ function loadFromDisk(): ExampleFilesBundle {
 	const indexLines: string[] = [];
 
 	for (const entry of entries) {
-		const wfPath = path.join(WORKFLOWS_DIR, `${entry.slug}.json`);
+		const wfPath = path.join(WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR, `${entry.slug}.json`);
 		if (!fs.existsSync(wfPath)) continue;
 		// eslint-disable-next-line n8n-local-rules/no-uncaught-json-parse -- Internal workflow fixture
 		const wf = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(wfPath, 'utf-8')) as WorkflowJSON;
diff --git a/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-zip.ts b/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-zip.ts
index ae633725bf2..c9ed841046b 100644
--- a/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-zip.ts
+++ b/packages/@n8n/workflow-sdk/src/examples-zip.ts
@@ -8,12 +8,35 @@
  */
 import AdmZip from 'adm-zip';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
+import * as os from 'os';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
 const EXAMPLES_DIR = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'examples');
 const ZIP_PATH = path.join(EXAMPLES_DIR, 'templates.zip');
 const MANIFEST_PATH = path.join(EXAMPLES_DIR, 'manifest.json');
-const WORKFLOWS_DIR = path.join(EXAMPLES_DIR, 'workflows');
+
+function sdkVersion(): string {
+	try {
+		const pkgPath = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'package.json');
+		// eslint-disable-next-line n8n-local-rules/no-uncaught-json-parse -- Own package.json
+		return (
+			(JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(pkgPath, 'utf-8')) as { version?: string }).version ??
+			'unversioned'
+		);
+	} catch {
+		return 'unversioned';
+	}
+}
+
+// Tmp cache for unzipped workflows — keyed by SDK version so upgrades extract
+// fresh. We can't unzip back into the package because node_modules is
+// read-only inside n8n's Docker image.
+export const WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR = path.join(
+	os.tmpdir(),
+	'n8n-workflow-sdk',
+	sdkVersion(),
+	'workflows',
+);
 
 interface ManifestEntry {
 	slug: string;
@@ -41,7 +64,7 @@ export function needsExtraction(): boolean {
 	const manifest = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(MANIFEST_PATH, 'utf-8')) as ManifestFile;
 	for (const entry of manifest.workflows ?? []) {
 		if (!entry.success || entry.skip) continue;
-		const filePath = path.join(WORKFLOWS_DIR, `${entry.slug}.json`);
+		const filePath = path.join(WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR, `${entry.slug}.json`);
 		if (!fs.existsSync(filePath)) return true;
 	}
 	return false;
@@ -55,14 +78,14 @@ export function extractFromZip(): void {
 	if (!fs.existsSync(ZIP_PATH)) {
 		throw new Error(`Examples zip not found: ${ZIP_PATH}`);
 	}
-	if (!fs.existsSync(WORKFLOWS_DIR)) {
-		fs.mkdirSync(WORKFLOWS_DIR, { recursive: true });
+	if (!fs.existsSync(WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR)) {
+		fs.mkdirSync(WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR, { recursive: true });
 	}
 
 	const zip = new AdmZip(ZIP_PATH);
 	for (const entry of zip.getEntries()) {
 		if (entry.isDirectory) continue;
-		zip.extractEntryTo(entry, WORKFLOWS_DIR, false, true);
+		zip.extractEntryTo(entry, WORKFLOWS_CACHE_DIR, false, true);
 	}
 }