diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
index 4b09c2e2..5e213674 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
@@ -79,7 +79,11 @@ jobs:
             - name: Setup Node
               uses: actions/setup-node@v4
               with:
-                  node-version: 20
+                  # From .nvmrc rather than pinned here. The two drifted —
+                  # .nvmrc said 22, this said 20, and the machine the suite was
+                  # actually developed on ran 24 — so "works locally, fails in
+                  # CI" had three plausible causes instead of none.
+                  node-version-file: .nvmrc
                   cache: npm
 
             - name: Install Node dependencies
diff --git a/.nvmrc b/.nvmrc
index 2bd5a0a9..a45fd52c 100644
--- a/.nvmrc
+++ b/.nvmrc
@@ -1 +1 @@
-22
+24
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f27978d8..e980385d 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -74,8 +74,8 @@ Two suites: PHPUnit for unit tests (`tests/`, mirroring `src/`) and Playwright f
 tests (`tests/e2e/`).
 
 Both run against `compose.test.yaml` — a separate compose project with its own Postgres, so they never
-touch the dev stack or the database holding your mail. Playwright runs on the host (Node 18+; the repo
-ships an `.nvmrc`).
+touch the dev stack or the database holding your mail. Playwright runs on the host; the repo
+ships an `.nvmrc` and CI reads it, so that file is the one place the version is set.
 
 ```bash
 npm ci