diff --git a/scripts/ci/cuda/ci_install_dependency.sh b/scripts/ci/cuda/ci_install_dependency.sh
index 6a7d1f251..a7cdd6535 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/cuda/ci_install_dependency.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/cuda/ci_install_dependency.sh
@@ -443,18 +443,15 @@ stabilize_flashinfer_jit_paths() {
 install_extra_deps() {
     MOONCAKE_VERSION="0.3.11.post1"
     NIXL_VERSION="1.3.0"
-    NIXL_PKG="nixl==${NIXL_VERSION}"
     if [ "$CU_MAJOR" = "13" ]; then
         MOONCAKE_PKG="mooncake-transfer-engine-cuda13==${MOONCAKE_VERSION}"
         MOONCAKE_STALE_PKG="mooncake-transfer-engine"
-        NIXL_BIN_PKG="nixl-cu13==${NIXL_VERSION}"
-        NIXL_STALE_BIN_PKG="nixl-cu12"
+        NIXL_BIN_NAME="nixl-cu13"
         EXTRA_NVIDIA_SPECS="nvidia-cuda-nvrtc"
     else
         MOONCAKE_PKG="mooncake-transfer-engine==${MOONCAKE_VERSION}"
         MOONCAKE_STALE_PKG="mooncake-transfer-engine-cuda13"
-        NIXL_BIN_PKG="nixl-cu12==${NIXL_VERSION}"
-        NIXL_STALE_BIN_PKG="nixl-cu13"
+        NIXL_BIN_NAME="nixl-cu12"
         EXTRA_NVIDIA_SPECS="nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12"
     fi
     # Both variants own the same mooncake/ package files and bin/ scripts
@@ -466,12 +463,20 @@ install_extra_deps() {
         $PIP_UNINSTALL_CMD ${MOONCAKE_STALE_PKG} $PIP_UNINSTALL_SUFFIX || true
         $PIP_CMD install ${MOONCAKE_PKG} --force-reinstall --no-deps $PIP_INSTALL_SUFFIX
     fi
-    # Best-effort NIXL install for decode-radix disaggregation coverage.
-    if pip show ${NIXL_STALE_BIN_PKG} >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-        $PIP_UNINSTALL_CMD ${NIXL_STALE_BIN_PKG} $PIP_UNINSTALL_SUFFIX || true
-        $PIP_CMD install ${NIXL_PKG} ${NIXL_BIN_PKG} --force-reinstall --no-deps $PIP_INSTALL_SUFFIX
+    $PIP_CMD install ${MOONCAKE_PKG} ${EXTRA_NVIDIA_SPECS} py-spy scipy huggingface_hub[hf_xet] pytest $PIP_INSTALL_SUFFIX
+
+    NIXL_INSTALLED=$(pip show nixl 2>/dev/null | grep "^Version:" | awk '{print $2}' || echo "")
+    NIXL_BIN_INSTALLED=$(pip show "${NIXL_BIN_NAME}" 2>/dev/null | grep "^Version:" | awk '{print $2}' || echo "")
+    if [ "$NIXL_INSTALLED" = "$NIXL_VERSION" ] && [ "$NIXL_BIN_INSTALLED" = "$NIXL_VERSION" ]; then
+        echo "nixl==${NIXL_VERSION} and ${NIXL_BIN_NAME}==${NIXL_VERSION} already installed, keeping them"
+    else
+        echo "nixl mismatch (meta: ${NIXL_INSTALLED:-none}, ${NIXL_BIN_NAME}: ${NIXL_BIN_INSTALLED:-none}, required: ${NIXL_VERSION}); installing"
+        # Meta stub owns the nixl import path; install only the CUDA binary for
+        # this runner's torch CUDA major. --no-deps avoids pulling the other CUDA
+        # variant; leave any other variant already on the runner image untouched.
+        $PIP_CMD install "nixl==${NIXL_VERSION}" "${NIXL_BIN_NAME}==${NIXL_VERSION}" \
+            --no-deps --force-reinstall $PIP_INSTALL_SUFFIX
     fi
-    $PIP_CMD install ${MOONCAKE_PKG} ${NIXL_PKG} ${NIXL_BIN_PKG} ${EXTRA_NVIDIA_SPECS} py-spy scipy huggingface_hub[hf_xet] pytest $PIP_INSTALL_SUFFIX
 
     if [ "$IS_BLACKWELL" != "1" ]; then
         git clone --branch v0.5 --depth 1 https://github.com/EvolvingLMMs-Lab/lmms-eval.git