diff --git a/.github/workflows/debian.yml b/.github/workflows/debian.yml
index 817a9ca8..62c1208c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/debian.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/debian.yml
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Install system dependencies
         run: |
-          sudo apt-get install -y python3.13 python3.13-venv python3-pip
+          sudo apt-get install -y python3.13 python3.13-venv python3-pip git curl wget
 
       - name: Pre-seed virtualenv with local wheel before dpkg install
         run: |
@@ -178,8 +178,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: Determine release tag
         id: tag
         run: |
-          # github.event.release.tag_name is set for release events but empty
-          # for workflow_dispatch. Fall back to the version from pyproject.toml.
           TAG="${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"
           if [ -z "$TAG" ]; then
             TAG="v$(grep '^version = ' pyproject.toml | awk -F'\"' '{print $2}')"
@@ -197,4 +195,10 @@ jobs:
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         run: |
+          # Verify the release exists before uploading (workflow_dispatch may not have one)
+          if ! gh release view "${{ steps.tag.outputs.tag }}" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            echo "[!] No GitHub Release found for tag ${{ steps.tag.outputs.tag }}, skipping upload."
+            echo "    Create a release first or trigger via the release event."
+            exit 0
+          fi
           gh release upload "${{ steps.tag.outputs.tag }}" *.deb --clobber
diff --git a/pkg/debian/install.sh b/pkg/debian/install.sh
index 44d58c4e..1c72758e 100755
--- a/pkg/debian/install.sh
+++ b/pkg/debian/install.sh
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ if command -v python3.13 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     PYTHON="python3.13"
 elif command -v python3 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     PYTHON="python3"
-    PY_VER="$("$PYTHON" -c 'import sys; print(f"{sys.version_info.major}.{sys.version_info.minor}")')"
-    if [ "$(echo "$PY_VER 3.13" | awk '{print ($1 >= $2)}')" != "1" ]; then
+    PY_MAJOR="$("$PYTHON" -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info.major)')"
+    PY_MINOR="$("$PYTHON" -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info.minor)')"
+    if [ "$PY_MAJOR" -lt 3 ] || { [ "$PY_MAJOR" -eq 3 ] && [ "$PY_MINOR" -lt 13 ]; }; then
+        PY_VER="${PY_MAJOR}.${PY_MINOR}"
         echo "[!] Error: ArchiveBox requires Python >= 3.13, but found Python $PY_VER"
         echo "    Install python3.13: sudo apt install python3.13 python3.13-venv"
         exit 1
diff --git a/pkg/debian/nfpm.yaml b/pkg/debian/nfpm.yaml
index 83cb0074..fa3df26c 100644
--- a/pkg/debian/nfpm.yaml
+++ b/pkg/debian/nfpm.yaml
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@ depends:
   # All other runtime deps (node, chrome, yt-dlp, etc.) are installed on-demand
   # by `archivebox install` and should NOT be declared as package dependencies.
 
+recommends:
+  # Common utilities used by archivebox extractors. Declared as recommends
+  # (not depends) so dpkg doesn't hard-fail if they're missing, but apt
+  # installs them by default so users have a working baseline out of the box.
+  - git
+  - curl
+  - wget
+
 contents:
   # Wrapper script for /usr/bin/archivebox
   - src: pkg/debian/archivebox