diff --git a/scripts/setup/officer-setup/lib/repo.sh b/scripts/setup/officer-setup/lib/repo.sh
index 171e3846..5379d19b 100644
--- a/scripts/setup/officer-setup/lib/repo.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup/officer-setup/lib/repo.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,17 @@
 [[ -n "${OFFICER_SETUP_REPO_LOADED:-}" ]] && return 0
 OFFICER_SETUP_REPO_LOADED=1
 
-OFFICER_REPO="${OFFICER_REPO:-https://gitea.pastilhas.dev/officerdev/platform.git}"
+# SSH rather than HTTPS, temporarily: the repository is private, and an HTTPS
+# clone of a private repo prompts for a username — which under sudo, with no
+# interactive terminal, hangs or dies with "could not read Username".
+#
+# The clone runs as the OWNER, not as root (see the note above), so it uses their
+# ~/.ssh key. A passphrase-protected key normally answered by ssh-agent will not
+# work here: sudo drops SSH_AUTH_SOCK, so there is no agent to ask. An unencrypted
+# key, or one already accepted by the host, is what this expects.
+#
+# Back to HTTPS when the repository is public — nothing else here cares which.
+OFFICER_REPO="${OFFICER_REPO:-ssh://git@gitea.pastilhas.dev:2222/officerdev/platform.git}"
 
 platform_dir() { echo "${OFFICER_ROOT}/platform"; }