diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 97928c95e30..2256164413f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -67,29 +67,29 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         include:
           - os: ubuntu-latest
-            python: '3.13'
+            python: '3.13t'  # free-threaded
             kind: pip
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            python: '3.12'
-            kind: pip-pre
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            python: '3.12'
-            kind: conda
-          - os: macos-latest  # arm64 (Apple Silicon)
-            python: '3.12'
-            kind: mamba
-          - os: macos-13  # latest Intel release
-            python: '3.12'
-            kind: mamba
-          - os: windows-latest
-            python: '3.10'
-            kind: mamba
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            python: '3.10'
-            kind: minimal
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            python: '3.10'
-            kind: old
+            # - os: ubuntu-latest
+            #   python: '3.12'
+            #   kind: pip-pre
+            # - os: ubuntu-latest
+            #   python: '3.12'
+            #   kind: conda
+            # - os: macos-latest  # arm64 (Apple Silicon)
+            #   python: '3.12'
+            #   kind: mamba
+            # - os: macos-13  # latest Intel release
+            #   python: '3.12'
+            #   kind: mamba
+            # - os: windows-latest
+            #   python: '3.10'
+            #   kind: mamba
+            # - os: ubuntu-latest
+            #   python: '3.10'
+            #   kind: minimal
+            # - os: ubuntu-22.04
+            #   python: '3.10'
+            #   kind: old
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index c6a36af99d0..03fc12263d1 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ stages:
           - bash: |
               set -eo pipefail
               python -m pip install --progress-bar off --upgrade pip build
-              python -m pip install --progress-bar off -ve .[hdf5,test]
+              python -m pip install --progress-bar off -ve .[hdf5,test] twine
               python -m pip uninstall -yq pytest-qt  # don't want to set up display, etc. for this
               pre-commit install --install-hooks
             displayName: Install dependencies
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f970f02294a..aa4a6d274af 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -152,7 +152,6 @@ test = [
   "ruff",
   "toml-sort",
   "tomli; python_version<'3.11'",
-  "twine",
   "vulture",
   "wheel",
 ]
@@ -174,6 +173,7 @@ test_extra = [
   "snirf",
   "sphinx-gallery",
   "statsmodels",
+  "twine",
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
diff --git a/tools/github_actions_dependencies.sh b/tools/github_actions_dependencies.sh
index c44f1f5859e..e119c560eb5 100755
--- a/tools/github_actions_dependencies.sh
+++ b/tools/github_actions_dependencies.sh
@@ -21,7 +21,11 @@ if [ ! -z "$CONDA_ENV" ]; then
 		STD_ARGS="--progress-bar off"
 	fi
 elif [[ "${MNE_CI_KIND}" == "pip" ]]; then
-	INSTALL_KIND="full-pyside6,$INSTALL_KIND"
+	# This one is free-threaded so can't have numba or PySide6/PyQt6 as of 2025/07/15
+	INSTALL_ARGS="nibabel scikit-learn numpydoc pandas defusedxml edfio"
+	# ... mffpy requires lxml, which tries to build from source and uses Cython (ugh)
+	# ... and also unavialble are h5py (or h5io), cryptography (thus twine)
+	INSTALL_KIND="test"
 else
 	test "${MNE_CI_KIND}" == "pip-pre"
 	STD_ARGS="$STD_ARGS --pre"
@@ -32,3 +36,6 @@ echo ""
 
 echo "Installing test dependencies using pip"
 python -m pip install $STD_ARGS $INSTALL_ARGS .[$INSTALL_KIND]
+if [[ "${MNE_CI_KIND}" == "pip" ]]; then
+	python -m pip uninstall -yq pytest-qt
+fi