diff --git a/src/lib/deploy-action.ts b/src/lib/deploy-action.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e987c073c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/deploy-action.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import { execFileSync, spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
+
+import { getCredential } from "./credentials";
+import { executeDeploy } from "./deploy";
+import { ROOT, run, runInteractive, shellQuote, validateName } from "./runner";
+
+export async function runDeployAction(instanceName?: string): Promise<void> {
+  await executeDeploy({
+    instanceName,
+    env: process.env,
+    rootDir: ROOT,
+    getCredential,
+    validateName,
+    shellQuote,
+    run,
+    runInteractive,
+    execFileSync: (
+      file: string,
+      args: string[],
+      opts: Omit<import("node:child_process").ExecFileSyncOptionsWithStringEncoding, "encoding"> = {},
+    ) => String(execFileSync(file, args, { encoding: "utf-8", ...opts })),
+    spawnSync,
+    log: console.log,
+    error: console.error,
+    stdoutWrite: (message: string) => process.stdout.write(message),
+    exit: (code: number) => process.exit(code),
+  });
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/global-cli-actions.ts b/src/lib/global-cli-actions.ts
index 13ac4c7f23d..09571b0f69e 100644
--- a/src/lib/global-cli-actions.ts
+++ b/src/lib/global-cli-actions.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 /* v8 ignore start -- transitional action facade until implementations leave src/nemoclaw.ts. */
 
+import { runDeployAction as executeDeployAction } from "./deploy-action";
 import { getNemoClawRuntimeBridge } from "./nemoclaw-runtime-bridge";
 import { help, version } from "./root-help-action";
 
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ export async function runSetupSparkAction(args: string[] = []): Promise<void> {
 }
 
 export async function runDeployAction(instanceName?: string): Promise<void> {
-  await getNemoClawRuntimeBridge().deploy(instanceName);
+  await executeDeployAction(instanceName);
 }
 
 export function runBackupAllAction(): void {
diff --git a/src/lib/nemoclaw-runtime-bridge.ts b/src/lib/nemoclaw-runtime-bridge.ts
index a1bc200d98e..22a04a22c5a 100644
--- a/src/lib/nemoclaw-runtime-bridge.ts
+++ b/src/lib/nemoclaw-runtime-bridge.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ export interface NemoClawRuntimeBridge {
     opts?: { ignoreError?: boolean; timeout?: number },
   ) => { status: number | null; output: string };
   backupAll: () => void;
-  deploy: (instanceName?: string) => Promise<void>;
   garbageCollectImages: (args?: string[]) => Promise<void>;
   onboard: (args?: string[]) => Promise<void>;
   recoverNamedGatewayRuntime: () => Promise<GatewayRecoveryResult>;
diff --git a/src/nemoclaw.ts b/src/nemoclaw.ts
index 5c96eedfbde..64b5a7d895d 100644
--- a/src/nemoclaw.ts
+++ b/src/nemoclaw.ts
@@ -68,7 +68,6 @@ const {
   versionGte,
 } = require("./lib/openshell");
 const { runRegisteredOclifCommand } = require("./lib/oclif-runner");
-const { executeDeploy } = require("./lib/deploy");
 const { isErrnoException }: typeof import("./lib/errno") = require("./lib/errno");
 const agentRuntime = require("../bin/lib/agent-runtime");
 const sandboxVersion = require("./lib/sandbox-version");
@@ -701,7 +700,6 @@ async function recoverRegistryEntries({
 exports.runtimeBridge = {
   captureOpenshell,
   backupAll,
-  deploy,
   garbageCollectImages,
   onboard,
   recoverNamedGatewayRuntime,
@@ -1308,32 +1306,6 @@ async function setupSpark(args: string[] = []): Promise<void> {
   });
 }
 
-async function deploy(instanceName: string): Promise<void> {
-  await executeDeploy({
-    instanceName,
-    env: process.env,
-    rootDir: ROOT,
-    getCredential,
-    validateName,
-    shellQuote,
-    run,
-    runInteractive,
-    execFileSync: (
-      file: string,
-      args: string[],
-      opts: Omit<
-        import("node:child_process").ExecFileSyncOptionsWithStringEncoding,
-        "encoding"
-      > = {},
-    ) => String(execFileSync(file, args, { encoding: "utf-8", ...opts })),
-    spawnSync,
-    log: console.log,
-    error: console.error,
-    stdoutWrite: (message: string) => process.stdout.write(message),
-    exit: (code: number) => process.exit(code),
-  });
-}
-
 async function runOclif(commandId: string, args: string[] = []): Promise<void> {
   await runRegisteredOclifCommand(commandId, args, {
     rootDir: ROOT,