diff --git a/scripts/deploy.sh b/scripts/deploy.sh
index 84d7e13..1ce4b30 100755
--- a/scripts/deploy.sh
+++ b/scripts/deploy.sh
@@ -90,13 +90,30 @@ if [ "$DRY_RUN" -eq 1 ]; then
 fi
 
 # ------------------------------------------------------------- 3. transfer
+# rsync, not tar: most of a build is unchanged source maps, and over the link to
+# Accra re-sending 16 MB every time is wasteful. --delete keeps the staging
+# directory honest — without it a staging area quietly accumulates every asset
+# ever built, which is exactly how stale chunks kept coming back. A trailing
+# slash on the source copies the contents, dotfiles included, so .htaccess comes
+# along; `dist/*` would skip it.
 say "Transferring to $SSH_HOST:~/$STAGING"
-COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -C "$DIST" -cf - . 2>/dev/null \
-  | ssh -o BatchMode=yes "$SSH_HOST" "
-      rm -rf ~/$STAGING && mkdir -p ~/$STAGING &&
-      tar -C ~/$STAGING -xf - 2>/dev/null
-      find ~/$STAGING -name '._*' -delete
-    " || die "the transfer failed"
+if command -v rsync >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  rsync -a --delete --no-perms --no-owner --no-group --info=stats2 \
+        -e "ssh -o BatchMode=yes" \
+        "$DIST"/ "$SSH_HOST:~/$STAGING/" 2>/dev/null \
+    | grep -E "Number of .*(transferred|deleted)|Total transferred" \
+    | sed 's/^/  /' || die "rsync failed"
+else
+  item "rsync not found locally — falling back to tar"
+  COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -C "$DIST" -cf - . 2>/dev/null \
+    | ssh -o BatchMode=yes "$SSH_HOST" "
+        rm -rf ~/$STAGING && mkdir -p ~/$STAGING &&
+        tar -C ~/$STAGING -xf - 2>/dev/null
+      " || die "the transfer failed"
+fi
+# macOS tar writes AppleDouble companions when extended attributes are present;
+# .htaccess arrived as ._.htaccess once. rsync does not, but sweep either way.
+ssh -o BatchMode=yes "$SSH_HOST" "find ~/$STAGING -name '._*' -delete" || true
 
 REMOTE_FILES=$(ssh -o BatchMode=yes "$SSH_HOST" "find ~/$STAGING -type f | wc -l" | tr -d ' ')
 item "staged $REMOTE_FILES files"