diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 289d7cc..2e09af0 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -33,8 +33,14 @@ jobs:
           /opt/interop/bin/pip install --no-cache-dir h5py numpy netCDF4 xarray
           echo "/opt/interop/bin" >> "$GITHUB_PATH"
       - name: Show interop library versions
-        run: python3 -c "import h5py, netCDF4; print('h5py', h5py.__version__, 'HDF5', h5py.version.hdf5_version, 'netCDF4', netCDF4.__version__)"
+        run: /opt/interop/bin/python -c "import h5py, netCDF4; print('h5py', h5py.__version__, 'HDF5', h5py.version.hdf5_version, 'netCDF4', netCDF4.__version__)"
       - name: Run CI script
         env:
+          # Name the interpreter outright rather than relying on $GITHUB_PATH
+          # reaching the test processes: if `python3` resolved to the system
+          # one instead of the venv, every interop suite would skip.
+          # CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP turns that skip into a failure, so the
+          # two together mean the suites either run or the build goes red.
+          CLAWHDF5_PYTHON: /opt/interop/bin/python
           CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP: "1"
         run: bash scripts/ci-test.sh
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b9bed33..53e8b85 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -499,6 +499,14 @@ cargo build -p clawhdf5-agent --features "agent,float16,accelerate,parallel,gpu"
 # Tests
 cargo test --workspace            # all 1,650+ tests
 cargo test -p clawhdf5-agent      # agent memory tests
+scripts/ci-test.sh                # what CI runs: fmt, clippy matrix, tests,
+                                  # h5py/netCDF4 interop, no_std
+
+# The interop suites need a Python with h5py; on a PEP 668 system that has to
+# be a virtualenv. `ci-test.sh` finds `.venv` on its own, or set
+# CLAWHDF5_PYTHON. Without one they skip — set CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP=1 to
+# make that a failure instead.
+python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install h5py numpy netCDF4 xarray
 
 # Benchmarks
 cargo bench -p clawhdf5-agent               # agent memory suite