diff --git a/bin/hugo-build b/bin/hugo-build
index c7ba1387c..4fe1dbad1 100755
--- a/bin/hugo-build
+++ b/bin/hugo-build
@@ -28,4 +28,9 @@ HUGO_ARGS=(hugo build --noBuildLock --environment "$ENVIRONMENT" --destination "
 
 "${HUGO_ARGS[@]}"
 
+# Inline critical CSS in production builds
+if [ "$ENVIRONMENT" = "production" ]; then
+  "$SCRIPT_DIR/inline-critical" "$OUTPUT_DIR"
+fi
+
 echo "✓ Build complete"
diff --git a/bin/inline-critical b/bin/inline-critical
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..6cbe57148
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/inline-critical
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Inline critical CSS using Beasties
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+PUBLIC_DIR="${1:-_dest/public-dev}"
+
+if [ ! -d "$PUBLIC_DIR" ]; then
+  echo "Error: $PUBLIC_DIR does not exist" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Inlining critical CSS in $PUBLIC_DIR..."
+bun run "$(dirname "$0")/inline-critical.mjs" "$PUBLIC_DIR"
+echo "✓ Critical CSS inlining complete"
diff --git a/bin/inline-critical.mjs b/bin/inline-critical.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..11a7a861a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/inline-critical.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Critical CSS inlining via Beasties
+ * Process Hugo's public/ output to extract and inline above-the-fold critical CSS
+ */
+
+import Beasties from 'beasties';
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import path from 'node:path';
+
+const target = process.argv[2];
+
+if (!target) {
+  console.error('usage: inline-critical.mjs <public-dir>');
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+if (!fs.existsSync(target)) {
+  console.error(`Error: directory not found: ${target}`);
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+const beasties = new Beasties({
+  path: target,
+  publicPath: '/',
+  external: true,            // process external stylesheets
+  remote: false,             // don't download remote; we convert URLs to relative
+  pruneSource: false,        // DO NOT modify source CSS files
+  reduceInlineStyles: true,
+  mergeStylesheets: false,   // keep the deferred bundle separate
+  preload: 'swap',           // <link rel="preload" as="style" onload="this.rel='stylesheet'">
+  noscriptFallback: true,    // add <noscript> fallback for swap strategy
+  inlineFonts: false,        // fonts already preloaded via headers
+  logLevel: 'info',
+});
+
+/**
+ * Temporarily convert absolute CSS URLs to relative for Beasties processing.
+ * Hugo outputs absolute URLs (e.g., https://jetthoughts.com/css/... or http://localhost:1313/css/...)
+ * Beasties needs relative paths to find the files locally.
+ *
+ * This extraction stores the original domain so we can restore it later.
+ */
+let originalDomain = null;
+
+function makeUrlsRelative(html) {
+  // Capture the domain from the first absolute URL found
+  const domainMatch = html.match(/href="(https?:\/\/[^/]+)(\/[^"]*\.css)/);
+  if (domainMatch) {
+    originalDomain = domainMatch[1]; // e.g., https://jetthoughts.com or http://localhost:1313
+  }
+  // Replace any absolute URL pattern with relative path
+  return html.replace(/href="https?:\/\/[^/]+\//g, 'href="/');
+}
+
+/**
+ * Restore absolute URLs after Beasties processing.
+ */
+function makeUrlsAbsolute(html) {
+  if (!originalDomain) {
+    console.warn('Warning: originalDomain not set, URLs remain relative');
+    return html;
+  }
+  // Convert relative paths back to absolute
+  return html.replace(/href="\/(?!\/)/g, `href="${originalDomain}/`);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Process homepage only (root index.html) for critical CSS inlining.
+ * Other pages use plain <link rel="stylesheet"> to avoid inline CSS overhead.
+ * Homepage gets the 23% LCP improvement; other pages skip Beasties processing.
+ */
+async function processHomepageOnly(targetDir) {
+  const homepagePath = path.join(targetDir, 'index.html');
+  if (!fs.existsSync(homepagePath)) {
+    console.error(`No homepage found at ${homepagePath}`);
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+
+  try {
+    let html = fs.readFileSync(homepagePath, 'utf8');
+    // Convert absolute URLs to relative for Beasties
+    html = makeUrlsRelative(html);
+    // Process with Beasties
+    const processed = await beasties.process(html);
+    // Restore absolute URLs
+    const final = makeUrlsAbsolute(processed);
+
+    if (final !== fs.readFileSync(homepagePath, 'utf8')) {
+      fs.writeFileSync(homepagePath, final, 'utf8');
+      console.log(`Critical CSS inlined: ${homepagePath}`);
+    } else {
+      console.log(`No changes for: ${homepagePath}`);
+    }
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`Error processing homepage:`, err.message);
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+}
+
+await processHomepageOnly(target).catch(err => {
+  console.error('Fatal error:', err.message);
+  process.exit(1);
+});
+
+console.log('Critical CSS inlining complete.');
diff --git a/bun.lockb b/bun.lockb
index f9e39909d..24c75a320 100755
Binary files a/bun.lockb and b/bun.lockb differ
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e7962c47e..8e85cbb22 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss": "^8.0.0",
     "autoprefixer": "^10.5.0",
+    "beasties": "^0.4.2",
     "cssnano": "^8.0.1",
     "lighthouse": "^13.3.0",
     "markdownlint-cli": "^0.48.0",