diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 598622d..28a8ee4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -41,8 +41,6 @@ If you plan to contribute, read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).
 - [UV](https://astral.sh/uv) package manager: `curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh`
 - MeshCore radio connected via USB serial, TCP, or BLE
 
-If you are on a low-resource system and do not want to build the frontend locally, download the release zip named `remoteterm-prebuilt-frontend-vX.X.X-<short hash>.zip`. That bundle includes `frontend/prebuilt`, so you can run the app without doing a frontend build from source.
-
 <details>
 <summary>Finding your serial port</summary>
 
@@ -111,6 +109,8 @@ uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000
 
 The release bundle includes `frontend/prebuilt`, so it does not require a local frontend build.
 
+Alternatively, if you have already cloned the repo, you can fetch just the prebuilt frontend into your working tree without downloading the full release zip via `python3 scripts/fetch_prebuilt_frontend.py`.
+
 ## Path 2: Docker
 
 > **Warning:** Docker has had reports intermittent issues with serial event subscriptions. The native method above is more reliable.
diff --git a/scripts/fetch_prebuilt_frontend.py b/scripts/fetch_prebuilt_frontend.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..e775949
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/fetch_prebuilt_frontend.py
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""
+fetch_prebuilt_frontend.py
+
+Downloads the latest prebuilt frontend artifact from the GitHub releases page
+and installs it into frontend/prebuilt/ so the backend can serve it directly.
+
+No GitHub CLI or authentication required — uses only the public releases API
+and browser_download_url. Requires only the Python standard library.
+"""
+
+import json
+import shutil
+import sys
+import urllib.request
+import zipfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+REPO = "jkingsman/Remote-Terminal-for-MeshCore"
+API_URL = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{REPO}/releases/latest"
+PREBUILT_PREFIX = "Remote-Terminal-for-MeshCore/frontend/prebuilt/"
+
+SCRIPT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
+PREBUILT_DIR = SCRIPT_DIR.parent / "frontend" / "prebuilt"
+
+
+def fetch_json(url: str) -> dict:
+    req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={"Accept": "application/vnd.github+json"})
+    with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as resp:
+        return json.loads(resp.read())
+
+
+def find_prebuilt_asset(release: dict) -> tuple[str, str, str]:
+    """Return (tag_name, asset_name, download_url) for the prebuilt zip."""
+    tag = release.get("tag_name", "")
+    for asset in release.get("assets", []):
+        name = asset.get("name", "")
+        if name.startswith("remoteterm-prebuilt-frontend-") and name.endswith(".zip"):
+            return tag, name, asset["browser_download_url"]
+    raise SystemExit(
+        f"No prebuilt frontend artifact found in the latest release.\n"
+        f"Check https://github.com/{REPO}/releases for available assets."
+    )
+
+
+def download(url: str, dest: Path) -> None:
+    with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as resp, open(dest, "wb") as f:
+        shutil.copyfileobj(resp, f)
+
+
+def extract_prebuilt(zip_path: Path, dest: Path) -> int:
+    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path) as zf:
+        members = [m for m in zf.namelist() if m.startswith(PREBUILT_PREFIX)]
+        if not members:
+            raise SystemExit(f"'{PREBUILT_PREFIX}' not found inside zip.")
+
+        if dest.exists():
+            shutil.rmtree(dest)
+        dest.mkdir(parents=True)
+
+        for member in members:
+            rel = member[len(PREBUILT_PREFIX):]
+            if not rel:
+                continue
+            target = dest / rel
+            if member.endswith("/"):
+                target.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+            else:
+                target.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+                with zf.open(member) as src, open(target, "wb") as dst:
+                    shutil.copyfileobj(src, dst)
+
+    return len(members)
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    print("Fetching latest release info...")
+    release = fetch_json(API_URL)
+    tag, asset_name, download_url = find_prebuilt_asset(release)
+    print(f"  Release : {tag}")
+    print(f"  Asset   : {asset_name}")
+    print()
+
+    zip_path = PREBUILT_DIR.parent / asset_name
+    try:
+        print(f"Downloading {asset_name}...")
+        download(download_url, zip_path)
+
+        print("Extracting prebuilt frontend...")
+        count = extract_prebuilt(zip_path, PREBUILT_DIR)
+        print(f"Extracted {count} entries.")
+    finally:
+        zip_path.unlink(missing_ok=True)
+
+    print()
+    print(f"Done! Prebuilt frontend ({tag}) installed to frontend/prebuilt/")
+    print("Start the server with:")
+    print("  uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    try:
+        main()
+    except KeyboardInterrupt:
+        print("\nAborted.", file=sys.stderr)
+        sys.exit(1)