diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 7fb3d5e2..f7353157 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -383,7 +383,10 @@ cargo-audit:
   needs: [clippy, check-try-runtime]
   variables:
     CARGO_HOME: /root/.cargo
-    RUSTFLAGS: "-Cdebug-assertions=y -Dwarnings"
+    # -Cdebuginfo=1: line tables only — keeps file:line in panics, skips variable
+    # and type info. Reduces debug binary size by ~60% vs full debug (debuginfo=2).
+    # On a Substrate workspace this cuts the /cache target dir from 50G → ~20G.
+    RUSTFLAGS: "-Cdebug-assertions=y -Dwarnings -Cdebuginfo=1"
     WASM_BUILD_NO_COLOR: "1"
     CARGO_INCREMENTAL: "0"
     # Skip WASM runtime builds — unit/integration tests use mock environments
@@ -507,11 +510,15 @@ wasm-check:
     - rustc --version && cargo --version
     - rustup target add wasm32v1-none
     - export CACHE_KEY="$(cat Cargo.lock rust-toolchain.toml | md5sum | cut -c1-12)"
-    - export CARGO_TARGET_DIR="/cache/cargo-target/${CACHE_KEY}/${CI_JOB_NAME}"
+    # Share test-release with all test-partition and test-no-try-runtime jobs.
+    # wasm32v1-none artifacts land in test-release/wasm32v1-none/ — separate from
+    # test-release/debug/ — so there is no conflict. Sharing avoids deleting the
+    # test-release dir mid-pipeline when later test jobs still need it.
+    - export CARGO_TARGET_DIR="/cache/cargo-target/${CACHE_KEY}/test-release"
     - mkdir -p "$CARGO_TARGET_DIR"
+    # Only remove dirs with OUTDATED cache keys (old Cargo.lock/toolchain).
+    # Never remove the current key's test-release — other jobs may still be queued.
     - find /cache/cargo-target -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name "${CACHE_KEY}" -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null || true
-    # Keep only wasm-check dir; remove test-release and any other stale dirs
-    - find /cache/cargo-target/"${CACHE_KEY}" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name "${CI_JOB_NAME}" -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null || true
     - echo "CARGO_TARGET_DIR=$CARGO_TARGET_DIR (disk $(df -h /cache/cargo-target | tail -1 | awk '{print $3 "/" $2 " used, " $4 " free"}'))"
   cache: []
   timeout: 2h