diff --git a/packages/node/meshnet_node/config.py b/packages/node/meshnet_node/config.py
index 9030fb0..bca5068 100644
--- a/packages/node/meshnet_node/config.py
+++ b/packages/node/meshnet_node/config.py
@@ -9,7 +9,11 @@ from pathlib import Path
 
 _DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR = Path.home() / ".config" / "meshnet"
 _DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE = _DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR / "config.json"
-_DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_DIR = Path.home() / ".meshnet" / "models"
+# MESHNET_DOWNLOAD_DIR overrides the model store for every node on this
+# machine (all CLI flows fall back to this default; --download-dir still wins).
+_DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_DIR = Path(
+    os.environ.get("MESHNET_DOWNLOAD_DIR", str(Path.home() / ".meshnet" / "models"))
+)
 _DEFAULT_TRACKER_URL = "http://localhost:8080"
 _DEFAULT_WALLET_PATH = str(Path.home() / ".config" / "meshnet" / "wallet.json")
 _DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION = "nf4"
diff --git a/packages/node/pyproject.toml b/packages/node/pyproject.toml
index e2b0c93..08cea8f 100644
--- a/packages/node/pyproject.toml
+++ b/packages/node/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "transformers>=4.39",
     "websockets>=13",
     "zstandard>=0.22",
+    "kernels>=0.11.1,<0.16",
 ]
 
 [project.scripts]
diff --git a/tests/test_node_startup.py b/tests/test_node_startup.py
index d277325..443bdd9 100644
--- a/tests/test_node_startup.py
+++ b/tests/test_node_startup.py
@@ -1414,3 +1414,16 @@ def test_layers_from_config_get_text_config_and_variants():
     cfg = types.SimpleNamespace(get_text_config=lambda: inner)
     assert layers_from_config(cfg) == 32
     assert layers_from_config(types.SimpleNamespace()) is None
+
+
+def test_download_dir_env_override(monkeypatch):
+    import importlib
+
+    from meshnet_node import config as config_mod
+
+    monkeypatch.setenv("MESHNET_DOWNLOAD_DIR", "/tmp/llm-store")
+    importlib.reload(config_mod)
+    assert config_mod.DEFAULTS["download_dir"] == "/tmp/llm-store"
+    monkeypatch.delenv("MESHNET_DOWNLOAD_DIR")
+    importlib.reload(config_mod)
+    assert config_mod.DEFAULTS["download_dir"].endswith("models")