diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index 06f67f90..8d58d962 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -81,20 +81,33 @@ osx_task:
         $CIRRUS_CHANGE_TITLE !=~ '.*CI:DOCS.*'
     depends_on:
         - validate
-    macos_instance:
-        image: ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-ventura-base:latest
-    setup_script: |
-        export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
-        brew update
-        brew install gpgme go go-md2man
-        make tools
-    test_script: |
-        export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
-        go version
-        go env
-        make validate-local test-unit-local bin/skopeo
-        sudo make install
-        /usr/local/bin/skopeo -v
+    persistent_worker: &mac_pw
+        labels:
+            os: darwin
+            arch: arm64
+            purpose: prod
+    env:
+        CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR: "$HOME/ci/task-${CIRRUS_TASK_ID}"
+        # Prevent cache-pollution fron one task to the next.
+        GOPATH: "$CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR/.go"
+        GOCACHE: "$CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR/.go/cache"
+        GOENV: "$CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR/.go/support"
+        GOSRC: "$HOME/ci/task-${CIRRUS_TASK_ID}"
+        TMPDIR: "/private/tmp/ci"
+    # This host is/was shared with potentially many other CI tasks.
+    # The previous task may have been canceled or aborted.
+    prep_script: &mac_cleanup "contrib/cirrus/mac_cleanup.sh"
+    test_script:
+        - export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
+        - go version
+        - go env
+        - make tools
+        - make validate-local test-unit-local bin/skopeo
+        - bin/skopeo -v
+    # This host is/was shared with potentially many other CI tasks.
+    # Ensure nothing is left running while waiting for the next task.
+    always:
+        task_cleanup_script: *mac_cleanup
 
 
 cross_task:
diff --git a/contrib/cirrus/mac_cleanup.sh b/contrib/cirrus/mac_cleanup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..a2d7f47b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/cirrus/mac_cleanup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This script is intended to be called by Cirrus-CI on a Mac M1 persistent worker.
+# It performs a best-effort attempt at cleaning up from one task execution to the next.
+# Since it run both before and after tasks, it must exit cleanly if there was a cleanup
+# failure (i.e. file or directory not found).
+
+# Help anybody debugging side-effects, since failures are ignored (by necessity).
+set +e -x
+
+# These are the main processes which could leak out of testing.
+killall podman vfkit gvproxy make go ginkgo
+
+mkdir -p $TMPDIR
+
+# Golang will leave behind lots of read-only bits, ref:
+# https://go.dev/ref/mod#module-cache
+# However other tools/scripts could also set things read-only.
+# At this point in CI, we really want all this stuff gone-gone,
+# so there's actually zero-chance it can interfere.
+chmod -R u+w $TMPDIR/* $TMPDIR/.??*
+
+# This is defined as $TMPDIR during setup.  Name must be kept
+# "short" as sockets may reside here.  Darwin suffers from
+# the same limited socket-pathname character-length restriction
+# as Linux.
+rm -rf $TMPDIR/* $TMPDIR/.??*
+
+# Don't change or clobber anything under $CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR for
+# the currently running task.  But make sure we have write permission
+# (go get sets dependencies ro) for everything else, before removing it.
+# First make everything writeable - see the "Golang will..." comment above.
+# shellcheck disable=SC2154
+find "$HOME/ci" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 \
+    -not -name "*task-${CIRRUS_TASK_ID}*" -prune -exec chmod -R u+w '{}' +
+find "$HOME/ci" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 \
+    -not -name "*task-${CIRRUS_TASK_ID}*" -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' +
+
+# Bash scripts exit with the status of the last command.
+true