diff --git a/system/manager/build.py b/system/manager/build.py
index d4961850ca..93c0546c85 100755
--- a/system/manager/build.py
+++ b/system/manager/build.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from openpilot.common.basedir import BASEDIR
 from openpilot.common.spinner import Spinner
 from openpilot.common.text_window import TextWindow
-from openpilot.system.hardware import AGNOS
+from openpilot.system.hardware import HARDWARE, AGNOS
 from openpilot.common.swaglog import cloudlog, add_file_handler
 from openpilot.system.version import get_build_metadata
 
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ def build(spinner: Spinner, dirty: bool = False, minimal: bool = False) -> None:
 
   extra_args = ["--minimal"] if minimal else []
 
+  if AGNOS:
+    HARDWARE.set_power_save(False)
+    os.sched_setaffinity(0, range(8))  # ensure we can use the isolcpus cores
+
   # building with all cores can result in using too
   # much memory, so retry with less parallelism
   compile_output: list[bytes] = []
diff --git a/tools/op.sh b/tools/op.sh
index 921627bb89..c6abde67a3 100755
--- a/tools/op.sh
+++ b/tools/op.sh
@@ -283,7 +283,13 @@ function op_build() {
   CDIR=$(pwd)
   op_before_cmd
   cd "$CDIR"
-  op_run_command scons $@
+  if [[ -f "/AGNOS" ]]; then
+    # needed on AGNOS to not run out of memory
+    op_run_command system/manager/build.py
+  else
+    # scons is fine on PC
+    op_run_command scons $@
+  fi
 }
 
 function op_juggle() {