diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/yaml/yaml_provider.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/yaml/yaml_provider.py
index 5a3ccf6b0c2e..f1408b5b0d1c 100755
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/yaml/yaml_provider.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/yaml/yaml_provider.py
@@ -1412,7 +1412,13 @@ def _create_venv_from_clone(
 
   @classmethod
   def _create_venv_to_clone(cls, base_python: str) -> str:
-    if '.dev' in beam_version:
+    # For '.dev', the default clone source is the venv that owns base_python.
+    # In CI that is often the active tox/sandbox tree; clonevirtualenv can
+    # race with ephemeral paths (tmp/, caches) under that tree. Use the
+    # scratch clonable venv in CI instead. Locally, keep cloning the dev venv
+    # for speed.
+    _ci = os.environ.get('CI', '').lower() in ('true', '1', 'yes')
+    if '.dev' in beam_version and not _ci:
       base_venv = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(base_python))
       print('Cloning dev environment from', base_venv)
       return base_venv