diff --git a/tests/approval.sh b/tests/approval.sh
index 7e9986a..2210d5a 100755
--- a/tests/approval.sh
+++ b/tests/approval.sh
@@ -82,7 +82,12 @@ echo "=== pending approvals ==="
 sudo hive-c0re pending
 
 ID=$(sudo hive-c0re pending \
-    | python3 -c 'import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)["approvals"][-1]["id"])')
+    | sed -nE 's/^[[:space:]]*"id":[[:space:]]*([0-9]+).*/\1/p' \
+    | tail -1)
+if [ -z "$ID" ]; then
+    echo "FAIL: could not parse approval id"
+    exit 1
+fi
 echo "  using approval id ${ID}"
 
 echo "=== approve ${ID} (advances applied/main + rebuilds h-${AGENT}) ==="