diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
index 5ba7ef0..2dc654d 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -166,13 +166,31 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Restart service & health check
         run: |
-          ssh $SSH_OPTS "${DEPLOY_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST}" << REMOTE_SCRIPT
+          # Quoted heredoc: the loop's $i / $(seq) must be expanded on the
+          # REMOTE host, not by this runner's shell before it is sent.
+          ssh $SSH_OPTS "${DEPLOY_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST}" << 'REMOTE_SCRIPT'
             set -e
             sudo systemctl restart signalplatform.service
-            sleep 3
-            curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8998/api/v1/health > /dev/null \
-              || { echo "✗ health check failed after restart"; exit 1; }
-            echo "✓ signalplatform deployed"
+
+            # Poll instead of guessing how long startup takes. The old fixed
+            # "sleep 3" then single curl raced whenever startup ran long, and
+            # failed the deploy with a bare "connection refused" on a service
+            # that came up healthy a second later. This exits as soon as the app
+            # answers, so a fast start costs nothing.
+            for i in $(seq 1 60); do
+              if curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8998/api/v1/health > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+                echo "✓ signalplatform deployed — healthy after ${i}s"
+                exit 0
+              fi
+              sleep 1
+            done
+
+            # Still down after a minute: this is a real failure, so leave enough
+            # behind to diagnose it without a second deploy.
+            echo "✗ health check failed: no response on :8998 after 60s"
+            sudo systemctl status signalplatform.service --no-pager -l || true
+            journalctl -u signalplatform.service -n 80 --no-pager || true
+            exit 1
           REMOTE_SCRIPT
 
       - name: Clean up SSH key