diff --git a/scripts/deploy-k8s.sh b/scripts/deploy-k8s.sh
index eff872a..189c93e 100755
--- a/scripts/deploy-k8s.sh
+++ b/scripts/deploy-k8s.sh
@@ -187,14 +187,16 @@ trap - ERR
 
 # ── 7. RPM + smoke ──
 say "7/7  Build/install CLI RPM + smoke tests"
-bash scripts/release.sh
-systemctl --user restart mcplocal && sleep 2
-if pnpm test:smoke > /tmp/deploy-smoke.log 2>&1; then
-  grep -E "Tests |passed" /tmp/deploy-smoke.log | tail -2
+# release.sh already restarts mcplocal and runs the smoke suite against the
+# binary it just installed. This step used to restart and re-run it a second
+# time, which put two full suites inside a minute and tripped mcpd's rate
+# limiter: the second run failed with 429s and printed a false
+# "SMOKE TESTS FAILED — consider rollback" over a perfectly healthy deploy.
+# One run, one verdict.
+if bash scripts/release.sh; then
   say "Deploy complete — $TAG live. Rollback tag: $ROLLBACK_TAG"
 else
-  tail -40 /tmp/deploy-smoke.log
-  warn "SMOKE TESTS FAILED — system may be unhealthy. Consider rollback:"
+  warn "RELEASE OR SMOKE TESTS FAILED — system may be unhealthy. Consider rollback:"
   rollback_recipe
   exit 1
 fi