diff --git a/deploy.sh b/deploy.sh
index d57a30e..5e1088a 100755
--- a/deploy.sh
+++ b/deploy.sh
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ check_backend_env() {
 check_backend_env GEMINI_API_KEY
 check_backend_env AZURE_TENANT_ID
 check_backend_env AZURE_CLIENT_ID
-check_backend_env DATABASE_URL
+# DATABASE_URL is intentionally omitted here — it is injected by docker-compose.yml
 
 # --- 1. Pull latest code (skip if not a git repo or no remote) ---
 echo ""