diff --git a/deploy.sh b/deploy.sh
index 9abbc0d..d0c947d 100755
--- a/deploy.sh
+++ b/deploy.sh
@@ -34,8 +34,13 @@ header(){ echo -e "\n${BOLD}${CYAN}═══════════════
 # ─── Helpers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 gen_secret() {
   # Generate a random string of given length (default 64)
+  # set +o pipefail to prevent SIGPIPE from tr being treated as an error
   local len="${1:-64}"
-  LC_ALL=C tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9!@#%^&*()-_=+' </dev/urandom | head -c "$len"
+  local result
+  set +o pipefail
+  result=$(LC_ALL=C tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9@#%^_=+' </dev/urandom | head -c "$len")
+  set -o pipefail
+  printf '%s' "$result"
 }
 
 prompt_with_default() {