diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
index 99880c1..e81e94e 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -399,6 +399,13 @@ jobs:
           mkdir -p "$conf"
           cp -r caddy otelcol prometheus tempo grafana blackbox "$conf"/
           export SCRABBLE_CONFIG_DIR="$conf"
+          # Maintenance page for the redeploy window, mirroring prod-deploy.sh so the SPA
+          # overlay is exercised on the test contour too (not only prod). Raised just before
+          # the recreate and lowered once caddy is back (below); the trap clears it if the
+          # step fails so the contour never sticks in maintenance (and the reseed above wipes a
+          # stale flag anyway). The caddy-routed probes run in the NEXT step, after it is lowered.
+          maint_flag="$conf/caddy/on"
+          trap 'rm -f "$maint_flag"' EXIT
           # Derive the public URLs from the one canonical origin instead of storing each as
           # its own variable (paths are structural SPA routes / the Caddy /_gm sub-path).
           # Exported before build so the VK ID redirect is baked into the SPA.
@@ -430,12 +437,23 @@ jobs:
           # bot on its own host instead (deploy/docker-compose.bot.yml), and the prod
           # main host omits both. Without the profile they would not start here.
           docker compose --ansi never --profile telegram-local build --progress plain
+          # Raise the maintenance page, THEN bring caddy onto the reseeded config mount so it
+          # actually carries the flag: the running caddy sits on the stale pre-reseed mount (the
+          # dir was rm'd + recreated — see the force-recreate note below), so a flag written to
+          # the new dir is invisible until caddy is recreated. With the fresh caddy up, an open
+          # SPA sees the 503 marker + overlay for the whole recreate window, not a bare reconnect.
+          : > "$maint_flag"
+          docker compose --ansi never up -d --force-recreate --no-deps caddy
           docker compose --ansi never --profile telegram-local up -d --remove-orphans
           # The config-only services bind-mount the reseeded config dir. A plain `up -d`
           # leaves them on the previous bind mount (the dir was rm'd + recreated), so a
-          # changed Caddyfile or Grafana dashboard is ignored — force-recreate them to
-          # pick up the fresh config.
-          docker compose --ansi never up -d --force-recreate --no-deps caddy otelcol prometheus tempo grafana
+          # changed Grafana dashboard is ignored — force-recreate them to pick up the fresh
+          # config. (Caddy was already recreated above so it would carry the maintenance flag.)
+          docker compose --ansi never up -d --force-recreate --no-deps otelcol prometheus tempo grafana
+          # Lower the maintenance page: services are back. An open SPA's poll now gets through
+          # (once the gateway finishes booting) and reloads into the fresh client; the caddy
+          # probes in the next step see 200. The EXIT trap is a backstop if we failed earlier.
+          rm -f "$maint_flag"
 
       - name: Probe the landing, gateway and backend
         run: |