diff --git a/dankclaw/authentik/quadlet/authentik-server.container b/dankclaw/authentik/quadlet/authentik-server.container
index 12692cb..1e53480 100644
--- a/dankclaw/authentik/quadlet/authentik-server.container
+++ b/dankclaw/authentik/quadlet/authentik-server.container
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ Environment=AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__USER=authentik
 Environment=AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD=${AUTHENTIK_PG_PASS}
 Environment=AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY=${AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY}
 PublishPort=127.0.0.1:9000:9000
-HealthCmd=python -c "import urllib.request;urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:9000/-/health/')"
-HealthInterval=30s
-HealthTimeout=10s
-HealthRetries=5
-HealthStartPeriod=30s
+# Probe must contain no quotes: this host's quadlet v1 generator space-splits
+# HealthCmd into the healthcheck argv array, and quoted probes arrive mangled
+# (verified live 2026-08-28). `python /manage.py check --database default`
+# exits nonzero iff Django (incl. the DB connection) cannot serve.
+HealthCmd=python /manage.py check --database default
 
 [Service]
 EnvironmentFile=/home/dank/serverAppConfigs/dankclaw/.env